iTRADEpro was conceptualised in November 2009 by Redwood Third Party Processing (Pty) Ltd (‘Redwood’), a Cape Town-based company specialising in consumer and SME financial services outsourcing and delivery solutions, led by Andrew Goodrich (CEO) and Peter Versfeld (CIO).
Andrew has over 15 years of experience in credit-risk, operational and executive management gained in the clothing-retail, catalogue-retail, banking and consultancy sectors in both Africa and the Middle East – including several new business start-ups. His experience covers an array of consumer credit products, including personal loans, bank credit cards, mortgage loans, private label cards and bank debit cards.
Peter has more than 17 years' experience in credit management, which has included setting up the complete architecture and infrastructure for managing customer accounts and loans, as well as taking responsibility for the corporate data warehouse and analytics function. Peter was also responsible for developing the Woolworths Foods online logistics and distribution system, which managed all fresh and frozen supplier orders and deliveries, managed the warehousing and storage of stock, the allocation of stock to stores, and the calculation of deliveries to local stores and national distribution centres.
Having conducted a significant amount of industry research, Andrew and Peter used their collective consumer/SME operational and credit-risk experience, logistics and online-systems-development expertise to establish a comprehensive business analysis and feasibility study to explore the opportunity to modernise and revolutionise the protein (meat, fish and chicken) trading industry via a central trading desk portal.
In February 2010, it was concluded that, based on the current trading environment limitations and the value/quantity of protein being traded within the industry, the protein industry would materialise significant value and benefit from the introduction of:
• a trading desk portal (mini stock exchange) offering wider market visibility and competitive pricing capability
• finance for credit terms (buyer) and guaranteed settlement (seller).
• enhanced business/operational efficiency via an industry-standardised, professionally resourced central point of contact coupled with facilitated logistics solutions.
In March 2010, a listed software development company was contracted to commence the development of the online web-portal trading solution. This secure, easy-to-use application is available to anyone with an internet connection, and enables users to see what products are available, to search for stock, to make an online purchase or to bid on stock offered. Management reports confidential to each user are provided online. All logistics for the collection and delivery of purchased stock is coordinated by the iTRADEpro logistics team.
Sasha White was appointed general manager in April 2010 with the brief to manage iTRADEpro through to operational implementation, engaging the protein market traders along the way to promote iTRADEpro’s value proposition in readiness for going live and building registrations and an online market-level stock inventory. Sasha has over ten years of experience in operational management and software development, primarily in establishing and managing service desks and call centres within in the financial, online and logistic sectors. One of Sasha’s more recent successes was setting up an online business venture for Virgin Games in South Africa.
Having taken iTRADEpro live to the market in November 2010, iTRADEpro’s online users are supported by a team of experienced regional-based relationship managers and a professionally-resourced, experienced trading desk centre, both well positioned and capable of assisting iTRADEpro clients on the online portal in relation to registration, the loading or sourcing of stock and all service / transactional related queries.
As iTRADEpro builds momentum, additional value-added services to the protein market will be made available in the form of pertinent and relevant industry and product-related business intelligence and management information.
Caption: From left: Peter Versfeld; Sasha White and Andrew Goodrich
Pavillion Photo: is a picture of our office in Cape Town – not great quality so please let me know if this is a problem
Comments from happy customers
Ryan Bruwer from South African Livestock Agents: ‘iTRADEpro is a great way to buy and sell without the regular hassle; a great new innovation.’
Luigi Jnr from Ranch Meats: ‘I truly believe that it is about time that somebody did this. It is a fantastic idea and a great concept – now all we need is for everybody to buy into the idea and start trading. I am very excited. The service from iTRADEpro is excellent and my first sale was done at 20:00 o‘clock one evening.’
