Nutrition, Inc. dba The Nutrition Group, Whitsons Culinary Group, Next Generation Vending & Food Service, Inc., Unidine Corp.

22 Nutrition, Inc. dba The Nutrition Group

WEST NEWTON, PA
www.thenutritiongroup.biz

Nutrition, Inc., is one of four divisions that make up The Nutrition Group, which offers clients an integrated package of food, custodial/maintenance, vending, dining facility design and consulting services. It serves some 300,000 meals each day, some 54 million a year.

Nutrition was a major emphasis in the past year, when the unit introduced its iNutrition program, which is designed to inform students about wise menu choices through signage and displays in cafeterias. Also new is a Quality Assurance Committee that will have the company's corporate chefs visiting sites to offer nutrition education, conduct cooking demonstrations, promote the company's program and offer taste testing of new culinary concepts.

There are also colorful new menus that incorporate dietary tips in separate age-appropriate formats for primary and secondary school customers.

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23 Whitsons Culinary Group

HUNTINGTON STATION, NY
www.whitsons.com

Whitsons emphasized sustainability and economic choices for customers over the past year. Its recently launched “Local Flavors…fresh from farm to fork” program brings more locally produced products to the company's kitchens. It also introduced several value meal concepts — Budget Bowls (petit-portioned meals for $3.99), Target 5 (complete meal with beverage for $5) and Veggie Values (meatless meals for $4.99), which seek to meet customer demands for budget-conscious options.

Other initiatives include fielding a delivery vehicle that runs solely on recycled vegetable oil and debuting a new Elmers Organic Garden project with one of Whitsons' school accounts, which will bring fresh organic produce grown by students to their cafeteria. Another K-12 initiative, to debut this month: mobile breakfast carts to bring meals to classrooms.

Meanwhile, Whitsons' food production operation, which now accounts for over a quarter of company revenues, is growing its business by performing private label manufacturing for a number of well-known brands.

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24 Next Generation Vending & Food Service, Inc.

CANTON, MA
www.nextgenerationone.com

Next Generation was formed in 2007 when a holding company acquired the assets of All Seasons Services, a vending and manual foodservice management company in the Northeast. It had run into financial difficulties and been seized by a creditor after defaulting on a major loan. Over the following year, the business doubled as a result of six acquisition deals. The new owners invested significantly in technology, innovation and merchandising programs, becoming one of the Northeast's largest regional companies.

The acquisitions included Integrity Management Services of Binghamton, NY; Canteen franchisee Loose Ends Vending, Inc., which operated in Western New York State; the assets related to the Massachusetts and Rhode Island business of Canteen franchisee A&B Vending Co., Inc.; the assets of Canteen's operations in Albany, NY, and Middletown, CT; and selected routes in Rochester, NY.

Vending remains the bulk of the business, accounting for about 80% of revenues, and has been enhanced by Next Generation's Vitalities program, which helps customers make healthful snack, beverage and fresh food selections. The manual dining business has concentrated on driving same store sales with value and economic relief menus and innovative promotions.

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25 Unidine Corp.

NEWTON, MA
www.unidine.com

Unidine undertook a number of initiatives in the past year, not least among them the addition of a new COO, Joshua Hubbard.

It recently formed a partnership with a large Michigan extended care operator to provide dining services management to its 25 senior living communities; developed an in-room patient dining program for acute care and behavioral health facilities; partnered with GoGreenPack, a supplier of environmentally sound disposables; and established strategic partnerships with independent contractors to recycle its kitchen oil. During the program's first year, Unidine was recycling oil at 30 sites in Massachusetts and has now expanded the initiative to more than 40 client locations across the East.

Unidine also continues to work with New Milford (CT) Hospital to implement its Plow to Plate initiative, which seeks to source 95% of food products used from the local community area. Along those same lines, the company received a 2008 Spirit of Planetree Award for its healthy fresh food vending program at Griffin Hospital in Derby, CT.

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