PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 17, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As part of its strategic initiative to increase business efficiencies, Elizabeth Arden, a global prestige beauty products company, has signed a contract with ICG Commerce, the procurement outsourcing specialist. ICG Commerce will help the company manage spend across a range of categories, which include any spend that is not central to the products that the company produces. Elizabeth Arden joins a number of other leading consumer product companies including Kimberly-Clark, Chiquita and Pinnacle Foods who have partnered with ICG Commerce to optimize spending to fund innovation and growth.
"We're pleased to engage ICG Commerce as a key business partner and look forward to leveraging their capabilities to rapidly deploy a world-class procurement operation which in the past has existed only among the largest manufacturers," said Pierre Pirard, Executive Vice President of Product Innovation and Global Supply Chain at Elizabeth Arden. "By working together to create spend efficiencies, we expect to drive savings that we can use to improve our bottom line and fund innovation as we expand our presence in prestige markets around the world."
ICG Commerce will manage spend across categories including marketing, professional and corporate services and IT/Telecom. The holistic solution will include strategic sourcing, category management, contract services and spend, and savings and compliance reporting in North America and Europe.
"Partnering with a company that brings deep category expertise and a comprehensive savings operation will enable us to more efficiently manage vendors, contracts and compliance," added Pirard.
As commodity costs continue to fluctuate and value continues to be a core driver for consumers, consumer products companies are increasingly challenged to improve margins and fund new areas of growth and innovation. Procurement outsourcing has surfaced as the next generation of cost savings for many companies, helping to deliver savings which can be reinvested in marketing and new product innovation or taken straight to the bottom-line.
"We are pleased to work with an industry leader like Elizabeth Arden and play a critical role in their initiative to build their global presence while increasing business efficiencies," said Carl Guarino, chief executive officer, ICG Commerce. "Since September 2010, our category experts have been working closely with Elizabeth Arden to implement a program that will provide both process improvements and cost savings, resulting in a world class procurement operation."
About ICG Commerce, Inc.
ICG Commerce, the procurement outsourcing specialist, is driving a fundamental change in the way today's businesses achieve financial agility and fund growth. ICG Commerce is the only procurement outsourcing specialist with superior market intelligence integrated into an operational approach, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in realized savings. ICG Commerce is a privately held company and member of Internet Capital Group's (Nasdaq:ICGE) network of partner companies.
The ICG Commerce, Inc. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=6920