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Alan J. Liddle
EAST GREENWICH R.I. FSTEC co-founder Robert N. Grimes has merged his Accuvia Consulting Inc. with Tech Global Partners Inc., and will serve as executive vice president and managing director of Tech Global Partners’ Hospitality & Foodservice Industries division.
The terms of the merger, announced Friday, were not disclosed.
Grimes said he retained ownership of his Accuvia Publishing and Hostec Events international conference businesses. He will also continue in his role with FSTEC, the annual foodservice technology conference produced by Nation’s Restaurant News that he co-launched with NRN in 1996.
FSTEC 2010 is Feb. 21-24 at the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center in Long Beach, Calif.
“Accuvia Consulting and Rob Grimes have an outstanding reputation in the global foodservice and hospitality industry among operators and suppliers alike for thought leadership and consulting services,” said Michael Hess, TGP’s president and chief executive. “Together, we will bring a depth of experience and knowledge that rivals larger firms but we will operate as a boutique consulting firm to provide our clients the superior service and value for their investment.”
“The merger with Accuvia Consulting will allow us to further strengthen our focus in global markets and extend our service offerings to deliver increased value to all of the clients,” Grimes said. “Bringing the companies together will allow us to realize our goal of becoming a larger services organization with scalability to handle bigger projects in all markets while enabling us to remain focused on our core hospitality practice.”
TGP officials said the new organization will be structured around two operating units that build on the company’s expertise in the retail and the foodservice and hospitality industries.
Tech Global Partners, based in East Greenwich, is a senior executive-level strategy, operations and technology consultancy to the retail and consumer products industries. It was formed by Hess in 2007 after he served as chief executive of the Americas division of British software and services company Torex Retail.
Founded by Grimes in 1994, Accuvia Consulting, based in Potomac, Md., assists foodservice and hospitality operators and suppliers select systems, set information technology strategies, represent owners in I.T. efforts, identify trends and resolve complex technical integration and technology compliance strategies. The firm says it has worked with over 70 percent of the Fortune 500 foodservice and hospitality companies and almost a quarter of the top quick-service restaurant organizations, including the two largest global franchise organizations headquartered in North America.
In his new position with TGP, Grimes will manage existing foodservice and hospitality clients and oversee the strategic growth of these segments, the company said.
In addition to Michael Hess and Robert Grimes, the TGP management team includes Mark Ozawa, who, until the merger, served as president of Accuvia Consulting; Robert Pring, formerly of Torex Retail; and Peter Franczak and Anthony Latona, co-founders of Consumer Consulting, which was acquired earlier by TGP.
Contact Alan Liddle at [email protected].
