Vermont Information Processing (VIP), a software and data platform provider serving the food and beverage supply chain, has named Emiliano Delucia Chief Product and Technology Officer — a hire that doubles as an integration play following the company's recent acquisition of Encompass Technologies.
Delucia held the same CPTO title at Encompass before the acquisition, making the appointment a deliberate signal that VIP intends to keep Encompass's product talent and technology direction intact while folding both organizations under a unified engineering roadmap.
The Hire
In his new role, Delucia will own product strategy, engineering, and technology across VIP's full portfolio. He brings more than 20 years of product and technology leadership, including platform modernization work at Encompass where he launched OrderIQ, MileageTracker, ApIQ, MerchSync, and Cowork — the last of which is positioned as an agentic AI platform for food and beverage operators. Earlier career stops include Place, Red Ventures, and Halliburton.
"As we look ahead, we have an opportunity to accelerate the pace of AI innovation across our business while continuing to invest in the products and capabilities our customers depend on," said Andrew Criezis, CEO of VIP. "Emiliano's leadership will be an important part of that next chapter."
Delucia's own framing was notably customer-first: applying AI "in practical ways that make their businesses more efficient, connected and easier to run" rather than pursuing technology for its own sake — language that will resonate with distributors and c-store operators skeptical of vendor hype around AI.
Why It Matters for Operators
VIP has served the food and beverage industry for more than 50 years, building deep relationships with distributors, wholesalers, and retailers across the channel. Encompass Technologies brought a more modern technology stack and a track record of rapid product iteration. Together, the combined entity is positioned to address a persistent gap in the convenience and foodservice supply chain: fragmented back-office systems that make demand forecasting, route accounting, and merchandising coordination harder than they need to be.
For c-store operators and their distributor partners, the practical upshot is continued investment in the platforms they already use — VIP's assurance is explicit that no product sunsets are coming — while gaining access to AI-driven tools developed on the Encompass side. Cowork, the agentic AI platform, is the clearest example of what that pipeline could deliver to back-of-house and supply chain workflows.
The appointment also reflects a broader trend in food and beverage technology: consolidation among B2B software vendors is accelerating as operators demand integrated platforms rather than point solutions. Distributors serving the convenience channel in particular have pushed vendors for tighter connections between order management, delivery routing, and in-store merchandising data — exactly the capability set VIP and Encompass are now combining.
What Comes Next
VIP has not disclosed a formal product roadmap or integration timeline, but Delucia's mandate is clear: maintain continuity for existing customers while accelerating the pace of new-capability delivery. Encompass customers are told to expect access to complementary tools across the broader VIP portfolio, including advances in AI and connected data.
For convenience channel stakeholders tracking foodservice technology and supply chain platforms, VIP's move to lock in Encompass's top technology executive — rather than install an outside hire — is a credible early sign that the acquisition is being managed as a product integration rather than a simple asset roll-up.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
