Harbor Foods well positioned as a company to serve both of those growing markets ,” shares Justin .
It was through this journey that Harbor Foods was able to pinpoint its niche , servicing the small , independent convenience customers . Justin became involved with the business in the late 90s . “ I did pretty much every job in the business , and in the early 2000s , we started acquiring other distributors around the Pacific Northwest region of the country and expanded our footprint throughout Washington into Oregon , and we really started to grow from there . I became CEO in 2007 . I had a strong desire to diversify the business beyond convenience store distribution and into foodservice .”
Competitive edge
The company took on major restaurant chains , such as Subway , in 2015 . “ We serviced their locations in the Northwest , and in 2019 , we acquired a division of Food Services of America in Seattle . We bought the Seattle division because the Federal Trade Commission stepped in , and said US Foods was not allowed to purchase the facility , because there wouldn ’ t be enough competition in Seattle . This gave us a chance to catapult forward , and do food service in a big way . It was also around the time that Monica started .”
Monica McCombs , who is also part of the discussion , is the business ’ Chief Supply Chain Officer . After careful consideration , the company decided a supply chain executive would be highly beneficial to assist leveraging the buying power of the organization . “ I started my career out with Safeway ’ s Denver division as an auditor , where I grew very quickly in my career . I was the youngest female VP , but after a while I needed a fresh change . Then I decided to move to a family business , and went to work for a family-owned food
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