Olson Finalizes Agreement to Acquire Y-Pulse

Olson Communications has finalized an agreement to acquire Y-Pulse LLC, the latest addition to Olson’s portfolio of trademarked services to clients in the food industry. Y-Pulse has built a practice focused on young consumers and the foodservice professionals who serve them in schools and colleges across the U.S. since 2005.

“The acquisition of Y-Pulse brings us closer to an important group of customers and allows us to deploy some of the infrastructure we have built to support our Culinary Visions practice to the education segments,” says Olson Founder/President Sharon Olson.

Y-Pulse Co-founder Tami Cline adds, “I am looking forward to continuing to work as a senior consultant to Y-Pulse in the K through 12 segment of the industry. We have collaborated on projects with Olson Communications and combining our resources in a more formal way allows us to be more efficient and effective for our clients.”

Y-Pulse is a research and consulting firm that specializes in helping companies in the food business better understand tomorrow’s tastemakers. It created the widely quoted Dream Kitchen Survey as well as other studies such as Social Media—What’s Next and Convenience Retail on Campus. Both of the latter were presented at NACUFS Annual Conferences, while the Y-Pulse School Vending study received the Child Nutrition Showcase Award for Research from SNA.

As senior dining emerged as an important micro-segment in foodservice and a new business opportunity for college and university campuses, Olson's Culinary Visions Panel and Y-Pulse collaborated on a Senior Dining study that was published by the Dietary Managers Association.