Fresh Concepts board member John Davie announced the purchase of the Murrieta, California-based produce management company. Davie is owner of multiple other purchasing related companies in the foodservice industry, which help local restaurants as well as mid-size chains gain access to buying power by leveraging members’ purchasing volume.

Davie and his family of companies have been working with Fresh Concepts for over two years. Fresh Concepts was chosen as the preferred produce management company because of its distributor neutral position and industry leading food safety program. “I interviewed every management company in this space and Fresh Concepts was head and shoulders above the pack,” Davie says.

"Fresh Concepts shares all of the qualities that make our other companies so successful: Their people are talented and dedicated, their technology is highly sophisticated, and their strategic partnerships are among the best in the industry," says Davie, the founder and president of Dining Alliance. "This acquisition offers Dining Alliance the opportunity to diversify our offering to our members and drives us further toward our mission of providing food service operators access to contracts that offer the safest, highest quality products at the most competitive prices available."

Fresh Concepts, led by president David Liesenfelt, tracks produce throughout every stage of its lifecycle: from the grower, to the shipper, to the distributor and then to the operator in a transparent way, giving visibility of the produce chain to their clients. Liesenfelt will stay on the board and will continue to lead the company whose clients cover almost every segment of the restaurant industry. Tom Bachar, Fresh Concepts' vice president of sales, also will stay with the company. Additionally, the office and staff will all remain in Murrieta.

“This marks an exciting time for my company as we will continue our exponential growth by utilizing the resources of Mr. Davies existing companies. Our clients can expect the same or better high level of service and contracts that we have been offering for over 20 years. We are a 20-year-old company that has long standing amazing clients, and we plan to continue to increase the value of our service and contracts over the next 20 years.”

“We are very excited about the deal,” Liesenfelt adds. “We have a great working relationship with John and the things we love and appreciate about Fresh Concepts, he does as well.  It was very important to Tom Bachar and me that any ownership change came with no changes to the business in terms of our team, culture, and mission. Having John take ownership after being on our board for two years was a very natural transition.”