A national gourmet foods distributor has bought a Denver-area organic foods company with plans to expand its reach.
Florida-based Innovative Food Holdings Inc. bought Golden Organics for $1.75 million. The deal is expected to close in the next few weeks, said Bill Bennett, CEO of Innovative Food. Golden Organics is a specialty food distributor of predominantly organic, dry-good products in the Rocky Mountain region.
Golden Organics will retain its name, Bennett said. “I think there are lots of folks in the Denver area who know and recognize the name, so we want to make sure we keep that in place.”
The company, which works out of a warehouse in Arvada, sells its products to restaurants, retailers and manufacturers, who buy raw ingredients. Golden Organics said on a website that while its purchasing network is worldwide, the company buys from local and regional farmers whenever possible.
Owner David Rickard, who founded the company in Golden in 1994, is ready to retire, Bennett said. Denver native Taeshaud Jackson is the company’s new president. Bennett said Jackson’s experience includes positions at U.S. Foods, a major distributor, Kroger and Walmart.
Bennett said Innovative Food Holdings’ goal is to expand Golden Organics’ current staff of eight as the company’s products gain more exposure in other parts of the country. Innovative Food, started about 20 years ago, partners with U.S. Foods and Sysco, another large food distributor, to provide its specialty products to restaurants. The company also does business on Amazon and on some of its own websites.
Most of the time, the items offered through Innovative Food would be shipped directly from vendors to customers. But a decade ago, the company bought Artisan Specialty Foods, a distribution company in Chicago that gave Innovative Food its first physical footprint, Bennett said.
“Because that was successful when I came in about 18 months ago, we started looking for other opportunities like that to make similar acquisitions. That’s what led us to Golden Organics,” said Bennett, who used to head Kroger’s e-commerce business.
The Denver-area company will be a great addition to Innovative Food’s portfolio, which now has few organic products, Bennett said. “It’s going to help us very quickly expand into a set of categories that we haven’t had access to previously.”
And Innovative Food will be able to help Golden Organics reach new markets by placing its items for sale with U.S. Foods, Sysco and other companies, Bennett said.
“I’m thinking we can bring to Golden Organics a higher level of systems and processes and technology that as a small company it may not have had access to before and really help take them to the next level,” he added.
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