Innovative Food Holdings, Inc., Naples, Fla., acquired Organic Food Brokers, LLC (OFB), a Boulder, Colo.-based company focusing on launching and growing retail sales for small and emerging organic and specialty food brands nationwide.

Organic Food Brokers has been instrumental in the launch and nationwide growth of many 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 food retailers across the United States.

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, existing and potential OFB clients with retail products. In addition, foodservice-oriented offerings within the company's core foodservice markets will have the potential to efficiently cross over to retail shelves.

OFB will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Innovative Food Holdings.

"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,” says Sam Klepfish, chief executive officer of Innovative Food Holdings. “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."

"We have been seeing continued convergence between retail and foodservice products in the rapidly changing specialty food distribution market,” says Justin Wiernasz, president of Innovative Food Holdings. “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."