GrubMarket Acquires Mendez International
Food technology company GrubMarket has completed the acquisition of Mendez International, a family-owned wholesale distribution business based in New York’s iconic Hunts Point Produce Market. Mendez International provides tropical fruits, including plantains, bananas, avocados, limes, mangos and taro, sourced from its extensive network of producers across Costa Rica, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica, to supermarkets and grocery stores across the Tri-State area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
The business currently occupies six units at Hunts Point, one of the largest wholesale produce markets in the United States. Following the acquisition, the business will continue to be managed by its current leadership team.
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“When my father started this business over 35 years ago, he had a simple goal: Work hard to build a food business based on trust and reliability that would last for many years,” said Felipe Mendez, owner of Bronx, N.Y.-based Mendez International. “Now, after two generations of growth and cultivation, we continue to be a proud family-run business providing the freshest tropical produce to our customers. We are excited to join the GrubMarket team, who shares our passion for making fresh and healthy produce available to everyone, and we look forward to leveraging their e-commerce and software ecosystem to provide more tropical goods to GrubMarket’s customers nationwide.”
“Mendez International has developed a sterling reputation as a leader amongst produce distributors in the Tri-State area,” added Mike Xu, CEO of San Francisco-based GrubMarket. “Felipe and his team have done an incredible job significantly growing both sales and profits over the past few years. We deeply respect their business savvy grounded in strong family values, which have allowed them to build strong customer relationships and provide high-quality foods at competitive prices for over three decades at the renowned Hunts Point Produce Market. Their determination and heart reflect the same fundamental values that GrubMarket has worked hard to cultivate over the years. This acquisition enables GrubMarket to further strengthen our presence along the East Coast, particularly in New York, and fortifies our global sourcing capabilities across Central America. We are so excited to welcome the Mendez International team to the GrubMarket family.”
As a part of GrubMarket’s portfolio, Mendez International will now employ GrubMarket’s proprietary WholesaleWare software suite, the company's software-as-a-service platform that provides food industry wholesalers and distributors with seamless financial management, sales and online ordering features; inventory management; lot traceability; grower accounting; and automated routing and logistics, in addition to Orders IO, GrubMarket’s custom branded mobile e-commerce solution.
Founded in 2014, GrubMarket operates in the space of food supply chain e-commerce for both business customers and end consumers, as well as providing related SAAS solutions. Currently, the company operates in all 50 U.S. states; the Canadian provinces of Ontario and British Columbia ; Argentina, Chile and Colombia in South America; and Egypt, India, Mexico, South Africa and Spain, with more plans to expand.
