Two Dallas entrepreneurs have formed a business-to-business Internet marketplace for the food industry that already is serving a significant player in the business, the H-E-B grocery chain.
Their company, Inc2Inc, was formed a year ago to create a digital marketplace to connect trading partners in the food business.
Since summer, H-E-B has been testing the Inc2Inc site for buying wholesale supplies for its baking, dairy and food-packaging operations.
H-E-B will use the site to buy flour and other ingredients used in its private-label bread, tortillas and snack chips.
“We are providing a very compelling solution to a problem that creates a great deal of pain,” said Chris Renner, Inc2Inc’s president.
“The grocery industry is incredibly fragmented. Each buyer maintains relationships with hundreds of suppliers. So when we landed H-E-B as a customer, we effectively landed all of their suppliers as well.”
H.E. Butt Grocery Co. is in the initial phases of using the Inc2Inc site, said Mike De La Garza, a spokesman for the San Antonio-based supermarket chain, which is the state’s biggest with sales last year of $7.5 billion. He said H-E-B hopes to gain efficiencies through the deal, and that things so far are looking positive.