ArrowStream, Chicago, acquired the American Restaurant Association (ARA), Washington, D.C.

“Foodservice organizations are constantly seeking ways to accelerate sales growth while lowering product and operational costs,” says Jeff Dorr, chief customer officer at ArrowStream. “At ArrowStream, we listen closely to our clients, and recently, we’ve heard a lot about challenges finding quality suppliers, getting accurate product information and improving sourcing. Through ARA, we’re gaining a tremendous group of industry thought leaders and technology to address these needs and serve our customers in new ways.”

ArrowStream’s ARA acquisition brings more than 200 new customers and extensive new product capabilities to its suite of data and technology offerings. New solutions include commodity price data, analysis and forecasting solutions and ChainBrain, a collaborative sourcing platform that allows customers to search and connect with potential suppliers and electronically manage RFPs.   

“Our goal is to create tools that improve collaboration across the supply chain,” says David Maloni, president of ARA. “By combining ArrowStream’s supply chain data and business intelligence technology with ARA’s market intelligence and sourcing tools, we’ll infuse data into the process and consolidate critical product information, including quality and service reviews, ultimately enabling customers to easily connect with best value-added suppliers and making the sourcing process more streamlined and transparent to all parties.”

Following completion of the acquisition, ArrowStream will offer an integrated set of solutions for managing daily supply chain operations and sourcing. Current ArrowStream capabilities include cleansing and synchronizing supply chain data feeds, analyzing product spend levels, monitoring inventory, logging product quality incidents and identifying pricing issues. With ARA, ArrowStream will expand to offer a new suite of sourcing tools that includes:

• Access to market price data on major commodities
• Expert analysis on commodity pricing trends
• A web-based foodservice supplier database containing information on more than 3,000 companies
• A foodservice-tailored, web-based RFP management solution 

“The combination of ArrowStream and ARA will benefit operators, distributors, manufacturers and other key stakeholders in the foodservice supply chain,” says Dave Muscatel, chief executive officer of ArrowStream. “ARA’s capabilities align perfectly with ArrowStream’s vision to create a true foodservice information hub. We envision a single technology platform that seamlessly links product information with dynamic market intelligence, distribution channels, food quality reports and supplier-buyer collaboration tools. To that end, this partnership reflects our true passion for developing innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of the foodservice industry.”

David Maloni, executive vice president of analytics, and the rest of the ARA team will join ArrowStream.