2019 New Members

 

Since 2001, Absolutdata has connected data to business results for global brands. During this time they have amassed a powerful suite of AI-based products and advanced analytics services that give clients a competitive edge. They transform how the world makes decisions. By building AI-based scalable solutions, their clients compete at a higher level, and see the results in their top and bottom line.

AI, deep learning and new data architectures are re-writing what’s possible in the world of marketing, sales and analytics. This constant evolution lights Absolutdata’s passion and drives them to new innovations. The Absolutdata Decision Engineering Methodology™ is a proven, disciplined approach that changes the way companies leverage their data. This powerful philosophy has become part of the DNA at Absolutdata.

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A La Carte Foods, Inc. is a food manufacturer and food product designer located in Belle Rose, LA that serves local restaurants, national restaurant chains, national food catalog companies and national distributors with prepared foods. The company was started in 1987 and has steadily grown to employ over 50 employees that work in a new, state-of-the-art facility completed in 2001. Their facility is a USDA/FDA Facility that uses HACCP guidelines to meet the highest quality standards in food preparation.

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Alpha Baking Company, Inc. was established in 1979 with the acquisition of the Mary Ann Baking Company in Chicago. Founded in 1935, Mary Ann is best known for the ever-popular Chicago style poppy seed hot dog bun. In 1981, Alpha Baking purchased S. Rosen’s Baking Company, a Chicago staple and baker of Jewish hearth rye breads and variety rolls since 1909. Through the years, Alpha Baking has continued to grow with the acquisition of Kreamo Bakers in La Porte, Indiana in 1979, National Baking Company in Chicago, Illinois in 1997, Natural Ovens Bakery in Manitowoc, Wisconsin in 2007, and recently in 2016 with the addition of a new sweet good facility in Chicago, and a new baking facility in Grand Rapids, MI.

Alpha Baking Company, Inc. has a long history of donating product, money, and time to local charities, including food banks across the Midwest. Perhaps their most visible donation was the promotion they ran for its S. Rosen’s brand’s 100 year anniversary. For one week that summer, each fresh S. Rosen’s hot dog bun sold generated a ten cent donation to five food banks serving Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. This highly successful promotion resulted in a lump sum donation of over $120,000 to help feed the Midwest’s hungry.

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Brakebush Brothers Inc. is a family owned poultry processor established in 1925. We operate four production facilities in the USA. Our customers span multiple channels such as Independent and Chain restaurants, Grocerant/Deli, Industrial Ingredient, Non-Commercial etc. Brakebush produces over 300 Par-Fry and Fully Cooked chicken products. While our stock product offering is substantial, customization is also a large part of our product portfolio. Our customers are serviced via a robust Direct and Broker sales force across the USA and International. Product Quality, Food Safety, Breadth of Line and Customer Service has served as a strong platform for the growth of our business for almost 95 years!

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CAULIPOWER is a line of gluten-free, ready-to-use cauliflower-based products created to taste like conventional recipes and offering healthy alternatives that are convenient, nutrient-rich, lower in calories, sugar, and fat. Gail Becker, founder and CEO, left her 16-year career as President of Strategic Partnerships and Global Integration at Edelman, a leading global communications and marketing firm to pursue her passion.

CAULIPOWER was born on a Pinterest fail. As the mom of two boys with Celiac – an autoimmune disease leaving their bodies unable to process gluten – Gail tried desperately to find nutritious, gluten-free options that weren’t filled with fat, sugar, salt and calories. Frustrated, she turned to a like-minded community of healthy hackers and stumbled upon recipes for cauliflower crust pizza. Her creation tasted just fine, but looked awful, her kitchen was a disaster and she had spent 90 minutes she didn’t have making a pizza crust! She figured she probably wasn’t alone and, so, she left her job to create CAULIPOWER.

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Domtar makes products that people around the world rely on every day. They design, manufacture, market and distribute a wide variety of pulp, paper and personal care products from copy paper to baby diapers. Throughout their history, Domtar has relied on their agility to meet the demands of an evolving world. Today, their spirit of innovation drives deliberate improvement and their commitment to caring runs deep. They constantly find better ways to serve their customers, support their employees and strengthen their communities.

