Concept Sales and Associates was founded in 1991 by Janice Carey whose main purpose was to bring Natural and Specialty Foods to the Conventional Grocery retailers in Northern California. Janice’s husband Don owned Carey Ahrens which was the largest food broker in Northern California which represented several Fortune 500 food companies. Don soon decided to sell the company to his employees but after just a few months of “retirement” Don missed the everyday excitement of the business and joined Janice at Concept Sales.
About this time Safeway decided to centralize management and buying into their corporate offices in Northern California. Safeway asked Don and Janice to help steer Natural Foods companies towards their program. The success of this, as well as the success in Northern California, brought the manufacturers asking them to represent their brands in the Southern California market.
Shortlye thereafter, Scott Bryditzki was brought in as a partner to the Concept Sales team and after 3 years became Managing Partner. Over the next few years technologies were developed to help streamline the process of launching new items and solidifying merchandising vehicles with the retailers that would make each person in the company more effective. The tools available to our manufacturing partners and team members on this website are part of that technology.
Concept Sales soon expanded into the Northwest by investing in a group of individuals that were, and still are, the best in the industry. This group came from the large brokerage houses just as Concept Sales had, and saw a huge opportunity to do business the way it should be done – with hard work and integrity working with both the conventional grocers as well as the natural foods class of trade.
A year later Concept Sales opened up the California Natural division using a dedicated team to call on the Natural Foods retailers in the state of California. This team works extremely hard in the state that boasts the best demographics and volume for Natural Foods.
We are not only proud of our background, but excited about our future. We work hard and our mission statement is more than just a plaque on the wall – it is the way we do business.
The CSI Sales Solutions Team