AGAR News
Dining Alliance Signs 3 Year Contract With AGAR Supply CO, Inc.
BOSTON, MA—July 14, 2008 - Dining Alliance, a marketing and purchasing group for local, independent restaurants recently announced that AGAR Supply Co, Inc., based in Taunton, MA, is the winner of a competitive bid to be Dining Alliance’s approved broad-line food distributor for the Boston area. The Dining Alliance Boston Board of Advisors evaluated and voted on presentations from AGAR, Performance Food Group (PFG), SYSCO, and US Foodservice.
“It was AGAR’s aggressive cost plus pricing and broad selection of products,
everything from Asian items to Greek specialty products to upscale specialty
items that made them the correct choice for the Boston members”, said John
Davie, president of Dining Alliance.
With this agreement, AGAR will provide a full line of food products to Dining Alliance’s 180 member locations in the Boston area. “We are very excited about this contract with AGAR,” said Steve DiFillipo, member and owner of the Davio’s and Avila. “We feel that AGAR will offer huge savings, improved quality, and better service to our members here in Boston. We recognize that during tough economic times, it is important for restaurants to reduce raw material costs. We have already seen that this new contract is saving many of our members over 10 percent”
AGAR, the largest independent food service distributor in New England,
feels that this agreement will further its strong position with the independent
restaurants in the Boston area. Karen Bressler, Chief Executive Officer of AGAR
met directly with the Dining Alliance Board of Advisors to review the contract
proposal. After learning that AGAR was the distributor chosen by the Board, she
said, “I am proud that as a local company, we earned the contract with the
Dining Alliance to support our local independent restaurants. We understand the
challenges faced by independent restaurants today and we are committed to their
success. We will achieve
that through customer education, great service, national brand quality products
and aggressive pricing”
The DA Boston Board of Advisors met and voted on June 17, 2008. The Board
of Advisors consists of well respected and seasoned restaurant owners and chef’s
in the Boston area: Paul Wilson of the Glynn Hospitality Group, Steve DiFillippo
of Davio’s, John Schall of Fire & Ice (Cambridge), Rafael Soto of Four’s
Restaurant Quincy, Joe Quattrocchi of Vox Populi, Peter Sarmanian of Classic
Restaurant Concepts, Greg McDonald of Common Market Restaurants, Patrick Lee of
Grafton Street Group, Tom Devlin of the Superior Restaurant Group.
“Dining Alliance Boston members purchase over $50 million in food and supplies,”
stated Davie. This after only eight months makes us one of the largest food
purchasers in New England. Our independent and regional chain members will save
millions and millions per year by working
together the way we are.”
Dining Alliance (www.diningalliance.com) which was formed in 1998 is a marketing and purchasing group for local, independent restaurants and multi-unit restaurants. They have over 1600 members with combined purchases of over $300 million. Members save on their food costs, disposables, linen, credit card processing, insurance among other things. Dining Alliance members enjoy the benefits of best volume-pricing, operational support, and joint marketing programs.
For more information on the Dining Alliance, go to www.diningalliance.com or call
585-671-0650.
About AGAR:
Agar Supply Co, Inc., based in Taunton, Massachusetts is New England’s largest
independent food distributor and the thirteenth largest in the United States.
AGAR offers a wide range of solutions for the food service industry. The company
is New England’s premier supplier of meats, poultry, seafood and grocery items
as well as dairy products, non-perishables, non food items, janitorial supplies
and small wares.
AGAR was founded in 1940 as a Boston meat distributor, supplying meats to the Chinese community and saw significant growth under the direction of Alan Bressler in later years. And while the company still maintains its roots as a leader in providing “Center of the Plate” solutions and expertise to a wide range of food establishments and retailers AGAR has seen tremendous growth by offering other non-food items for independent restaurants. AGAR continues to serve the New England foodservice industry under the third-generation leadership of Karen Bressler. AGAR also is the second largest women-led businesses in Massachusetts, ranked by revenue.
Contact AGAR at 800-669-6040 or
http://www.agarsupply.com/
"AGAR quality is top notch! The drivers are courteous and always helpful putting items away. Pricing is always fair. Salesmen are willing to get info on any product we may have questions about or they will get a product for you if you request it. If problems do arise they are corrected quickly. Overall a great company to deal with from owners to drivers!"
- Steve Woodman,
Woodman's of Essex
AGAR Supply is the largest independent food service supply distributor in the New England region serving Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut and Maine retail grocery and restaurant businesses. Call us for all your wholesale food service and food distribution needs including wholesale beef, pork and frozen seafood.