GEORGETOWN, Ontario — Due North is the new company formed from the merger in August of Minus Forty Technologies and QBD, two longstanding retail-refrigeration merchandising companies that support convenience stores, foodservice operations, quick-service restaurants (QSRs) and more.
The union will let Due North better help its customers grow, create superior brand experiences and simplify their refrigerated-retail merchandising programs, the company said.
“Due North has been purpose-built to create solutions that advance our customers’ business interests and enhance their business performance in an ever-evolving retail landscape,” said Troy Shannan, CEO of Georgetown, Ontario-based Due North. “We are absolutely committed to supporting our customers’ success by investing in new product and service innovations that give them true competitive advantage and help them maximize their sales.”
Julian Attree, founder and former CEO of Minus Forty Technologies and now chief strategy officer of Due North, said, “Our newly combined brands and businesses under the Due North powerhouse give our customers even more opportunities to operationalize the most suitable refrigerated-retail merchandising program for them.”
Shannan said the c-store industry is not new to Due North.
“Minus Forty and QBD sold several refrigeration merchandiser products to the businesses in this industry,” he said. “We recognize the vertical as a strategically important industry, and we aim to grow with it. We have sold refrigeration solutions directly to c-stores, and many of our merchandisers make their way into the stores via food and beverage companies that supply branded-refrigerated merchandisers to merchandise their own unique products they sell in the convenience-store setting.”
Those products include ice cream novelties and beverage products, he added.
“We sold and continue to sell many custom-display cases as the c-store business continues to broaden their offerings, especially around quick-serve food items,” Shannan said.
The merger creating Due North, Shannan said, “signifies the expansion of all our resources, such as engineering, increased capacity for new technology, and product development and more production capacity. Our plans are to continue the expansion of our offerings to this vertical and create more capabilities around custom-refrigerated retail-merchandising solutions for our customers.”
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