Foodservice News & Events

From Jake’s - Texas & Louisiana Foodservice Distributor and Restaurant Supply

 

Jake’s Announces Asset Purchase from Gourmet Ranch

Jake’s Finer Foods announced that it will be acquiring certain assets of Houston-based Gourmet Ranch, a processor of custom cut, premium protein products.  Gourmet Ranch, founded in 2000, is a leading source of high-quality beef, poultry, lamb, veal, pork, wild game and other specialty products.  The acquisition, which will be finalized in early April, will greatly expand Jake’s catalog of product offerings, and will provide considerable strength to Jake’s ability to service the critical “center of the plate” foodservice needs of its customers.  Under the terms of the acquisition, Gourmet Ranch will become a flagship brand of Jake’s Finer Foods, and will continue its production operations from its facility located at 3902 North Main in Houston.

 According to Leonard Bench, CEO and President of Jake’s Finer Foods, the acquisition stands to benefit both Gourmet Ranch customers as well as Jake’s customers. “Gourmet Ranch, as a brand, has built an impeccable reputation as the highest-quality provider of center-of-the-plate offerings. This is potentially the most critical area of foodservice need, something that impacts every foodservice operator.  By combining Gourmet Ranch’s reputation of product excellence with the distribution expertise and dedicated customer service of Jake’s Finer Foods, our combined customer base can rely on us to deliver everything they demand, all from a single-source provider.”

 Bench continues, “Customers of Gourmet Ranch recognize that the Gourmet Ranch brand is symbolic of high quality. Jake’s intends to respect that sentiment by not only retaining the Gourmet Ranch name and logo on its products, but also maintaining the processes that result in this longstanding tradition of quality.  We will continue production operations from the present facility, but we also intend to apply the technological advancements and efficiencies made possible through the synergies of the combined, highly tenured Jake’s and Gourmet Ranch management teams.  The benefits to both our new and our existing customers make this acquisition a true win across the board.”

Please refer to the official press release, dated 03/21/11, linked below in the Press Releases section for more information.

 

Food Logistics Cover April-May

Jake’s Finer Foods – Food Logistics Magazine’s “Golden Pallet Award”

Jake's is proud to announce its selection as Food Logistics Magazine's Golden Pallet Award winner for Best Large Distribution Center for 2010!  This category was open to warehouses larger than 100,000 square feet.  The Golden Pallets, according to Food Logistics Magazine, are the first food industry awards to recognize outstanding achievement in warehousing.  Jake's new 180,000 square foot distribution center and corporate headquarters, which opened its doors in February, uses technologies and material handling systems designed to increase efficiency, reduce costs and significantly cut energy use and environmental waste.  According to its own internal projections, these solutions will help Jake's save approximately $4.6 million over the next five years.  Armand Page, Jake's vice president of operations and IT, is prominently featured in the April/May issue of Food Logistics Magazine, where he talks at length about the three-year process that Jake's went through to design and build the distribution center, keeping in mind hundreds of best practices learned from within the foodservice distribution industry.

The following is an excerpt of the article entitled, "Jake's Finest Moment," published in the April/May issue of Food Logistics:

Sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith. That's what Armand Page did when he decided to build a distribution center around an unusual method for picking slow moving items.  Page is the vice president of operations and IT for Jake's Finer Foods, a full-line foodservice distributor serving independent restaurants, multi-unit restaurants and foodservice retail companies.  During the past three years, under his guidance, the company designed and built a 180,000-square-foot distribution center and corporate headquarters in Houston. The DC is Phase One of an eventual development of a 360,000-square-foot refrigerated facility. It uses technologies and material handling systems that will increase efficiency, reduce costs and signifcantly cut energy use and environmental waste-and help the company save $4.6 million dollars over the next five years.  For its environmental efforts as well as its commitment to passing long-term savings on to its customers, Jake's Finer Foods has been named the winner of Food Logistics' Golden Pallet Award in the large distribution center category.  The Golden Pallet Awards, sponsored by Food Logistics, are the first food industry awards to recognize excellence in warehousing.

Jake's, which posted $80 million in revenue last year, was founded in 1946.  The family-run company has come a long way since Kervin E. Jacob (Jake) started the business delivering eggs door-to-door to household customers.  Today it sells more than 1 million eggs a week and delivers 8,000 SKUs to 1,500 customers in Texas and Western Louisiana. "We simply outgrew our facility. The old warehouse was just under 80,000 square feet across three separate buildings," says Page.  "We consolidated the buildings into one and more than doubled the square footage and tripled the cube in this new DC..."

 

For the complete article as it appeared in the April/May issue of Food Logistics Magazine, please click here to visit their site.

 

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Jake’s Foodservice Central Corporate Headquarters and Central Distribution Center Located at 13400 Hollister (Inside Beltway 8 and Hwy 249) Our new facilities are designed with one thing in mind – to serve you better. Jake’s new headquarters was painstakingly designed with these features:


Ask your Account Manager for a sneak peek with a behind-the-scenes tour of our new facility!