Through enhancements to the existing twice monthly Trading Events and the launch of two new services, GDT Marketplace and GDT Insight, GDT is continuing to influence how the 66bn liter international dairy market trades.
Perfect Channel builds on existing platforms
The newly launched 24/7 GDT Marketplace dairy trading platform has been designed and developed by London, UK, company Perfect Channel, who provide auction and online trading technology solutions. GDT Marketplace has been built on Perfect Channel’s auction and trading platform, Perfect Exchange.
Ivan O'Toole, director of business development at Perfect Channel, told DairyReporter that the new platform design was put out to tender last year.
“They invited us to tender for a complete build of this marketplace, from the ground upwards. We had a partially built solution with regards to the marketplace from all our other auction companies,” O’Toole said.
Perfect Channel is responsible for the development of other online auction sites such as Christie’s.
“We've recently gone live with an auction trading platform in North America for cattle. So commodities seem to be a very comfortable position for us, and we're looking at agri-commodities and energy as well,” he said.
“We thought we could build the capability but what the GDT brought to it was a really good sense of what they wanted, they had a really strong vision statement.”
Eric Hansen, director of GDT, said, “We were looking for a technology partner who could combine an agile approach to delivery, a modern technology stack and a deep understanding of auction platform trading mechanisms. Perfect Channel has delivered on all three fronts and we are delighted with our partnership.”
Concept developed over a year
O’Toole said the company started in May of last year with the design, and the site has taken just under a year to build.
“We've been testing it in earnest for the last four months, to ensure that it's usable as opposed to not just functional; it has to be something that without any formal training whatsoever, you should be able to guide yourself around and be able to do a listing, and start trading on it.”
O’Toole told DR how the auction site will work.
“We're starting with plain and simple so you'd be able to do fixed price, some tender deals. We'll be introducing some more complex auction mechanisms in the future for buy and sell, which will be rolled out as and when the market adopts it, and there are more participants in the market,” he explained.
“There's no limit to the number of enhancements that we want to make over the course of the year.”
Opportunities for all companies
He added that the GDT site isn’t just for the big companies doing huge deals.
New GDT trading developments:
- GDT Events, the current twice monthly auction
- GDT Marketplace, a new 24/7 dairy trading platform
- GDT Insight, a subscription service offering round-by-round and post-event data from GDT Events
“We want to expand it. If you've got a production facility that has little as 40 to 50 tons a month, there's no rhyme or reason why you shouldn't use a platform like this to sell your specialty products in the future rather than rely on a brokerage service to do the same.”
O’Toole said that both GDT and Perfect Channel have a 24/7 support mechanism in place.
New additions to GDT
GDT also confirmed the introduction a new Cream Group for Anhydrous Milk Fat (AMF) and Butter on GDT Events from June.
This enhancement will allow sellers of AMF and butter to offer more supply flexibility to better meet demand at each trading event.
GDT Marketplace will offer products via fixed price or closed tender listings, with Fonterra Cooperative Group confirmed as the first seller.