About Us

Independent Marketing Alliance (IMA) is founded with Reinhart Foodservice and Shamrock Foods as founding members and Bob Planck as President.

The EXCLUSIVE BRANDS are created with Bountiful Harvest and Hidden Bay as the first brands.

Allen Foods, IJ Company, and Conco Food Service join IMA, culminating in 17 distribution centers across the U.S. The Merchandising Conference is established.

Villa Frizzoni and Culinary Secrets brands are launched.

Maines Paper & Food Service, Inc., joins IMA, adding a greater footprint to the broadline membership with representation in the Northeastern U.S. IMA launches its first Top to Top annual conference, a model industry forum for members and suppliers.

Nicholas and Company joins the IMA membership, adding additional broadline distributor presence in the Southwestern U.S.

The Rejuv brand is launched.

The EXCLUSIVE BRANDS portfolio continues growing with the launch of Brickfire Bakery.

IMA’s Quality Assurance (QA) Department is created to build one of the industry’s strongest programs, ensuring the delivery of a high quality, safe, and consistent EXCLUSIVE BRAND portfolio to its members and customers.

The Katy’s Kitchen brand is launched.

Two more brands are added to the EXCLUSIVE BRANDS portfolio, Prairie Creek and Pierport Seafood.

The CAN program launches to compete with group purchasing organizations (GPOs), allowing for additional shared leverage and collective buying power across the membership.

Suppliers begin publishing to IMA through GDSN.

Merchants Foodservice joins IMA, adding presence to the Southeastern U.S.

Prairie Creek and Pierport Seafood get repositioned with new logos.

NEW PRESIDENT, NEW BRANDS, NEW TIERING STRUCTURE

Rob Mould joins the company as President and CEO.

Riverhill Poultry, Vista Verde, and Fair Meadow are launched.

Culinary Secrets gets repositioned with a new logo.

IMA launches a tiering strategy to use across all brands.

NEW LOGO & MISSION

IMA’s logo and mission get rebranded.

Hidden Bay and Katy’s Kitchen brands get refreshed.

IMA’s Asset Management System is launched and utilized by members and suppliers.

IMA moves to a new office equipped with a state-of-the-art commercial kitchen.

IMA’s deli portfolio and EXCLUSIVE BRAND, Cobblestreet MKT.^®, is optimized and repositioned for market relevancy.

Y. Hata & Co. and Harbor Foodservice join IMA to round out broadline presence in the Northwestern U.S. and Hawaii. Rejuv^®, IMA’s beverage solutions EXCLUSIVE BRAND, goes through a repositioning for market optimization.

The Merchandising Conference is rebranded to Accelerate.

The Merchandising Portal is created to provide customized E-Brand merchandise, apparel, and event signage.

IMA launches IMPACT Responsibly Sourced Goods™ to communicate sustainable business practices across its entire EXCLUSIVE BRANDS portfolio. Brickfire Bakery®, IMA’s baked goods and premium desserts EXCLUSIVE BRAND, is repositioned and launched for market optimization.

IMA hosts its first Virtual Accelerate Merchandising Conference, a digital experience allowing for national participation across the entire membership and supplier community.

IMA’s Top to Top conference proves that the alliance will continue to build on its 20-year track record of expanding market share with supply chain excellence and enhanced sales training and enablement; PFG joins the IMA membership, furthering national presence with more than 100 distributor locations nationwide.

Bountiful Harvest and Villa Frizzoni brands are repositioned with refreshed logos.

IMA begins hosting training summits in Houston, giving members’ sales teams hands-on learning opportunities.

IMA begins to publish E-Brand SKU data to members’ GS1.

Top to Top conference is rebranded as IMAgine.

Vista Verde is repositioned from a Mexican-focused brand to a broader Latin brand designed to meet growing market demand.

Pierport and Prairie Creek brands are repositioned with a refreshed look and stronger positioning statement.

The 25th Anniversary of the Alliance marks a renewed commitment to partnership and forward vision. A new showcase video celebrates the dynamic collaboration at the heart of IMA’s tangible value creation. A modern reimagining of our website represents not only what we have built together, but where we’re going.