Georgia-Pacific Joins UCCnet

Media Contacts:
Jennifer Roberts, UCCnet, (609) 620-4688, jbroberts@UCCnet.org
Mark Silvey, Elias/Savion Public Relations for UCCnet, (412) 642-7700, mark.silvey@elias-savion.com
Alison Jones, Georgia-Pacific Corp., (404) 652-4751, adjones@gapac.com

Consumer Products Unit Will Utilize UCCnet To Increase Efficiencies With Retail Partners

LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. October 8, 2002 – UCCnet announced today that the consumer products unit of Georgia-Pacific Corp. will begin implementing UCCnet’s item registration and data synchronization services. Georgia-Pacific joins more than 200 other supply and demand side trading partners as members of the UCCnet community.

Based in Atlanta, Georgia-Pacific manufactures a variety of consumer products and paper goods under brand names including Dixie®, Brawny®, Quilted Northern®, Vanity Fair®, Sparkle®, Angel Soft®, Mardi Gras®, Green Forest® and Soft `n Gentle®.

Under the agreement, Georgia-Pacific will utilize UCCnet’s item registration and data synchronization services to communicate product information with the company’s retail partners, including Ahold, Food Lion, Shaw’s, Wegmans and Wal-Mart Stores, which are currently UCCnet subscribers. Georgia-Pacific will be using the services of WebMethods and Transora, both certified UCCnet alliance partners, to connect the company’s systems with UCCnet. Webmethods will provide connectivity services from the company’s systems to Transora. Transora, a consumer packaged goods industry exchange, will upload the company’s item information to the UCCnet GLOBALregistry™ via Transora’s catalog services.

"We’re very pleased to align with the UCCnet effort," said Andrei Mikhalevsky, president of Georgia-Pacific’s North American retail business. "This alliance should improve our partnerships with participating retailers, and provide more efficient business processes through the adoption of industry standards. Our industry will benefit from a common approach to faster and more efficient data synchronization."

A study by A.T. Kearney estimated that $40 billion, or 3.5 percent, of total sales lost each year are due to supply chain information inefficiencies. Specifically, the study showed that 30 percent of items in retail catalogs have data errors, which cost between $60 and $80 each and consume 25 minutes of manual cleansing per SKU. Other findings revealed that 60 percent of all invoices generated errors and 43 percent of all invoices resulted in deductions.

To alleviate these costly errors, UCCnet enables registration and synchronization of item information, such as weight and dimensions, by providing a repository for standardized item, location and trading partner data. Suppliers such as Georgia-Pacific load item, location and trading partner information into the UCCnet GLOBALregistry. UCCnet checks the data for compliance to industry standards and synchronizes it with demand side partners, ensuring that all trading partners are using identical, updated, standards-compliant data.

"As Georgia-Pacific has been a leader within the consumer packaged goods marketplace, it continues to take the lead by adopting UCCnet services," said Glenn DuBois, Vice President, Business Development, UCCnet. "From large suppliers such as Georgia-Pacific to small and medium suppliers, UCCnet services can add valuable efficiencies and substantial cost savings to any supply chain."

UCCnet services will enable Georgia-Pacific and its retail partners to reduce costly administrative errors in invoice pricing, purchase orders, product delivery and scanning accuracy. In addition, the companies will be able to increase the speed of getting new products to market and facilitate changes to existing item information. Synchronized data in a standard format also provides a solid foundation for realizing the true cost savings value of more advanced e-commerce tools such as scan-based trading and CPFR.

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About Georgia-Pacific
Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia-Pacific is one of the world`s leading manufacturers and distributors of tissue, packaging, paper, building products, pulp and related chemicals. With annual sales of more than $25 billion, the company employs approximately 71,000 people at 600 locations in North America and Europe. Its familiar consumer tissue brands include Quilted Northern®, Angel Soft®, Brawny®, Sparkle®, Soft `n Gentle®, Mardi Gras®, So-Dri®, Green Forest® and Vanity Fair®, as well as the Dixie® brand of disposable cups, plates and cutlery.

Georgia-Pacific`s building products distribution segment has long been among the nation`s leading wholesale suppliers of building products to lumber and building materials dealers and large do-it-yourself warehouse retailers. In addition, Georgia-Pacific`s Unisource Worldwide subsidiary is one of the largest distributors of packaging systems, printing and imaging papers and maintenance supplies in North America. For more information, visit www.gp.com.

About UCCnet
UCCnet is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt neutral organization that provides item registry and data synchronization based on industry-developed standards. Through its support of global EANoUCC standards, UCCnet delivers an open platform for collaborative commerce services, including compliance verification, synchronization of product information, registry and lifecycle management of synchronized products, user locations and user trade capabilities.

As a subsidiary of the Uniform Code Council, Inc., the global standards organization, UCCnet leverages its position to enable the rapid, clear development of industry Internet standards and practices. In addition, UCCnet provides implementation methodology, allowing small, medium and large enterprises to integrate eCommerce into their business in a swift and efficient manner. For more information, visit www.UCCnet.org.