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FoodLogiQ® provides traceability, food safety compliance and supply chain transparency software solutions. They help restaurant operators, food retailers, consumer packaged goods companies and other food companies achieve end-to-end traceability, while supporting safe and high quality food products across the supply chain.

With FoodLogiQ’s platform, food companies can build an online supplier community, onboard suppliers all at once and stay on top of supplier audits and assessments. Manage quality incidents, report them directly to suppliers and recoup the costs of stock withdrawals. And with lot-level traceability, see exactly where your product is at all times, especially when it matters most during an investigation.

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Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery, Inc. is a premier producer of Jamaican style patties, sold in over 25,000 retail locations throughout North America. They exist to provide the taste of the Caribbean to the world. For over 30 years, Golden Krust has produced perfectly baked delicacies. Golden Krust patties are made using a traditional family recipe, quality ingredients and a pastry crust that is folded 20 times. In 2019, Golden Krust celebrated 30 years of taking the taste of the Carribean to the world.

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Labatt Food Service, headquartered in San Antonio, Texas is the tenth largest foodservice distributor in the nation, servicing food-away-from-home customers in five states.  The company is a third generation company whose antecedents date to 1910.  Since the early 1980s Labatt has grown from 20 employees with $8 million in sales to over 1700 employees with over $1.3 billion in sales. Their mission is to reduce the cost of distribution and grow their customer’s business by being “Home of the Best” in three dimensions—best in people; the best national brand product; and the best innovative services. 

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Lakeland Marketing provides superior representation to their partner manufacturers in an ever changing marketplace. Each of their offices is operated by a local owner, which fosters accountability, regional strength, relationships and results. Their organization is comprised of Management, Sales Representatives, Corporate Chefs, and Administrative / Customer Support staff and a Marketing + Advertising department. Their vision of regional foodservice sales is to build a firm foundation across all of their regions.

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Lee Kum Kee was established in 1888 when its founder Mr. Lee Kum Sheung invented oyster sauce in Nanshui, Zhuhai, Guangdong Province of China. With a glorious history of over a hundred years, Lee Kum Kee has become an international household name as well as a symbol of quality and trust.

Substantiating the core values of “Pragmatism”, “Integrity”, “Constant Entrepreneurship”, “Si Li Ji Ren” (Considering Others’ Interests), “Benefitting the Community” and “Sharing Fruits of Success” in every aspect of its business operations, Lee Kum Kee has transcended over three centuries. Lee Kum Kee's headquarters is located in Hong Kong, China, with other production bases in Xinhui and Huangpu, China; Los Angeles, the United States and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In particular, the largest production base in Xinhui occupies 1.33 million square metres of land.

With the mission of “Promoting Chinese Cuisines Worldwide”, Lee Kum Kee provides over 200 choices of sauces and condiments to over 100 countries and regions worldwide.

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Maple Hill Creamery is America’s original and fastest growing 100% grass-fed organic dairy brand. Maple Hill offers consumers a premium line of 100% grass-fed organic dairy products made exclusively with milk from a proprietary network of family farms and sold across the U.S. at leading grocery and online retailers.

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Materne North America, a wholly-owned subsidiary of MOM Group located in France, is a highly successful, fast-growing, and innovative company known for helping squeeZ goodness into the daily lives of kids across the US. In fact, you probably know them as GoGo squeeZ.

GoGo squeeZ is a leader in healthy, gluten free, made from 100% fruit. Since 2008, GoGo squeeZ has been making quality products for happier and healthier families. They’re proud to be the leading squeezable, re-closable, 100% fruit in a pouch. Their products are crafted with high-quality, nutritious ingredients to provide wholesome goodness for squeeZing, and with their convenient packaging design can be enjoyed wherever kids go. With over 20 varieties of fruit and veggieZ on-the-go, plus new GoGo squeeZ YogurtZ, they’re more than just Applesauce, we’re a healthy snack that’s empowering kids to BE.

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Founded in 1994, MDSI began as a contract manufacturer that specializing in producing custom products for national restaurant chains. From the beginning, MDSI emphasized quality and the unique ability to make products to the exact specifications of our customers. As the portfolio of customers and products grew, MDSI began to branch into several different product areas ranging from cutlery to gloves to bags and more. 

