Innovative Food Holdings Launches Retail-Focused Specialty and Organic Food Offering, Acquires Organic Food Brokers, LLC

BONITA SPRINGS, Fla., Oct. 1, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Innovative Food Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: IVFH), a leading nationwide provider of specialty foods, gourmet specialty meals, gluten free foods, and direct from source artisanal foods, today announced it has launched a retail channel offering for new and emerging food brands via the acquisition of Organic Food Brokers, LLC (OFB), a Boulder, Colorado-based company. Organic Food Brokers focuses on launching and growing retail sales for small and emerging organic and specialty food brands nationwide.

Organic Food Brokers works closely with emerging food brands to develop and execute sales, marketing and distribution plans via its nationwide network of retail-related food broker relationships while providing emerging food brands distribution and shelf placement access in all of the major metro markets in the food retail industry. Organic Food Brokers has been instrumental in the launch and nationwide growth of many highly recognizable specialty food brands over the past several years. As a result, the company has established a nationwide network of retail decision makers and buyers representing key retail shelf space for thousands of supermarkets and other food retailers across the United States. OFB's success and capabilities can offer clients a distinct competitive advantage over the thousands of other products that seek to enter the food retail market each year.

Innovative Food Holdings plans to leverage synergies related to its specialty and artisanal food capabilities to further accelerate the growth and conversion rate of OFB's pipeline. Expected synergies include the ability to offer nationwide foodservice distribution opportunities for new and select existing and potential OFB clients with retail products, which can potentially crossover and succeed in the foodservice space. In addition, foodservice oriented offerings within the Company's core foodservice markets will have the potential to successfully and efficiently cross over to retail shelves.

The acquisition purchase price includes cash consideration of $100,000, a performance based earn out of up to $225,000, seller financing in the form of a $200,000 note, convertible at $1.54 per share and options to purchase 100,000 shares of Innovative Food Holdings at $1.46 per share. OFB generates revenue through monthly recurring revenues as well as through earning a percentage of future sales of client company products. Organic Food Brokers, generated approximately $550,000 of unaudited revenues in 2013 and is expected to be immediately accretive to earnings. OFB will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Innovative Food Holdings.

Sam Klepfish, CEO of Innovative Food Holdings, commented, "Innovative Food Holdings continues to pursue opportunities to leverage our unique position in the specialty food space to grow synergistic opportunities and to enter into new complimentary specialty food markets, utilizing a low capex model. We are excited about the opening of this new and potentially promising market area for Innovative Food Holdings, and we look forward to being able to take advantage of the numerous growth opportunities and synergies available in the retail space."

Justin Wiernasz, President of Innovative Food Holdings, noted, "We have been seeing continued convergence between retail and foodservice products in the rapidly changing specialty food distribution market. We are particularly enthusiastic about this acquisition as we believe it uniquely positions Innovative Food Holdings to offer unique, highly synergistic capabilities and relationships in both the rapidly growing specialty foodservice and specialty food retail area." 

About Organic Food Brokers

Organic Food Brokers focuses on launching and growing nationwide and retail sales for small and emerging organic and specialty food brands. Organic Food Brokers works closely with emerging food brands to develop and execute sales, marketing and distribution plans via its nationwide network of retail - related food broker relationships and provides emerging food brands assistance with distribution and shelf opportunities in all of the major metro markets in the retail industry. OFB's capabilities can offer clients a distinct competitive advantage over the thousands of other products seeking to enter the retail market each year. Learn more at www.organicfoodbrokers.com.

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, freshly prepared gourmet specialty meals, 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's wholly owned subsidiary, 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.

In addition, Innovative Food Holdings' wholly owned subsidiary, For The Gourmet, Inc. offers the finest ingredients and specialty food via its website www.forthegourmet.com and also offers a comprehensive white label perishable and nonperishable specialty food platform for e-commerce retailers and other retailers seeking to offer the nationwide, efficient, seamless, transparent and cost effective availability of direct from source, specialty and artisanal products, directly to consumers.

Forward-Looking Statements
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.

SOURCE Innovative Food Holdings, Inc.