Bartercard $200m Member-To-Member Trading

Innovative Approach Behind Bartercard $200m Member-To-Member Trading

AUCKLAND , 28 July 2004 - Bartercard New Zealand announced today that its innovative business approach has attracted members including Just Water Limited, and National Car Rentals, bringing trading between B2B members to around $200 million per year.

Bartercard has 5,500 members across New Zealand including well-known companies and brands such as Liz Mitchell Design, Quicksilver Internet and mortgage business Wizard Home Loans. As a sponsor of the New Zealand Innovation Festival 2004, Bartercard and its members have adopted trade exchange as an innovative part of their business.

Denis Orme , CEO Bartercard New Zealand , says that barter is based on a reliable system of trade exchange which is thousands of years old. Not surprisingly, trade exchange is now a global, fully-computerised and proven business model in 13 countries including the United States , Australia , United Kingdom , Cyprus , Russia , Hong Kong and the Middle East .

"Bartercard gives its members a competitive edge by adding an extra dimension to their business. We essentially act as a third party record-keeper, and use trade dollars (which are equal to one New Zealand dollar) to electronically monitor the value of transactions throughout New Zealand . We are just like the clearing house for a bank, except we are inherently more flexible and less expensive to use," says Orme.

Orme also says that the Bartercard model has advantages for any sized enterprise from sole trader or small-to-medium enterprise through to a listed or multinational company.

"All of our members enjoy significant benefits such as an interest-free line of credit, reduction in cash expenses, improved cash flow, extra customers and increased market share. They've found that Bartercard meets their business needs and has advantages that they cannot get elsewhere".

Orme says that Bartercard's members can use their trade dollars across a growing range of services from law firms, accountants, advertising, photographers, strategic mentoring, management consultants, beauty clinics, accommodation, car rentals through to home loans.

"There is no limit to the services we can provide and use with trade dollars. As a business-to-business marketplace, we already offer members trade by EFTPOS, Web and transactions vouchers. We are keen to introduce more innovative technology to our network and so are looking to use e-marketplace opportunities to help our members sell their products and services."

Michael Fann , of Just Water Limited part of the recently listed company Just Water International, has found that Bartercard membership has resulted in significant benefits for the business throughout New Zealand.

"Even with the expanded public profile of being part of a listed company, we've found that the flexibility of being able to deal with the network of Bartercard members and use trade dollars to buy and sell our products has increased our penetration into new areas."

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