BONITA SPRINGS, Fla.,
Aug. 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/
-- Innovative Food Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: IVFH), a
leading nationwide provider of specialty foods, healthcare foods,
gluten free foods, and direct from source artisanal foods, to the
professional foodservice market, today announced that it has
acquired 100% of The Fresh Diet, Inc. The Fresh Diet is the
nationwide leader in freshly prepared gourmet specialty meals,
using the finest specialty, artisanal, direct from source
ingredients, delivered daily, directly to consumers using The Fresh
Diet® platform. The Fresh Diet's platform includes a company
managed and owned preparation and logistics infrastructure,
including a comprehensive company owned network of same day and
next day last mile food delivery capabilities.
For the trailing 12 months ended June
30, 2014 The Fresh Diet generated approximately
$24 million in revenues. The Fresh
Diet will be operated as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company,
and the transaction is currently expected to be accretive to the
Company's earnings in fiscal year 2015.
The total purchase price for the acquisition of the business was
10 million shares of the Company's common stock plus the assumption
of debt. In addition, connected to the acquisition, the
Company raised approximately $1.4
million of equity capital at $1.00 per share from accredited investors and
institutions. There was no placement agent and no warrant coverage
on the transaction. The capital raised will be targeted towards
growth and expansion opportunities related to The Fresh Diet.
The Fresh Diet's platform offers the opportunity to expand into
additional specialty food market categories including non-diet
daily specialty meals, meal kits, allergen specific and additional
platform based specialty food opportunities, in the direct to
consumer market as well as in select foodservice markets.
"We believe that the expansion of Innovative Food Holdings'
platform to include the capabilities of The Fresh Diet's platform
is an extraordinary opportunity for the Company," commented
Sam Klepfish, CEO of Innovative Food
Holdings, "As evidenced by our recent strong second quarter
financial results, we are focused on executing and delivering on a
specialty food platform based strategy which has the capability to
expand sales with low fixed infrastructure costs. We further
believe that the Fresh Diet platform, which includes both daily
prepared specialty foods and leading last-mile capabilities, is a
platform which is uniquely positioned to complement the existing
platform of Innovative Food Holdings, enabling us to leverage the
rapidly changing specialty food market and provide unique
source-to-table capabilities and dramatically enhance our
direct-to-consumer infrastructure and capabilities.
Justin Wiernasz, President of
Innovative Food Holdings, noted "In addition, we welcome the deep
industry knowledge and food operations expertise which the
executive team at The Fresh Diet brings to the table. We look
forward to working with the entire The Fresh Diet team of
professionals as we build upon their more than 100 combined years
of operations, process management, marketing, franchising,
logistics and distribution excellence to drive future growth for
Innovative Food Holdings and The Fresh Diet."
Conference call information:
- Time: Today at 5 p.m. ET
- Dial-in number: 1-888-438-5491
(domestic) or 1-719-325-2491 (international)
- Call/Conference ID: 7962271
- Replay number: Dial 1-877-870-5176
(domestic) or 1-858-384-5517 (international). Please use passcode
7962271 to access the replay. The replay will be available until
August 27, 2014.
- Webcast link:
http://public.viavid.com/index.php?id=110633
About Innovative Food Holdings
Innovative Food Holdings, Inc. enables, through direct
distribution and through an industry leading fully managed
specialty food platform, the nationwide, efficient, seamless,
transparent and cost effective distribution of high quality, direct
from source foods, artisanal foods, gluten free, allergen specific
foods and other high quality, niche, specialty food products across
multiple food distribution channels in the United States.
In the professional foodservice channel, Innovative Food
Holdings' platform manages the nationwide sales, sourcing and
procurement, logistics, customer service and distribution of over
7,000 specialty food products. Many of Innovative Food Holdings'
products are used on a daily basis by some of the approximately
40,000 leading professional chefs across the United States.
In the direct to consumer channel, IVFH offers products directly
to consumers, through its website at www.forthegourmet.com. In
addition, Innovative Food Holdings' platform offers a comprehensive
white label perishable and nonperishable specialty food platform
for e-commerce retailers and other retailers which are seeking to
offer the nationwide, efficient, seamless, transparent and cost
effective availability of direct from source, specialty and
artisanal products, directly to consumers.
About The Fresh Diet ®
The Fresh Diet, Inc. (www.thefreshdiet.com) is the nationwide
leader in freshly prepared gourmet specialty meals, using the
finest specialty, artisanal, direct from source ingredients.
The meals are delivered directly to consumers in 12 states, 44
metropolitan areas and 573 cities across the country using the
Fresh Diet® platform. Founded in 2006, The Fresh Diet is also a Inc
500 company.
This release contains certain forward-looking statements and
information relating to Innovative Food Holdings, Inc. (the
"Company") that are based on the current beliefs of the Company's
management, as well as assumptions made by, and information
currently available to, the Company. Such statements reflect the
current views of the Company with respect to future events and are
subject to certain assumptions, including those described in this
release. Should one or more of these underlying assumptions prove
incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described
herein as "should," "could," "anticipate," "believe," "intend,"
"plan," "might," "potentially" or "expect." The Company does not
intend to update these forward-looking statements. Information
about third parties was supplied to the Company by third parties
and we accept no responsibility for its accuracy.
Contact:
|
|
Management
Contact
|
Investor Relations
Contact
|
Sam
Klepfish
|
James
Carbonara
|
CEO
|
Regional Vice
President, Hayden IR
|
(239)
449-3235
|
(646)
755-7412
|
sklepfish@innovativefoodholdings.com
|
james@haydenir.com
|
SOURCE Innovative Food Holdings, Inc.