ArrowStream Buys American Restaurant Association

ArrowStream acquired American Restaurant Association (ARA), a provider of food commodity economic and sourcing expertise.

ArrowStream’s acquisition of ARA brings more than 200+ new customers and extensive new product capabilities to its already robust suite of data and technology offerings. New solutions include Commodity Price Data, Analysis and Forecasting solutions, and the innovative ChainBrain, a collaborative sourcing platform that allows customers to search and connect with potential suppliers and electronically manage RFPs.   

Following completion of the acquisition, ArrowStream will offer an integrated set of solutions for managing daily supply chain operations and sourcing. Current ArrowStream capabilities include cleansing and synchronizing supply chain data feeds, analyzing product spend levels, monitoring inventory, logging product quality incidents and identifying pricing issues. With ARA, ArrowStream will expand to offer a new suite of sourcing tools that includes:

• Access to market price data on major commodities
• Expert analysis on commodity pricing trends
• A web-based foodservice supplier database containing information on more than 3,000 companies
• A foodservice tailored, web-based RFP management solution 

ARA’s capabilities align perfectly with ArrowStream’s vision to create a true foodservice information hub.  The vision is to create a single technology platform that seamlessly links product information with dynamic market intelligence, distribution channels, food quality reports and supplier-buyer collaboration tools.  

David Maloni, evp of analytics, and the rest of the ARA team have joined ArrowStream.  ARA’s products are now available as a strategic solution service in ArrowStream's product portfolio.