May 20, 2005 9:15 AM, from staff and wire reports

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the founding of Dairy.com, provider of Internet-powered systems to the dairy industry. The company kicked off 2005 with a first quarter that saw record numbers of member companies (274), postings (more than 20,000 loads), transactions (nearly 8,000), and revenue.

“In an environment where 90% percent of B2B marketplaces failed, Dairy.com has emerged as a true success story," said Hill Pratt, vice-president of business development. "Three factors have made the difference for us. First, with large volumes of high-value perishable product being scheduled, traded, and moved across an expansive geography, Internet solutions are the perfect answer for this industry. Second, we’ve had great support from committed dairy companies to get the tools and services ramped. Third, many B2Bs were technology-centric and mistakenly thought, ‘if we build it they will come,’ whereas we always saw technology as a tool to help us provide service and achieve better results for customers.”

Dairy.com's members include Dairy Farmers of America, The Dannon Co, Dean Foods, Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, Kraft Foods, Land O’ Lakes, Leprino Foods, and Schreiber Foods. The site provides transaction and trading facilitation services, including scheduling, spot trading, contracting and transportation for dairy commodities. Dairy.com also provides technology infrastructure for milk cooperatives.