2007 Top Achievers
This year's picks represent the cream of the crop in the dealer, consultant, manufacturers' representative and service agent sectors.
By Amelia Levin, Associate Editor -- Foodservice Equipment & Supplies, 6/1/2007 12:00:00 AM
Despite the fact that businesspeople today have more access to data and metrics than ever before, success remains a relatively subjective term. Some businesspeople measure their success by market share, while others focus on top-line sales or, more appropriately, profitability. Still, using solely those terms to measure success can be limiting and self-serving.
To gain a full measure of an individual's success, one must also take into consideration the impact they have had on their industry. Has their work helped move the industry forward? Have they shown a willingness to share their experiences and expertise with those inside and outside of their organizations? Do they anticipate customer needs? Do they work within their organizations to create memorable customer experiences that meet those needs in a creative and efficient manner?
Each of FE&S' 2007 Top Achievers has embraced these critical measures of success and then some. Each has a reputation for wearing their passion for the foodservice industry on their sleeves. Cultivating relationships with their peers, customers and other industry partners, also plays a part in their success. Although at different stages of their careers, their collective legacy remains one of dedication, professionalism and generosity.
For these reasons and many others that you will come to understand as you read on, it is with great pleasure that FE&S presents its 2007 class of Top Achievers.
| Brad PiercePresident, Restaurant Equipment World, Orlando, Fla. - Dealer | |
“This was not the plan but it became the plan pretty quickly,” says Brad Pierce, FE&S’ 2007 Top Achiever – Dealer, looking back at his foodservice career. As a student at Florida State University in the mid-’90s, Pierce spent his weekends working in the family business, Restaurant Equipment World, an Orlando, Fla.-based dealership. Instead of spending his weekends tailgating and watching the FSU Seminoles, Pierce would instead make the 10-hour round-trip to Orlando to go to work. As a result, he estimates logging an additional 20,000 miles on his odometer each year. “When I graduated, I was fully ingrained in the business,” he adds. What drove Pierce to do this? The concept of e-commerce was starting to take off and he saw the chance to do something that few equipment and supplies dealers had even considered at the time: making the company’s massive catalog available to customers online. College students routinely pull all-nighters cramming for exams or completing term papers. Pierce routinely kept long hours, except he was scanning photos of products and posting them to REW’s web site. Despite doing all of this throughout his college years, upon graduation Pierce had no intention of joining the family business, owned and managed by his father Jerry. In fact, it was Jerry who had encouraged his son to contemplate a career other than foodservice. It did not take long for Brad to become enamored with the field of aviation and he soon learned how to fly. On a routine volunteer medical flight to New Orleans during his senior year, Pierce had a life-changing moment: His plane crashed near a Louisiana swamp with him at the controls. As a result, he saw the foodservice industry in a different light. “Sure, I could jump off an oven and break my ankle if I tried hard enough, but this industry seems pretty safe compared to what I had experienced,” Pierce jokes. Still, when you have your sites set on the “Wild Blue Yonder,” making a transition back to the foodservice industry takes a bit of an adjustment. Luckily for Pierce, it was not a long one. “When I got into this, there was not the spark or passion that I had for the aviation industry,” he says. “But as I got involved in the industry and developed the relationships, that passion now burns bright each day. That incident made me realize what was under my nose.” What was under his nose was a well-established dealership in the Southeast, one that was poised to grow. Last year, REW posted a solid 17-percent increase in sales. The company has 50 employees, including two project managers. While many industry observers know of REW’s web presence, few realize that represents only a portion of a fully integrated dealership. For example, many customers learn about and buy from REW online, Pierce says. Then a little later when they build a restaurant or redesign an existing operation, they will work with REW’s contract group to complete that project. And should the project require smallwares or tabletop items, the dealership’s cash-and-carry operation can get involved. “So, they all kind of work together and complement one another,” Pierce says. Like most growing dealerships, creating a positive experience through customer service remains critical to REW’s success. And Pierce realizes that ordering online can be a lonely and mysterious experience for most customers. That’s why upon receiving an order, an REW representative will call the customer to review the purchase. “We don’t use automated responses,” Pierce says. “An actual person gets back to them.” This helps ensure that the customer purchases the right product for the right price. With the follow-up conversation complete, the REW rep sends a confirmation e-mail to the customer about product, model, price, delivery, etc. And to make sure that the REW reps give the right answers or