GrubMarket expands with West Coast acquisition

GrubMarket completed the acquisition of Vernon, CA-based JC Produce, a fresh produce company that sources fruits and vegetables globally, with a focus on South America and Asia. JC Produce sells to hundreds of retail, foodservice and wholesale customers across the U.S. and has a strong reputation as a leader in food-safety practices.

Founded 10 years ago, JC Produce is still run by original owner Jacky Chan, who is a 17-year veteran of the fresh produce space. Today, JC Produce is a full-service food distribution and wholesale business with warehouse facilities covering nearly 40,000 square feet in space. Though it sells over 30 SKUs, including exotic fruits like cherries, lychees, longan and dragonfruit, JC Produce is predominantly known as a top purveyor of ginger and garlic. JC Produce aims to maintain the highest food safety standards, having received PrimusGFS certification with a near-perfect audit score of 99 percent. After the acquisition, the business will continue to be managed by its current experienced and mission-driven leadership team.

"When I started JC Produce a decade ago, I wanted to build a lasting company that I could nurture and grow, and I worked hard to build it into a respected and high-performing business," said Chan. "We are excited to join the GrubMarket team, because our teams share the same underlying values, and we are similarly passionate about providing exceptional service to our customers. We are also eager to tap into a best-in-class grower network, and to leverage GrubMarket's unique and superior eCommerce and technology-enabled software platform, to bring more high-quality fresh produce to more customers across the country."

"JC Produce is a well-known fresh produce provider that sources from hundreds of suppliers across numerous regions globally, including South America and Asia. Jacky has nearly two decades of experience in the fresh produce industry and has done a fantastic job scaling the company," said Mike Xu, CEO of GrubMarket. "Under his management, JC Produce has more than doubled its revenue over the past few years. In addition, the company has an exceptional track record in food safety, having achieved a top percentile score from the most reputable food safety certifier in the industry. This acquisition enables GrubMarket to further strengthen our presence on the West Coast as well as our sourcing power worldwide. We are thrilled to welcome the JC Produce team to the GrubMarket family."

As a part of GrubMarket's portfolio, JC Produce will now utilize GrubMarket's innovative and proprietary WholesaleWare software suite, the company's software-as-a-service platform that provides food industry wholesalers and distributors with seamless financial management, powerful sales and online ordering features, precise inventory management, lot traceability, grower accounting, and automated routing and logistics, as well as Orders IO, GrubMarket's custom branded mobile eCommerce solution.