Legacy Foodservice Alliance, the newest addition to the foodservice distribution landscape, is a distributor group formed by industry veterans who promise to break with the past and leave behind practices that have not contributed to growth for distributors and their supplier partners.

Led by distributor veteran Stephen Push, formerly of Progressive Group Alliance, Legacy Foodservice Alliance will focus on quality versus quantity in its relationships with distributor and supplier members.

“As groups grow in membership numbers, it’s difficult to retain the personal touch which has made this industry successful for more than 50 years,” Push says. “It’s our mission to run the company in a transparent way—using simple, understandable agreements and a business

model which everyone can rally around.”

The first wave of Charter Distributor Members who have committed to this group include: Cedar Farms Co. Inc. of Philadelphia; Colony Foods of Lawrence, Massachusetts; Maple Leaf Foods of Buffalo, New York; Thomsen Foodservice of East Providence, Rhode Island; Todd Distributors Inc. of Laurens, South Carolina; Van Bennett Food Co. Inc. of Reading, Pennsylvania; and William George Co. Inc. of Lufkin, Texas.

Heading up the supply chain effort is Donald Hughes, executive vice president of merchandising. Hughes shares the philosophy of transparency and simplicity. “We’re here to focus on building businesses, not just group purchases,” he says. “Treating all distributor and supplier members like customers is essential to our thinking and is a basic tenet in our business model.”

The group plans to focus on effective communication strategies to create an engaged member and supplier base. “Intimacy is a key strategy for us,” says Push. “Meetings and events will be structured to facilitate that type of environment.”