Alan Linder

Alan has been in the Natural/Organic business for over 30 years. This includes a 25 year career in Senior Management with United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI), an International Food Distribution Company. His responsibility was to work closely with both the Conventional Supermarkets and the Natural Retail Group in selecting products that worked best with their different classes of trade. His ability to recognize up and coming trends, then select the right company/product to be a leader in their category helped with positioning those products out of the thousands available that would work best with his customer base, as well as the consumers. In 2004 Alan was asked to lead the UNFI Expansion into the Asian Market.

In 2008, Alan formed ARL Associates. His group has focused on “plant based” products, as he knew this category was going to be part of the Food Future. From 2008 to today, Alan has worked with Food & Beverage Companies from the U.S., Canada, & Asia.

When analyzing a company, Alan looks at the Category, SKU Rationale, Production Facilities, Product Distribution, Sales Strategy, Marketing Opportunities, Profitability and Managements commitment as well as their vision in continuing its growth.