SAN DIEGO – July 16, 2008 – Trade Service and IDEA have mutually agreed not to renew their 10 year data sharing agreement effective July 20, 2008.

After extended negotiations, both parties determined that it was in their best interests to pursue separate initiatives.

Trade Service partnered in the development of IDEA, initially licensing over 1.2 million SKUs.  For the past 10 years, Trade Service shared its data with IDEA and provided weekly updates.  Trade Service’s data license included its proprietary commodity codes, short descriptions, generics, and more.

Today, Trade Service proudly serves over 1,000 electrical distributors, providing them with access to over 2.6 million SKUs representing 618 manufacturers. Additionally, over 1 million products include rich descriptions, product images and catalog page attachments.  In a typical month, Trade Service adds 50,000 SKUs; updates up to 500,000 SKUs; and enriches over 75,000 SKUs with attributes and images.

Trade Service customers will experience no interruption in their service.

In looking towards the future, Tony Dubreville, President and CEO, said “This is an exciting time for our company.  We are in the midst of beta testing new services that will help enhance synchronization between distributors and their customers and other offerings focused on serving the channel.”

About Trade Service
Trade Service is the leading provider of standardized product and price information to the electrical, plumbing/PVF, HVACR, industrial MRO, and office products industries. Since 1931, the company has been the leader in content acquisition, aggregation, management, publishing, and distribution, offering a variety of products, services, and systems to meet the content needs of over 20,000 distributors, contractors, and government agencies.  The range of solutions provided includes printed directories, electronic catalogs, pricing data for business system updating, and robust attributed content to fuel full-functioning Internet storefronts.  For more information, visit www.tradeservice.com.