Blue Book Services hires VP of Retail Development

Blue Book Services (BBS) has added John Abkes as its new Vice President of Retail Development, who will oversee the company’s retail specific solutions.   

“While controlling costs is always important, today’s complex and often fragile supply chain makes mitigating risk increasingly more important in every buying decision as well. There is no company better qualified to partner with the industry to help mitigate risk than BBS,” Abkes said.

Abkes is no stranger to the produce industry, having served in founding roles in DTN Produce and iTradeNetwork. Abkes also worked with Circana, and most recently Apeel Sciences.

“The Blue Book was one of the first companies I met when we introduced a satellite information system to the produce industry 30 years ago,” he said. “It’s an honor to be teaming up with a company with such a long tradition of service and integrity.” 

“We’re very excited to welcome John to the Blue Book family,” said Kirk Soule, CEO of BBS. “John’s track record of success and genuine passion for the produce industry are a perfect match with our culture. We have a long and successful track record serving this industry and have every confidence John’s leadership will enable us to improve on the solutions the industry has come to rely on and trust when making critical and time sensitive decisions.”

Since 1901, Blue Book Services has been the leading provider of credit and marketing information for the fresh fruit and vegetable industry providing suppliers, buyers, brokers, and transporters current financial and marketing data for produce companies across the world. BBS brings the same experience to the lumber and forest products industries.

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