Rockville, MD – Avendra, the hospitality industry’s leading procurement services provider, is proud to recognize 45 suppliers for outstanding performance on its 2014 Meet the Truck audits.

Meet the Truck audits are one of the unique ways Avendra helps ensure that food and beverage deliveries made by contracted suppliers meet a wide range of Avendra requirements. The process involves an Avendra Quality Assurance professional coordinating a site visit at a customer location on a day they are expecting multiple supplier deliveries. Suppliers are not informed of the planned audit. At the time of delivery, Avendra rates suppliers on their order fulfillment, trailer, load, product integrity and overall performance. All criteria are equally weighted, and suppliers that do not receive a perfect score are provided feedback to help ensure their continued improvement.

“Meet the Truck audits are just one element of Avendra’s comprehensive quality assurance strategy,” said Ed Thompson, vice president of Quality Assurance for Avendra. “We have multiple check points set up throughout the product lifecycle process – at manufacturing plants, at distribution centers – and through the Meet the Truck program we provide an extra level of oversight at the customer’s loading dock. The goal of the program is to add another level of oversight to our supply chain, which will help ensure customers get what they ordered, at the quality level and in the timeframe they expect.”

In 2014 Avendra’s Quality Assurance team conducted 1,002 Meet the Truck audits at 335 customer locations.  These audits were in addition to the 586 supplier audits overseen at Avendra manufacturers’ and distributors’ facilities.

To receive a Meet the Truck Award from Avendra, suppliers must participate in four or more Meet the Truck audits in a 12-month period and receive an average score of at least 95%. Of the 800 suppliers with which Avendra contracts, 45 were eligible for the award. Avendra suppliers are considered among the best in the industry illustrated by the fact that 201 of the eligible suppliers received scores of 90% or better. The 45 suppliers listed below are the very top performers, with average scores above 95%.

“Suppliers honored with this award exceeded our stringent expectations and we commend them for their superior and consistent service to our customers,” said Thompson.

Avendra’s Meet the Truck Award winners for 2014 include:

Ben E. Keith – Fort Worth, TX
Cambridge Packing Company – Boston, MA
Charlie’s Produce – Seattle, WA
Chefs Warehouse (Maryland / DC) – Hanover, MD
Chefs Warehouse (No. California) – Hayward, CA
Chef’s Warehouse (NY) – Bronx, NY
Cloverland Dairy – Baltimore, MD
Del Monte Meats (San Francisco) – Brisbane, CA
European Imports – Chicago, IL
Freshpoint (Central Florida) -Orlando, FL
FreshPoint (Denver) – Denver, CO
FreshPoint (West Coast Florida) -Tampa, FL
Garelick Farms – Lynn, MA
Gordon Food Service (DC) – Springfield, OH
Gordon Food Service (Mid West) -Grand Rapids, MI
Gotham Seafood Corp. – Manhattan, NY
Gourmet Express – South San Francisco, CA
Green Tree Packing/Tailfin – Passaic, NJ
Halperns’ Steak and Gary’s Seafood – Orlando, FL
Halperns’ Steak and Seafood Company – Lauderdale Lakes, FL
Halperns’ Steak and Seafood Company – Atlanta, GA
Halperns’ Steak Mid-Atlantic – Baltimore, MD
Hardie’s Fruit & Vegetable – Houston, TX
K & M Meat Company Inc. – Vernon, CA
LA Specialty (Las Vegas) – Arden, NV
LA Specialty Produce – Santa Fe Springs, CA
LaRonga Bakery  – East Somerville, MA
Lusamerica Foods, Inc. – Morgan Hill, CA
Martin Preferred Foods – Houston, TX
North Star Seafood Inc. – Pompano Beach, FL
Northern Haserot – Cleveland, OH
Northern Illinois Milk – Franklin Park, IL
ProFish – Washington, DC
Santa Monica Seafood – Rancho Dominguez, CA
Shamrock – Phoenix, AZ
Soft Stuff Distributors, Inc. – Jessup, MD
TJ Seafood, LLC. (dba Ports Seafood) – San Francisco, CA
US Foods – Las Vegas, NV (DC)  – North Las Vegas, NV
US Foods – Los Angeles, CA (DC) – La Mirada, CA
US Foods – Philadelphia, PA (DC) – Bridgeport, NJ
US Foods – Port Orange – Port Orange, FL
US Foods – Tampa, FL (DC) – Tampa, FL
Velda Farms – Winter Haven – Winter Haven, FL
Wabash Seafood Co. – Chicago, IL
Y. Hata & Co. – Honolulu, HI

About Avendra

Formed in 2001, Avendra is North America’s leading procurement services provider serving the hospitality and lodging industries. Avendra wields nearly $4 billion of purchasing power to negotiate the best possible deals with key suppliers and provides customers with a safe, cost-effective supply chain.  More than 5,500 hospitality businesses rely on Avendra’s procurement solutions to help meet their strategic business initiatives. For more information, please call (866) AVENDRA, visit www.avendra.com, or email inquiries to info@avendra.com.