Acquisitions expand Digi's cold chain reach

Recent acquisitions by Digi International have strengthened its position as a cold chain provider in the foodservice industry.

The global provider of machine-to-machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity products and services has acquired SMART Temps, a provider of real-time foodservice temperature management for restaurant, grocery, education and hospital settings as well as real-time temperature management for pharmacy, blood bank and laboratory environments. This follows the November 2016 announcement of the purchase of FreshTemp, a provider of temperature monitoring and task management solutions for the food industry.

The acquisitions have expanded Digi’s reach, with more than 10,000 locations now under management. The acquired technologies will continue to be supported, as well as leveraged to expand the company’s portfolio of products for the cold chain market to enable its entry into the education and healthcare markets.

The acquisition of FreshTemp will enable Digi to expand its temperature monitoring solutions to incorporate digital task management capabilities to replace traditional manual logbooks and simplify daily restaurant tasks.

“We believe the cold chain market represents a large underserved market that can take greater advantage of wireless sensor networking and IoT capabilities,” said Ron Konezny, president and chief executive officer, Digi International. “We’re going to leverage all avenues — organic growth, partnerships and acquisitions — to further establish Digi as the expert in providing easy-to-use and ROI-generating cold chain solutions.”

Digi cold chain brands currently being marketed include: Digi Honeycomb, FreshTemp and SMART Temps.

Digi Honeycomb is an automated food temperature monitoring service that encompasses front-of-house and back-of-house environments to alert users if the proper temperature is not maintained.