Pairman launches business exchange

Sabrina Gordon, Business Reporter

Andrew Pairman, chief executive officer of the Anbell Group of Companies, has set up an online exchange for companies to barter goods and services.

The company under which the service will be managed, Anbell Trade Exchange (ATX), was launched August 15, but the online platform will not start trading at the beginning of September, Pairman told Sunday Business.

"With the harsh economic environment, the high cost of doing business, and many entities operating with excess capacity, Jamaica provides the ideal setting for the establishment of a trade exchange," said Pairman.

sole owner

Pairman is listed as ATX's sole shareholder on Companies Office records. The company was listed as pre-registered at August 5.

The Anbell CEO declined to disclose the level of investment in his new start-up, saying only that he spent a significant amount on the software and developing the trading platform.

The exchange will be membership based, enlisting companies that agree to barter with one another, not through doing direct swaps, Pairman explained, but by trading goods and services with one another in exchange for trade credit or 'trade dollars'.

ATX, he said, would act as the clearing house, identify a range of trade partners, formalise the trades, and keep accounts of transactions, "generally raising the utility of barter to a practical and profitable level for all".

While Pairman was unable to put a figure on the potential market in Jamaica, he noted that the worldwide barter industry exchanged as much as US$65 billion worth of goods and services in 2009.

In the United States alone, US$16 billion worth of products and services were bartered in that same year.

Already, 84 companies have indicated a willingness to participate in the system, and platforms are expected to emerge
in another 250 companies within the next six months, according to Pairman.

Overall, he expects that up to 1,400 small to medium-size companies will subscribe to his exchange.

ATX's income will be in the form of fees and commissions.

To participate in the ATX, companies will be required to pay a nominal registration fee, an annual administration fee, and will be charged a cash commission on each buy transaction. The fee structure is being finalised, Pairman said.

"With this system, you save and improve cash flow, you generate new sales, and move surplus inventory, among other things," he said.

"Often, it is also very difficult to find trading partners with matching needs. Consider a bathroom, fixtures manufacturer who wishes to trade excess capacity for spare advertising slots at a leading newspaper. A direct trade is not possible because the newspaper entity has no use for bathroom fixtures," Pairman said, using an illustration from the company's brochure.

"However, if both companies were part of a trade exchange, the bathroom fixtures could be turned into purchasing power and gladly taken up by another member of the trade exchange. The newspaper could then use its acquired ATX credit at a hotel to accommodate out-of-town guests, or stage press conferences, purchase airline tickets for reporting trips, or even purchase their paper requirements through the paper supplier," the brochure stated.

ATX is the latest addition to Pairman's Anbell Group of Companies, which provides services in the advertising and telecommunications industries.

Prior to ATX, his last venture was a digital signage business called Intelligent Multimedia Limited, whose screens are mounted across offices, stores, and agencies.

sabrina.gordon@gleanerjm.com

The Anbell Group headquarters on Knutsford Boulevard in New Kingston as seen in this September 2005 file photo. - File