advice to customers, they go through extensive training on many of the products the dealership stocks. “When I travel, I tend to eat at places we’ve done business with,” Pierce says. “And there’s not one I am hesitant about visiting because I know our staff are empowered to do what it takes to make sure that the customer has a good experience.” Maintaining a strong customer focus and adhering to fiscal responsibilities are two of the many attributes that Jerry Pierce, REW’s patriarch, instilled into his son. “He taught me to embrace a customer as a partner and to help them grow,” says Brad Pierce. “It’s not about being the low-price guy and turning a big volume for the sake of doing so. In this industry you can have a lot of growth in sales, but at the end of the day you have to make a profit to ensure long-term viability.” Customers are not the only people Pierce visits when he travels. He also visits the corporate headquarters of technology giants Google and Yahoo to keep abreast of the latest developments in the online community, a key step when you consider many customers’ first introduction to REW comes via the internet. Pierce also visits with other FEDA dealers and sits on the association’s board of directors. “I invest the time in FEDA because it is a phenomenal organization that has helped us grow over the years,” he adds. As president of REW, Pierce spends his time examining the company’s internal systems and procedures. He also spends time working with manufacturers, scouting his competitors and attending other industry events. Using a process Pierce describes as collaborative filtering, he then weighs all of the information collected and applies it to REW, refining its direction, defining metrics for success and communicating all of this back to employees. This allows the REW team to know the exact criteria by which the company measures success and allows the individuals to self-police their areas. And that’s the kind of happy landing that Pierce really likes these days. “My long-term goal is to be able to walk out of this business one day and nobody would miss me,” he says. “That means I have been successful because I have been able to delegate and create the systems so the business does not have to rely on one person to be successful.” |
| Robert PacificoExecutive Vice President, Romano Gatland, Woodstock, Ill. - Consultant | |
It's no secret that Romano Gatland's Robert "Bob" Pacifico was a popular guy. Pretty much everyone who's ever met or known Pacifico loved him, close colleagues and family say. He was admired for his kindness, ambition, creativity and perfectionism, both at work and outside of it. His legacy, through the work that he did and the person he was, will withstand the tests of time and for that reason earlier this year FE&S recognized Pacifico with its Top Achiever - Consultant Award. After decades in the consulting business - heading up his own company, partnering with one of the most renowned firms in the world, and racking in several awards - the 62-year-old Pacifico passed away earlier this year after a battle with liver cancer. "Bob was like the sun coming up," says close friend, consultant and industry veteran Rod Collins of Rod Collins and Associates. "He loved life and loved people. He was one of those people that if he talked to anyone for 15 minutes they never forgot it because Bob was listening only to them." Up until his death, Pacifico never ceased to produce top-of-the-line, successful projects. In May 2003, FE&S awarded Pacifico with the Facility Design Project of the Year Award for the Brain Food Court at Chicago's Museum of Science & Industry. He also won the 1989 Food Facilities Design Award for his work on Pete's in Boca Raton, Fla., and he was most recently recognized in the August 2006 "Facility Design Project of the Month" article for his work on Café 37 at the Sidley Austin law offices in downtown Chicago. Equipped with only a tiny footprint spanning two floors, Pacifico maximized the kitchen potential though extremely efficient design and a modern, sleek look. "Bob is a true designer," says Stanley Gatland, principal of Romano Gatland where Pacifico most recently served as executive vice president and partner. "He was extremely talented and very creative. He had the ability to picture something and like magic, get it to work." Collins agrees and feels that Pacifico was the closest thing to an artist in the foodservice design industry, one who never backed down from any challenges. "His designs were beautiful and his specs were complete." In 1977, a local manufacturers' rep told Gatland about Pacifico, who was making a name for himself as a trained architect in the New York-area. Gatland then recruited Pacifico to join his consulting firm. "Although he didn't know anything about foodservice, he picked it up extremely quickly," Gatland says. "Bob would do something until he became a perfectionist at it. He always put his two feet into whatever he did." A few years later in 1982, Gatland asked Pacifico to become a partner in the company, and upon accepting, the firm's name was changed to Romano Gatland Pacifico. In 1986, Pacifico decided to make it on his own and opened his own consulting firm called Robert Pacifico Associates, in Florida. After some rocky roads on that path, Pacifico moved his business to Illinois and began talking to Gatland again, at which point the two had an idea to align forces by creating a Romano Gatland satellite office for the Chicago market, which opened in 1995. The story of how he moved to Illinois, however, is not a