Jacksonville, FL (October 4, 2014)

IX-ONE is pleased to announce that United Natural Foods, Inc. has joined the IX-ONE™ item data exchange as a founding member and will work cooperatively to help grow the exchange and increase its adoption. UNFI will also support one of IX-ONE’s product capture stations at its York, PA distribution center to help facilitate the data capture process.

“We are excited to have the industry’s largest distributor as a founding member of the IX-ONE exchange,” said IX-ONE’s CEO Troy Benscoter. “UNFI has once again taken a leadership role in the industry; this time to help us take unnecessary costs and redundancy out of the supply chain.”

“Product information is critical for all of us. Our industry needs a comprehensive solution to the problem of dysfunctional data. IX-ONE is it. We strongly encourage our supplier, broker and retailer partners to consider the IX-ONE solution,” said UNFI’s VP of Marketing John Raiche. “UNFI is excited to be pioneering this industry-changing initiative because in addition to streamlining our new item setup process, we believe it will help all industry partners increase sales, reduce costs and ultimately lead to a much more efficient supply chain.”

“Standardizing our data, and simplifying the sharing of the data using the IX-One exchange, will help each of our partners support the continued growth of the Natural and Organic industry. For the first time, we will be able to communicate in the same data language. This is a leap forward and we are excited to be a part of it,” said Daniel Ratigan, UNFI National VP, Management & Business Intelligence, Information Technology – Data Management.

About IX-ONE

IX-ONE is the Natural, Organic and Specialty Product Industry’s product data and image exchange, developed by The Data Council, Inc. IX-ONE is a membership-based solution that provides independently verified and standardized product information to industry vendors, brokers, distributors, retailers and key partners. The IX-ONE exchange allows its members royalty-free use of all applicable data and images to run their businesses including internal systems, marketing, billing and more. They physically handle and image every product annually including capturing all available data.

About UNFI

UNFI is the leading independent national distributor of natural, organic and specialty foods and related products including nutritional supplements, personal care items and organic produce, in the United States. In addition to excellent distribution services, UNFI provides a range of innovative, value-added services for customers and suppliers, to foster mutual success and growth. Services include marketing and promotional tools, merchandising, category management and store support services.