After 13 years in the food industry, Greg Carlston saw a need for a different type of distribution in the Pacific Northwest. He felt there was a niche market to sell to jobbers or distributors in smaller quantities, helping them maximize their cash flow while increasing turns. This concept also benefitted the manufacturers, who were able to get products to distributors in smaller quantities without lowering their own minimums. In 1983, Greg and Melody Carlston started Alpine Food Distributing, Inc. with their first product line: french fries. They quickly established Alpine as a key redistributor; and with Greg’s reputation and contacts in the food industry, he had no problem getting business.
In 1999 they purchased a privately held transportation company and formed Alpine Carriers to further expand their customer service capabilities. This allowed them to maximize resources and provide value added services to vendors.
They purchased Distributive Resources, Inc. in April of 2000, once again expanding the Alpine family. This purchase allows Alpine to provide ingredients directly to manufacturers to use in making their products, while also giving Alpine a retail presence with national grocers.
Today they are located in Milwaukie, Oregon in a state of the art 280,000 square foot facility. They have sales offices in Oregon, Washington and California.