Owner/partners Robin Richardson, Andrew Riehemann and Herb Dudley say their new market and buyer-driven firm will give participants an effective Web-based tool for collaborating within their market sector.

Word of the transition into Professional Foods Group came on the eve of Global Food Collaborative's Global Food Alaska 2009, set for June 10-12 in Soldotna. The event brings together dozens of buyers and producers of Alaska food products and others involved in myriad links in the food supply chain, including packagers and transporters of these products.

Additional information on the change will be provided at the Soldotna event.

"Professional Foods Group raises the bar by providing you a Web-based tool that allows you to collaborate within your market segment," the owners said in a letter introducing the transition. "Our approach, much like GFA 2009, is market and buyer driven. Member buyers are able to search and/or generate product and service requests that go directly to suppliers registered on the site. Members will include buyers, suppliers of food, beverage and agri-products, as well as supply chain partners."

Membership is opened to qualified members of the food supply chain who register at ProFoodsGroup.com. There is no fee for commercial and/or qualified buyers of food, beverage and agri-products. There is a membership fee for suppliers of product or related services.

The three owners, all of whom believe in greater transparency and growth in Alaska's food supply chain, have been working on the project for two years.

For Richardson, former executive director of the World Trade Center Alaska and founder of the Global Food Collaborative, PFG is a longtime dream come true.

"Even though it is a new name and new brand, the fact is it is the next generation of Global Food Collaborative," Richardson said. "It's not something people have jumped into. It's really a complicated concept in the sense that you are bringing together the supply chain. A lot of thought has gone into the fact that the food industry is under a lot of pressure to be responsible and create safe and quality products. The market has changed since I started GFC five years ago. We've seen the world come to its knees to provide food safety."

Richardson cited the 2005 case on illegal industrial dye called "Sudan 1," which contaminated hundreds of products ranging from chili sauce to medicine capsules before massive international recalls of products began. There have been many other food recalls of products, such as peanut butter and a variety of vegetables, over safety issues, she said.

Richardson turned to Riehemann, the Utah-based owner of Ship to Alaska, and Dudley, a professional IT manager and software developer in Hawaii, to help put together the Web-based business. What they devised was a Web site that will allow buyers to access new products and services that meet their exact needs, including certifications such as dolphin free, sustainability and other social philosophies, Richardson said.

Riehemann said that when he first met Richardson and became familiar with GFC, he found her firm to be a very labor-intensive process, one where Richardson had to do a lot of researching work and then personally link suppliers with buyers.

Riehemann, who knew Dudley from his own business ventures in Hawaii, suggested bringing him in and combining their mutual talents and experiences for greater efficiency.

"With food scares in China and with travel budgets hitting their demise with the economy, it put us in a situation where, if we could put the suppliers in front of the buyers in a convenient format, we would help them along a great deal," he said.

The trio agreed to make the buyer the focus of their new service, providing free access to qualified buyers to connect online with suppliers who could meet their specific product needs.

"The buyer is the one with the hard job, traveling all over the world to get sourced," Riehemann said.

Qualified buyers may list online the specifics of what they are looking to purchase, the precise product form, package size, certification - such as a Marine Stewardship Council label, proving that the product comes from sustainable sources - and more.

The buyer also has the option to make an anonymous inquiry, Riehemann said.

"Maybe the buyer doesn't necessarily want to be known on the site," he said. "We want the buyer to be able to maintain privacy and control."

Harvesters and producers, who now spend much time and effort producing, will be able to post their company profiles, which they can change and update at any time, adding or deleting products and services, Richardson said.

"They create the products that the buyers and the markets want to buy. They will have accurate information and I will no longer be the bottleneck connecting them. The higher-tech society gets, the more need we have for human connection. This site will have a lot of human connection," she said.

Richardson cited as an example a chef coming to the Global Food Alaska 2009 event in Soldotna June 10-12. The chef is moving to the community Pelican and wants to source locally for Southeast Alaska foods.

If Professional Foods Group works the way it is supposed to, "she will be able to go online to purchase a lot of what she needs," Richardson said.

But the bottom line, she said, is that this next generation company "will put small- and medium-sized producers on the same level as the big guys as far as access and ability to create products for those businesses, and create direct relationships," she said.

On the Web:

www.globalfoodcollaborative.com

www.profoodsgroup.com.