About Us
OUR BEGINNING
The Mozer family has always made it a priority to live in an environmentally conscious and community oriented way. A big part of that is eating locally. But without an established food network, piecing together local meals was not an easy task. Milk is delivered here, veggies there, meat over in the next place.
Ben and Elizabeth are also the owners of the Lyric Cinema, which opened in 2007 and operates under the "Mozer Family Values", so buying local and offering the same healthy and delicious local goods to their customers that they and their children enjoy at home was of the upmost importance. However, it was definitely easier said than done. Nothing was centralized and they ended up ordering from numerous locations and driving constantly up and down the Front Range to achieve that goal.
Finally, after years of running around to buy their favorite local products and talking with other like-minded people about how to make this all easier, they decided to bite the bullet and give the distribution business the old college try. And so, LoCo Foods was born, in the basement of their Fort Collins home and how now grown into a business that employs nearly 20 people, works with over 100 local brands and over 1,000 retail customer accounts.
THE VALUE WE CREATE
The ways in which food reaches the consumer can vary; what we have developed here at LoCo Foods is a way to streamline local sourcing by offering retail establishments located within Colorado an easy way to purchase products from over 100 local brands that are grown and/or process within Colorado in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. By making it easy to have a local program, more businesses are able to maintain and grown the local options they offer to their customers. We develop relationships with both vendors and customers with a long-term orientation and mutual gain. Here at LoCo Food Distribution, we are passionate about a sustainable local food system. It's why we do what we do!
Local brands are often families or small teams that are handling every aspect of their business including: purchasing, payments, production, sales, warehousing, distribution and marketing. We step in and take the orders and deliveries off of their plate. Which means the brand has more time to focus o manufacturing, and the customer has consistent deliveries and support from our team. More time for them, means more production and more marketing, which is a win-win for everyone.
By adding local products to the shelves, a retailer can show their customers they are willing to do their part to invest in the well-being of the communities in which they are doing business. By supporting the local economy and their sustainable food system, it allows them to be a part of the environmental movement, lessens their carbon footprint by decreasing the miles their food travels and offering their customers a healthy alternative to the brands that use harmful mass food production practices.
In addition to deliveries, we also offer support to our customers by staying up to date on the local market conditions, maintaining professional relationships with our buyers, vetting each brand prior to submission. Once products are approved, we continue our support by providing order support, in-store visits, and being the direct line of contact for all brands that we represent. This means that a retailer can offer multiple local items and have one point of contact for all pricing, promos, changes, recalls etc. Buying from LoCo Foods also allows in-store staff to order and receive all at once; instead of juggling multiple orders and direct deliveries; which frees up time and reduces labor costs.
WHY YOU SHOULD JOIN US
Our food system is changing - concerns about health and environmental risks of our current industrial model
of manufacturing goods are now in the forefront of people's minds. Consumers are taking the time to educate themselves about the products they are buying; the ingredients that go in them, as well as the practice or processes that went
into making them, where they came from and how they got here. It is important for retailers to stay ahead of the curve
and show that they both see and support the value in local food systems and that they support EVERY aspect of it.
From the farmers, to the products, to the distributors to the consumer.