Sandridge Crafted Foods®: delivering consistency in a complex fresh food landscape
Sandridge Crafted Foods (Sandridge®) is a family-owned leader in chef-crafted, fresh prepared foods serving retail, club, deli, foodservice, education, healthcare, and more. Founded in 1960 by Vincent Sandridge, the company has grown into a multi-location organization rooted in uncompromising commitment to quality and care.
Today, leadership spans three generations. CEO Mark Sandridge, who joined the company in 1976, leads alongside his sons, Co-Presidents Jordan and Dane Sandridge, and his brother, EVP of Strategic Customer Accounts, Michael Sandridge – continuing the family legacy.
“Our dad’s vision shaped our innovation strategy and positioned us for long-term growth,” Jordan says. “Over the past two decades, we’ve implemented new technologies, streamlined operations, and aligned our products with evolving consumer trends.”
Sandridge’s portfolio offers a wide range of fresh, never frozen products encompassing sides, soups, pre-pared salads, rice varieties, grains, dips and spreads, entrées, meal kits, pastas, sauces, and seasonal selections.
The company also has its own portfolio of brands including Grandma’s Kitchen®, Casa Cocina®, and Simply Crafted™ – all rooted in strong culinary execution and high-quality ingredients.
“Grandma’s Kitchen brings comfort and nostalgia to life through rich, satisfying flavors that evoke meaningful food memories,” Dane shares. “In the coming weeks, we’ll be introducing new creative deli salads – crafted to deliver both familiarity and a fresh twist.
“Casa Cocina introduces globally inspired flavors, leaning into Latin influences for bold food that excites the senses. While Simply Crafted emphasizes simple ingredients, strong recipes, and a wholesome, clean eaing experience.
“Simply Crafted is especially meaningful because of our partnership with Folds of Honor. A portion of proceeds from every purchase of Simply Crafted product supports scholarships for family members of fallen or disabled military and first responders. As a family business with deep personal ties to service, that alignment feels authentic and purposeful to us.”
Deeper flavor development
Beyond its own branded portfolio, a significant portion of Sandridge’s business is dedicated to private label partnerships where the focus is on elevating and protecting customers’ brands. “When a partner entrusts us with their label, we treat it with the same care as our own,” says Jordan. “It’s not about our name on the package; it’s about delivering exceptional food consistently and protecting their reputation.”
That responsibility has only grown more crucial as the fresh prepared foods category becomes increasingly demanding. Operators face labor shortages, rising costs, and heightened food safety scrutiny – all while being expected to deliver reliable, high-quality experiences.
For Sandridge Crafted Foods, this isn’t a shift – it’s validation. “Innovation gets a lot of attention,” adds Jordan, “but the real challenge is safely executing consistently at scale. That’s where we’ve always focused.”
In a category where inconsistency erodes trust, Sandridge has built its reputation on reliability – delivering what customers expect, when they expect it, every time. The company ensures this goal is met through control over distribution – most Sandridge products are delivered through its own transportation network, enabling tighter cold chain management and greater reliability from production to delivery.
“Being in stock and on time is table stakes,” Dane adds. “What matters is that every product performs the same way, without exception.” That consistency is driven by a deeply embedded food safety culture and an operational discipline centered on audit readiness and continuous improvement.
While many manufacturers emphasize individual technologies, Sandridge’s advantage lies in how it integrates them. By combining high-pressure processing (HPP), sous vide cooking, and kettle-based production, the company delivers consistent quality, clean-label solutions, and deeper flavor development at scale. “The real opportunity isn’t any one technology,” Jordan says. “It’s how they work together to create something better for the end consumer.”
Digital production capabilities
That same integrated thinking extends beyond production. The Sandridge Center of Excellence, located next to its Medina, Ohio headquarters, brings together the sales, marketing, and culinary teams in a space designed to mirror real-world customer environments.
“For decades, our Innovation team achieved incredible results in a ten-by-20-foot development kitchen, but our new kitchen in the Center of Excellence allows us to test products in environments that reflect our customers’ realities. Whether that’s a five-star restaurant, a grocery retail back-of-house, or a local independent operator, we can now simulate those settings to ensure and demonstrate that our products per-form exactly as intended. We built this space to help customers solve problems,” Dane explains. “Not just with food, but with execution, training, and promotion.
“Beyond culinary space, we’ve incorporated digital production capabilities including a blue screen studio that allows us to create immersive, customized educational and marketing materials. We can virtually place ourselves in a customer’s kitchen and walk their teams through recipe builds and preparation methods in an interactive, practical way. One goal of this technology is to support our customers in combatting industry challenges like labor, training, and shrink.”
Sandridge recently showcased its new space with a trend show in partnership with strategic customers and key suppliers. “We had an outstanding turnout, but what really made it special wasn’t just the food; it was the collaboration,” Dane reflects. “Our sales and marketing teams worked directly with independent restaurant operators to demonstrate how to create innovative, on-trend recipes with our products and to better market and promote their products on social media. The goal of the facility has always been to bring people together around food and shared solutions, and that event underscored that we’re on the right path.”
Organic growth
In addition to the Sandridge Center of Excellence, Sandridge continues to invest in manufacturing capacity and capability. “We have a strong team that readily embraces new technologies and equipment enhancements,” Jordan says. “As new technologies emerge, we take a measured approach. After years of building operational data, we’re now identifying practical applications for AI to improve efficiency and decision-making – helping us operate smarter and bring value across the organization faster.”
With strong commitments to fresh products, innovation, and collaboration with both customers and suppliers, Dane and Jordan are set to continue Sandridge’s legacy as a leading provider of chef-crafted foods. “We don’t define success by a specific size or revenue figure, but rather by the proud team members who feel they’ve made a difference in our company culture,” Jordan says. “Over the last few years, we’ve attracted remarkable talent who have elevated the business in ways we couldn’t have imagined. The opportunities in fresh, prepared foods remain significant, and we believe the possibilities are limitless.”
Dane concludes: “Our aim is to be a stronger, more innovative business while remaining deeply rooted in care. At the end of the day, growth is only meaningful if it takes care of our customers, employees, and families who make it possible.”