New kit for Tree of Life supply chain

Natural products supplier Tree of Life, a subsidiary of Dutch food producer Wessanen, has adopted a new agent - viaLink - to work on supply chain management.

ViaLink will provide Tree Of Life with a standards-compliant way to register product information in the UCCnet registry and to communicate that data to retailers and wholesalers who are UCCnet members, the companies said in a statement this week.

ViaLink maintains the data in the registry and manages the publication of data to trading partners on the UCCnet system on behalf of its clients.

Following a tough financial period for Tree of Life Koninklijke Wessanen, in June this year, announced it would axe 6 per cent of the workforce of Tree of Life - about 300 posts - in a bid to 'adapt to current market developments'. In addition, the US subsidiary was restructured turning 16 independent divisions into seven regions, a reorganization of its management structure and a new service package designed to enable its customers to customize service offerings.

Commenting at the time, Wessanen called the problems at Tree of Life NA 'mainly operational and incidental, and not strategic'.