$IVFH PR: Innovative Food Holdings, Inc. Announces Recap of First 100 Days of CEO Bill Bennett Company plans to begin quarterly earnings calls in August; long-term strategy to be outlined later this year
BONITA SPRINGS, Fla., July 11, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Innovative Food Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: IVFH) (“IVFH” or the “Company”), a national seller of gourmet specialty foods to Professional Chefs and Home Gourmets, today announced the completion of CEO Bill Bennett’s first 100 days with the Company, and shared a recap of the accelerated pace of change he has initiated so far. This includes progress on several of the initiatives outlined in his recent shareholder letter, such as the Company’s cash flow management, financing structure, and e-commerce strategy.
Under Mr. Bennett’s leadership over the last 100 days, IVFH has refreshed its board of directors, elected a new chairman, hired a new outside general counsel (Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP), onboarded new auditors (Assurance Dimensions), updated and expanded the Company’s corporate governance documents and board committee charters, made significant business process changes to improve margins, refinanced the Company’s outstanding short term loans with significant maturity extensions, increased the borrowing capacity of the Company, hired a new COO (Brady Smallwood), and finalized a budget and incentive program for 2023 focused on prudent growth and profitability.
In addition, the Company has made important progress on the evolution of its e-commerce strategy. As stated in Mr. Bennett’s April 2023 letter to shareholders, the Company is focusing on improving customer retention and lifetime value by examining each step of the end-to-end customer journey, identifying areas of fallout, and testing aggressively. Such efforts have included 1) iGourmet’s recent launch of its first ever loyalty program and 2) its new gourmet meat offering “Butcher Counter by iGourmet”, with a focus on creating new customer purchase occasions.
Lastly, Mr. Bennett has implemented a Company-wide re-organization dubbed “One IVFH” to put the customer at the center of the Company. With three distinct business units (Professional Chef, Home Gourmet, and Brand Services), this new structure is intended to (1) unlock growth, (2) establish clear accountabilities, and (3) enable faster innovation.
“I have focused my first 100 days on getting the right leaders in the right roles and on setting the Company on a path to driving shareholder value,” stated Bill Bennett, CEO of IVFH. “I have been incredibly impressed by the team we have here at IVFH. They are passionate and committed and are jumping into their new roles with vigor. As I stated in my first annual shareholder letter, we remain on track to publicly discuss our longer-term strategy later this year.”
Mr. Bennett continued, “I’ve also enjoyed my conversations with many investors who have reached out to welcome me to the Company and wish me well. I look forward to continued dialog and transparent communication with our shareholders. In fact, I’m excited to announce that starting with our Q2 earnings release in August, we plan to initiate quarterly earnings calls with investors. Further details on the call timing and logistics will be the subject of a future press release.”
