Introducing Our New Brand Identity:
IFMA The Food Away from Home Association

 

By Phil Kafarakis, IFMA The Food Away from Home Association, President & CEO 

November 2024 

 

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After decades of branding ourselves the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association (IFMA), we realized that we had reached the time for a refresh. In early November, at our annual Presidents Conference, we announced that our 72-year-old organization is now “IFMA The Food Away from Home Association.”

 

As anyone who has participated in a rebranding knows, this is not something you take on lightly. It involves months of discourse, examination, fussing, tossing spaghetti at the wall, even outright arguing. Justifications have to be rock solid. Choices must be carefully reviewed. Making a final decision might not please everyone.

 

Then, the Big Announcement has to be planned. Here, I’ll admit, we had a lot of fun discussing just how far to go. Fireworks? Logoed tees for everyone? Hiring acrobats or an elephant? Bringing in a big-name celebrity?

 

In the end, we asked our members to come together on stage at our largest annual in-person event to help us tell the story of how we got to this point in our history and why we felt a rebrand was needed. (Okay, we did have a drone show that evening too.)

 

After the pandemic years, it became clear that the foodservice supply chain and ecosystem are deeply interconnected, with manufacturers, operators, and distribution partners needing each other to address critical challenges. Through surveys and in conversations with existing members and industry peers, we realized that it was time for our organization to adapt to the needs of the industry we serve, just as it has done over the last 72 years.

 

We know that manufacturers remain at the core of all we do, and by adding new categories of membership – notably operators, those in the supply chain, and service providers to our industry – as we did at the beginning of this year, we built the opportunity to better engage and improve the entire ecosystem.

 

Keeping IFMA as part of our name was also critical to our leadership. It’s how we will maintain contact with our legacy while growing to serve a more dynamic and transformed food away from home community.

 

Our new name is purposeful and sets a clear and powerful message about who we are as an organization. Our new brand logo includes a graphic depiction of four intersecting “swirls” that represent segments of the industry – and our membership types – joining together through the work of the association to empower, nurture, and connect the whole ecosystem.

 

We’re excited to get to work using our new name and brand identity. If you’re in the industry, we invite you to join us!

 

For more about IFMA The Food Away From Home Association, including details on membership and future events, check out ifmaworld.com.

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