Olymel Gains Market Insight With SignalDemand

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- SignalDemand today announced that Olymel L.P., a leader in processing and distribution of pork and poultry throughout Canada, has renewed its MarketForecaster™ software licensing agreement.  Olymel has been a MarketForecaster customer since September 2009, relying on the cutting-edge mathematics of MarketForecaster informed by their users' deep market knowledge to drive improved pricing processes and market insights across the organization's North American markets.

"Every day, the first thing I do is log on to MarketForecaster to look at the hog futures numbers [from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange] so that I can compare items based on futures with the item forecasts based on the hog markets," explained Jean Hebert, business development manager for Olymel.  "Because the pork markets are so volatile at the moment, I find that the application is particularly valuable for developing accurate longer term pricing for our customers.  The information I receive from MarketForecaster is very relevant for the Canadian market and the application is very user friendly."  

MarketForecaster provides commodity price forecasts through an intuitive user interface, enabling fact based decision making for manufacturers, retailers, foodservice operators and others as they buy and sell commodities, or products made from commodities.  The solution generates market-level price forecasts using a variety of inputs, including information from data aggregators such as the USDA. There is no implementation required for this one stop shop for historical and projected commodity prices.

"MarketForecaster provides Olymel with a math-based forecast that helps ground their sales and purchasing decisions with factual information," said Mike Neal, CEO and founder of SignalDemand.  "The SignalDemand forecasts, combined with their market knowledge and customer relationships, represent a new platform for win-win negotiations in a market that has been highly volatile for the past six years.  MarketForecaster provides Olymel the flexibility they need to create a forecast based on futures as well as product seasonality, trends and market movements, allowing them to capitalize on opportunities they may otherwise have missed."

About Olymel L.P.

Olymel L.P. is a Canadian leader in the primary processing, further processing, and distribution of pork and poultry meat products, with facilities in Quebec, Ontario and Alberta.  Olymel L.P. employs more than 10,000 people. Its international sales, mainly to the United States, Japan, Australia and some 60 other countries, represent almost 50 percent of its revenue.  The company chiefly markets its products under the Olymel, Lafleur, Flamingo, Prince and Galco brands.

About SignalDemand

SignalDemand provides predictive analytics and optimization for commodity based value chains. Through on-demand software and services, SignalDemand delivers real-time recommendations to help make complex price, mix, supply and purchasing decisions across products, customers, channels and suppliers. Using patented, comprehensive mathematical models to process thousands of variables, SignalDemand enables better day-to-day decision-making and increased profit margins.

SignalDemand's recognition includes being named a Rising Star in Deloitte's Technology Fast 50 for Silicon Valley. The company was also chosen as a "Cool Vendor" in the Gartner's "Cool Vendors in Manufacturing" Report and was the only on-demand pricing company recognized by JMP Securities' "Hot 100" list of private companies. Companies such as Wal-Mart, Cargill, ConAgra, JBS, Sobeys, Sysco, Teys Brothers, Kepak Group, BJs, Lopez Foods, Farmland Foods, Hormel, National Frozen Foods and Ventura Foods rely on SignalDemand for immediate and ongoing improvement of financial performance. For more information, please visit www.signaldemand.com.

*MarketForecaster is a trademark of SignalDemand. SignalDemand is a registered trademark of SignalDemand, Inc.

SOURCE SignalDemand