VERTICALFOCUS
Few products go bad quicker than milk. Yet many dairy supply chains are stuck in an analog, pen-and-paper legacy universe. One company, Milk Moovement, is working to change that, with cloud-based software that uses data to speed perishable deliveries. Introduced in 2018, Milk Moovement helps dairy farmers and distribution partners track and route shipments in real time and access information about the quantity and quality of the milk being shipped. The company recently raised $20 million in a Series A round to boost product development and help market the technology platform throughout North America. Milk Moovement will use the funds to expand its engineering team in order to segment its site for different departments, such as logistics and transportation, processing, and payments. The company, which currently employs 55 people across Canada and the United States, plans to grow to 75 or 80 employees by the end of 2022. Dairy cooperatives were the rst users of the software, but in recent years, the company has moved into other industry areas, including dairy farmers and truckers. The software helps perishables producers by providing “frictionless access” to data, according to Robert Forsythe, CEO of Milk Moovement. “We don’t create new data—the data’s out there,” he says. “It’s about getting it in their hands faster so that they can make improvements.” KEEPING MILK MOOVING
A FRESH START The fresh meal market seems to be one bright spot in an otherwise challenging business climate. Investors have placed their bets on FreshRealm, a provider of fresh meals for retailers nationwide, to the tune of a $200 million capital raise. The market, valued at $30 billion, remains strong as busy consumers continue to look for fresh and convenient prepared meals. FreshRealm says it is the only provider with a national platform for simple delivery of fresh, ready-to-cook, ready-to-heat and low-prep meal kits. The company supplies about 10,000 retail locations and more than one million direct-to-consumer customers, it says. The company will use this latest capital infusion—on top of the $32 million raised in 2021—to: • Expand operational facilities nationwide to address growing retailer demand for fresh meals. • Deliver more than 400 million meals to consumers nationwide. • Expand production to service additional retail channels, including convenience and club stores. • Access culinary expertise and proprietary consumer data to boost sophistication and customization in meal development for retail customers and end consumers. • Improve equipment, facility technology, and production capacity to increase eciency within its horizontally integrated operations model. • Bolster supply chain security. • Create new technology solutions to manage scale and complexity of meals and ingredients across its customer base and channels. “As the retail fresh meals category continues to demonstrate compelling growth, this funding allows FreshRealm to bolster our existing end-to- end platform that supports elevated private label and branded meal assortments and fresh meal destinations,” says Michael Lippold, founder and CEO.
AN EGG-CELLENT PARTNERSHIP Happy Egg Co. is about to make more customers happy. Its free- range eggs will now be available in Florida, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, thanks to a new partnership with Fresh Del Monte and Trinity Logistics, to supply and fulfill its orders across the United States. With temperature-controlled warehouses throughout the country and a large truck fleet, Fresh Del Monte provides perishables shippers like Happy Egg with drayage, refrigerated warehouse services, refrigerated LTL distribution, last-mile delivery, cross-dock, ripening services, and truckload brokerage services. A partnership with Trinity Logistics enhances its time-sensitive freight delivery capabilities. “We’re always looking for ways to work with other companies and help them utilize our vast logistics network to provide high-quality products to the end consumer,” says Mohammed Abbas, Fresh Del Monte’s chief operating ocer. Fresh Del Monte also owns Network Shipping, a global third-party shipping network, and Tricont Trucking and Tricont Logistics.
August 2022 • Inbound Logistics 13
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