Dotcoms in the food industry may have received a few blows in the past year but there are signs that recovery is near. This week ecFood, an e-commerce platform for the food and beverage industry, announced that 2001 was an exceptional year with dramatic increases in revenue, gross margin, transaction volume, customer acquisition and services.
The company closed the year with a record breaking fourth quarter, including an 815 per cent increase in gross margin from 2000 and revenue of $37.6 million (E43.1m).
2001 was a significant improvement over 2000 for the marketplace. Revenues increased to $37.6 million, gross margin to 4.7 per cent; expenses declined by 24.9 per cent, and the company increased its customer base and services making the company cash flow neutral.
A solid fourth quarter in 2001 saw ecFood's gross margin increase by more than 53 per cent over third quarter and 516 per cent over 4Q 2000. This represents the highest fourth quarter ever achieved by ecFood since its inception in December 1998.
"In a very difficult year for everyone, our ecFood team demonstrated outstanding achievements in strategy, execution, customer relationships and financial staying power," said Dave Laukat, CEO of ecFood.
ecFood increased alliances with various purchaser and suppliers increased in 2001, including new customer relationships with two top ten International food companies. With the acquisition of the Masters Group (formerly Master Dairies) in September, ecFood's annual revenue volume increased to more than $250 million. The purchase also significantly strengthened ecFood's demand aggregation strategy.
ecFood currently provides online transaction and membership-based group buying services to over 40 industry leaders from several segments of the food industry.