Today, MDSI is a thriving company that has more than 100 years of combined foodservice experience and an extensive product offering. Through continuous reinvestment, research, and expansion of capabilities, MDSI is positioned to be a great company for many years to come.

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Merisant was formed on March 20, 2000 to manufacture and market the world’s most popular tabletop sweeteners, Equal® and Canderel®, and over a dozen other products. With over 300 employees positioned globally – diverse, inspired and dedicated to continuing to expand the incredible successes of these well-respected and beloved brands.

In 2006, Whole Earth Sweetener Company LLC was born as a wholly owned subsidiary of Merisant Company. In 2007, the first all-natural sweetener brand, Sweet Simplicity® was launched followed by Pure Via® Stevia Zero Calorie Sweetener (2008) and Whole Earth Sweetener Co™ Sugars (2012).

From the start they have aimed to raise the bar through continued global expansion, by broadening their audience through new products, and improving productivity through technological advances. The launch of Merisant meant "sweet new beginnings" for these brands already enjoyed by millions of consumers worldwide.

Merisant is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, with offices around the world, including Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom, Martinez, Argentina, Mexico City, Mexico, Neuchâtel, Switzerland, North Ryde, Australia, Paris, France and Teplice, Czech Republic.

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Meristem Packaging Company, LLC is a certified minority-owned supplier of top-quality and innovative packaging solutions to the food and beverage and airline industries. Their vision is to be a leading packaging solutions provider utilizing a consultative approach focused on dynamic business partnerships, flexibility and exceptional customer service. They take pride in everything they do and consider each customer to be unique and each project deserving of innovative ideas, superb quality, superior customer service and competitive pricing. They strive to understand and enhance customer’s supply chain to deliver the best value proposition.

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Server Products Inc. saw its beginnings in the basement of an old flour mill in Menomonee Falls back in 1949. At that time Server saw that movie theater operators needed an easy and efficient way to melt and serve butter for their freshly popped popcorn. Server responded by designing the industry's first automatic butter warmer and dispenser. It succeeded in making hot buttered popcorn fast, easy, and profitable. The good word spread fast about this innovative product and its high standard of quality. Server quickly expanded its product line to meet the needs of its customers, never once abandoning the careful attention to quality that made that first butter dispenser successful.

Over the years Server has developed many innovative products for serving, dispensing, and merchandising a wide variety of food items. The revolutionary Server Express™ System opened a new era in the dispensing of condiments, sauces, and salad dressings. The company also designs, engineers, and fabricates hot topping dispensers, food and soup warmers, condiment dispensers, nacho cheese servers, butter warmers and more.

Their rapid growth has demanded many plant expansions over the years. And today, with over 120,000 square feet of operating space, they’re still growing.

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Originally from Michoacán, Mexico; Gilberto Villaseñor Sr. and Ignacio Villaseñor had the dream to go into business and serve the Mexican immigrant community of Chicago.  With only five hundred dollars that Gilberto Sr. had saved from various labors while boarding with Ignacio, they tried their hand at producing Mexican candies.

V&V Supremo® started with a single authentic Mexican-style cheese. Currently offerings include a full line of cheeses, dairy, and meat products servicing the retail, foodservice, and industrial communities.

Today the legacy continues with the second-generation. Gilberto Villaseñor II and Philip Villaseñor are the driving forces behind the company. They maintain the important legacy of core values, while introducing a steady stream of innovations through state-of-the-art technology, and progressive business practices. V&V Supremo®  is now one of the oldest continuously family-owned businesses of its kind in the United States, and they proudly carry-on with that tradition. V&V Supremo® continues to preserve and share delicious traditions of the Mexican American Kitchen as well as cuisines of the world, one dish at a time.

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Welcome Dairy is known and respected the world over for a line of process cheese products unsurpassed for flavor, variety and value. This is evident in their World, United States and Wisconsin State Cheese Contest Championship awards. Highly trained personnel compliment the family's strong background in cheese. For over 100 years, hard work, care and commitment to service have been a part of every product they make.