Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Local Eating Requires Local Distribution

Eric Hahn recognized a need: local distribution for local foods.

Hahn was a sales representative for a national food distributor working in Northern Michigan, a major cherry growing area. The cherries he delivered to his restaurant and grocery customers were shipped from Washington state, and the chefs and store managers he worked with kept asking for local cherries.

"One of them one day said, 'Run down to Friskes and bring me back a box of cherries. I don't have time to do it.' So I did and sent him an invoice. That was the start of it all."

Hahn tried to work within his company to serve the need and found their distribution system wasn't flexible enough to make sourcing local foods efficient. So he quit his job, traded his Volvo for a van, and invested $5000 in a new venture: disstributing local foods to local restaurants and groceries. This year his revenues his $250,000.

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