Alchemy Merges with Catalyst to Grow LP, Health, Safety Programs

Alchemy Systems, a provider of technologies and services for the food industry, has merged with Catalyst Awareness, a consulting firm that aims to drive positive changes in employee behavior, to produce a combined expanded set of offerings to build a culture of safety within food retail.

“The real synergy between the two companies is that Catalyst gives Alchemy additional retail expertise to expand our food safety offering,” said Jeff Eastman, CEO of Alchemy. “When you combine what Alchemy does with education and what Catalyst does for awareness, we now have a premiere solution for retailers.”

Building on over a decade of experience establishing safety cultures for millions of employees at food manufacturing and processing plants worldwide, Alchemy entered the food retail market in spring of 2013. Catalyst is a loss prevention and health and safety communication company with over 15 years experience providing some of North America's largest, most recognized Fortune 500 retail brands with a suite of integrated communication tools.

The loss prevention topics provided by Catalyst will become an added library in Alchemy’s retail offering, which also includes human resource, workplace safety, food safety and customer service libraries. Designed to have multiple touch points for employees to keep key issues and behaviors top of mind, the libraries are supplemented with printed posters, email communications, instructor-led trainings and short interactive micro training courses.

"Leading retailers have come to understand that their employees have a direct and significant impact on their stores' performance,” said Paul Montague, president of Catalyst. “Our retail clients continue to experience significant gains year over year, by simply improving their employee communications and measuring the effects.”

Adding to the partnership with Catalyst, Alchemy plans to accelerate the growth of its grocery retail market through increased synergies and unified branding and marketing. Under the terms of the agreement, Catalyst will continue to operate with the same staff in its Toronto offices working in conjuncture with Alchemy, based in Austin.