Fresca Foods began its journey as Pasta Fresca over 20 years ago when it opened the doors to its first retail location in 1993. By 1997, the company had moved its operations to a 6,000 square-foot manufacturing space near Boulder, Colo. At the time the company was focused on providing quality food service products to restaurants and retail outlets in the Boulder region, but the business was about to change.
In 2003, after a leadership transition, the company saw an opportunity to provide value-added services to established but growing food companies in the all-natural foods market. It retooled its business model to focus on contract manufacturing, carving out a unique business model that has served the company well. Since that time, Fresca Foods has seen year-over-year growth of 45 percent, shipping millions of cases of product per year.
“It’s been a wild ride,” says Liz Myslik, Executive Vice President of Brand Management for Fresca Foods.
Plant within a Plant
Fresca Foods now provides contract manufacturing and fully integrated supply chain services to 11 contract partners. The company operates out of 250,000 square feet of space, spanning two processing facilities and two warehouses in Louisville, Colo., just outside Boulder. The company likens its space to an “Olympic training center,” where each customer’s product is processed, packaged and distributed according to contract specifications.