Press Release

November 8, 2007

Food and Beverage Companies Find “Speed of Recall” Top Challenge in New Survey from RedPrairie

Respondents cite recall communication gap most prevalent at the store-level

MILWAUKEE, Wis. – RedPrairie Corporation, a leading consumer driven optimization company, recently conducted the “2007 Survey on QA and Recall Technology for Food & Beverage Companies.” The survey revealed that 63% of participants felt their current QA and recall processes were “somewhat effective.” Speed of recall was chosen as the top challenge confronting US-based food companies and 39% of respondents feel the biggest recall communication gap occurs at the store-level.

Other findings of the survey include:

• 44% responded that their products can be pulled off the shelf in a few days. 12% didn’t have a sense of how long it would take to pull their items from the store shelf, indicating a lack of visibility and control across the extended supply chain.
• 63% of respondents indicated they would like their recall technology linked to POS interfaces at stores, including the POS systems link automatically shutting off the recalled SKU at the register. Again, respondents felt the biggest recall communication gap occurs at the store-level.
• While concern over safety of Chinese manufactured goods has dominated the recent press coverage on recalls, respondents to this survey had a mixed opinion on the safety of food and ingredients produced outside the US. 52% indicated the safety of non-US produced food items as excellent, very good, or good, while 39% indicated it was not good, and 10% claimed they had “no visibility” into the safety of non-US food items.
• Only 34% of companies have changed their recall processes in response to the recent rash of recalls. 32% have changed their recall technology in the past few months. The survey found a wide range of technologies being used to manage and execute a recall.

These results are consistent with what we see with many food retailers and grocers,” said Tom Kozenski, VP of Product Strategy at RedPrairie. “Automation is the only way to really verify if recalled products have been pulled from the shelves in an efficient, accurate and timely manner. While there is work to be done to improve the management and execution of recalls in this country, the processes and technology exist to create a seamless communication flow throughout the food & beverage supply chain.”

About RedPrairie Corporation

For additional information, call 1.877.733.7724, or visit RedPrairie.com.

RedPrairie is a registered trademark of RedPrairie Corporation.
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© 2007 RedPrairie Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Other product and service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.

RedPrairie Public Relations Contacts:

NORTH AMERICA
Kari Janavitz
+1 262 317 2526
Kari.Janavitz@redprairie.com

UK
Emma Easterbrook
+44 1435 873 080
Emma@FieldworksMarketing.co.uk

NORDICS, MIDDLE EAST, AND AFRICA
Patrick Qureshi
+45 3263 0021
Patrick.Qureshi@RedPrairie.com

MAINLAND EUROPE
Luc Zanders
+31 40 2302532
Luc.Zanders@RedPrairie.com

ASIA PACIFIC
Fauziah Osman
+65 6521 9554
Fauziah.Osman@RedPrairie.com

A summary of RedPrairie’s “2007 Survey on QA and Recall Technology for Food & Beverage Companies” can be found here.