Phoenix, Arizona, USA-headquartered Inventure Foods, Inc. has announced plans to purchase two state-of-the-art IQF freezing tunnels for approximately $3.9 million. They will be installed during the second quarter 2014, prior to the harvest season, at the company’s berry processing plants in Lynden, Washington, and Salem, Oregon.
“We continue to look for opportunities to meet growing demand for our frozen fruit products, while also improving margins in the frozen fruit segment by increasing internal freezing capabilities,” said Terry McDaniel, chief executive officer.
“This intended investment is our latest move in that operational strategy,” he continued. “When the equipment is coupled with the freezing assets we acquired this year at Willamette Valley Fruit Company (WVFC) and Fresh Frozen Foods, we will have made significant progress toward meeting our frozen fruit processing requirements internally.”
WVFC is regarded as one of the US Pacific Northwest’s leading packers of high-quality berry products. Each summer it processes an average of 13 million pounds of fruit, including strawberries, raspberries, boysenberries, blueberries, cranberries and a variety of blackberries including a local favorite, marionberries.
Inventure Foods, which has manufacturing facilities in Arizona, Indiana and Georgia as well as Washington and Oregon, markets a wide variety of specialty food brands in the “better-for-you” and indulgent categories. They are sold under a number of company-owned and licensed brand names, including Rader Farms, Jamba, Fresh Frozen, T.G.I. Friday’s, Nathan’s Famous, Vidalia Brands, Poore Brothers, and Tato Skins.
