Chicago area-based Get Fresh Produce, a distributor of fresh produce, fresh-cut items and specialty products, recently joined IF&P Foods, a private equity-backed family of produce and specialty food companies.
The company said the move diversifies the group’s combined customer base, and increases the breadth and depth of its services in the massive Chicago metropolitan market, and the entire Midwest.
Get Fresh will operate in tandem with Indianapolis Fruit, Piazza Produce and Specialty Foods, and Papania Produce to maximize quality and customer support across the region.
Terms of the deal, which closed July 1, were not disclosed. The transaction positions the combined group of companies as one of the largest independent produce and specialty food distributors in its market, Get Fresh said.
Founded in 1982 as a retail produce store in Chicago, Get Fresh grew to become a distributor of fresh produce, fresh-cut items and specialty products to foodservice and retail customers in Illinois, Southern Wisconsin, and Western and Central Indiana. It has locations in Bartlett IL and Whitestown IN, just outside of Indianapolis. Gino Alimondi will continue to lead Get Fresh as president, and the company’s operations will carry on from its primary facility in Bartlett, as well as from its other distribution centers.
IF&P distributes similar products throughout the Midwest to the retail and foodservice segments through Indianapolis Fruit, Piazza and Papania’s. In addition to selling and distributing produce and specialty items to the retail and foodservice industries, the companies will continue to maintain in-house fresh cut processing and USDA fresh kitchen operations, Get Fresh said.
The combined group of companies will be led by Steve Grinstead as CEO and Greg Corsaro as president and COO.
The new family of companies is backed by Rotunda Capital Partners, a Bethesda MD-based private equity firm that invests long-term equity capital in established lower middle-market companies.
