SAN FRANCISCO, CA - The acquisition market continues to stay active, with recent news coming down the pipe that SunFed has been acquired by GrubMarket. The wholesaler continues to make strategic advancements across the industry, building out its network of suppliers in the United States. After the acquisition, the business will continue to be managed by its current team.
“We are excited to join the GrubMarket team and welcome the opportunities brought forth by GrubMarket’s robust technology platform and strong e-Commerce supply and demand network,” Craig Slate, Chief Executive Officer of SunFed, noted. “We are constantly striving to deliver on our promise of Perfect Produce® to our customers throughout North America and also seek to strengthen and grow our best-in-class grower network. We are thrilled to learn that GrubMarket shares this same goal and has built out such a well-integrated and much-needed e-commerce and technology-enabled platform to bring fresh food to so many important customers across the country. We sincerely look forward to joining the GrubMarket team and to bringing more organic and farmer-direct fresh food to GrubMarket’s end customers.”
According to a release, GrubMarket was intrigued by SunFed’s value proposition within the industry, noting its sizable warehouse square footage (65,000) and state-of-the-art processing facilities.
SunFed also has photovoltaic solar panels, which offset 85 percent of the total energy consumption. Another factor that attracted GrubMarket to the company is SunFed’s sustainability stance. The grower has adopted sustainability initiatives such as using modified atmosphere and humidity packaging to extend shelf-life, launching organic-certified growing programs, and introducing its “Almost Famous” brand that repurposes and resells cosmetically imperfect produce to reduce food waste.
“SunFed is one of the most trusted brands in the nation for squashes and other dry vegetables, watermelons, cantaloupe, and honeydews,” remarked Mike Xu, Chief Executive Officer of GrubMarket. “The SunFed team has always been a leader in technology, utilizing indoor growing mechanisms and innovative post-harvest practices to improve on product freshness. Craig, Matt [Mandel], and the exceptional team at SunFed have scaled the company to over 100 million in annual revenues with a strong profitability profile. In addition, they are mission-driven with strong sustainability and food safety practices, which match GrubMarket’s goals and ambitions. This acquisition enables GrubMarket to further strengthen our presence in key markets like Texas and Arizona, while solidifying our position in the food supply chain industry as a technology-enabler. We are excited to welcome the SunFed team to the GrubMarket family.”
We’ll continue to keep our eyes peeled for the latest news, so stay tuned to us here at AndNowUKnow.