professional story, but a great love story. While working in Florida, Pacifico met his second wife-to-be, Emily, then working for an equipment manufacturer, at a trade show. "Bob and I ended up riding in a rep's car, and he started singing," Emily Pacifico says. As a former singer with the Rochester Philharmonic, this caught her attention. "I looked at him and said, 'Do you sing?' And he said, 'Do you sing?' We talked for four months over the phone and became great friends after that." At one point they began a two-year, long-distance courtship. Then, one day Pacifico landed in a Florida hospital with a burst appendix. "After three weeks in the hospital he had an epiphany, and said, 'That's it, I'm moving to Illinois.' We've been together ever since," Emily Pacifico recalls. Since proposing in front of 300 people at a Foodservice Consultants Society International (FCSI) conference in Vancouver, Canada, the Pacificos were due to celebrate their 10-year anniversary in early May. Although he had no biological children, Pacifico treated Emily Pacifico's two daughters and grandchildren as if they were his own. "He was a terrific family man," she says. "In these times when a lot of people get married, divorced, remarried, and there are all sorts of mothers, fathers and grandparents, he really was the 'go-to' Grandpa. All the holidays were at our house, and he always loved to cook at the grill surrounded by his family, friends and kids." At work, "everybody in the office felt Bob was more of a friend than a boss," says Richard Stolarczyk, vice president of Romano Gatland and a close colleague of Pacifico from the Woodstock, Ill.-office. "He wasn't like, 'This is my company, do what I say.' We worked as a team, and Bob would ask for everyone's input. And if we were in a position where we had a problem, he would step in." And he was funny, Gatland says. One thing Gatland says he'll miss is his and Pacifico's silly phone calls on obscure holidays. "I'd call him at 5 a.m. just before he got up on Flag Day to bust his chops. And he'd call me on Bastille Day or something one minute after midnight, and say, 'Guess what, Stan?' He had a very healthy attitude toward everything and was very positive. But he also dealt in reality, too," Gatland says, adding that he showed extreme mental strength when dealing with his sickness. During his career, Pacifico was also an active member of FCSI, having served on its board of directors from 1988 to 1996, during which time he served as FCSI president from 1994 to 1995 and was also named a fellow in the organization. Pacifico was also a member of the Society for Foodservice Management (SFM), and served on its board of directors. "Bob loved what he did and this was quite evident by his interaction with clients, and with projects," Gatland says. "He gave us the ability to expand our horizons." |
| Bill KellyPrincipal, Kelly-Mincks, Bothell, Wash. - Manufacturers' Rep | |
In today's fast-paced foodservice equipment and supplies industry, we oftentimes try to boil down the distribution channel as simply selling a product for a price. What gets lost in the whir of commerce generated by e-mails, fax machines and cell phones is the simple fact that people buy from people. Bill Kelly, principal at Bothell, Wash.- based Kelly-Mincks, is one person who will never lose site of that concept, though. Thanks to his track record for developing solid working relationships with his factories and customers, and for being a long-time contributor to the industry and organizations such as MAFSI, FE&S named Kelly its 2007 Top Achiever - Manufacturers' Rep. Kelly-Mincks covers the Pacific northwestern states of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington and consists of five people, including Bill Kelly and his partners the brothers Jim and David Mincks. Rounding out the firm's sales force is another member of the Mincks family, James, and Janet Lusk serves as office manager. Of course, Kelly predicts this lineup will not remain in its current form for long, as the company's continued growth will force the firm to move to a larger facility and hire two to three new salespeople in the next 12 months. Kelly broke into the foodservice industry in 1980 with Libbey Glass, working in the Seattle market. One year later, the company transferred him to Chicago. Following two more years with Libbey Glass, Kelly joined a Chicago-area manufacturers' rep firm owned by Paul Hirschberg. According to Kelly, Hirschberg was among the first to establish the independent manufacturers' rep as a viable part of the foodservice industry. "He was the king in Chicago for years and a terrific mentor to me," Kelly adds. After two years of working in Hirschberg's organization, Kelly decided it was time to hang out his own shingle. So in 1987, he formed his own independent manufacturers' rep firm known as The Kelly Organization. And three years later Kelly and the organization bearing his name relocated back to Seattle, to be closer to his roots. Approximately nine months after Kelly headed west, Jim Mincks made a similar move from Detroit, where he had been working in a family-based rep business named The Mincks Co. The two joined forces and after a one-year trial period, Kelly and Mincks formed a partnership and renamed the company. And later, Jim's brother David joined the firm, also coming from Detroit. The past few years have been prosperous ones for the burgeoning rep firm. "Things have been great for all of us," Kelly says.  Thanks to a perspective that one can only cultivate from contrasting experiences, Kelly and his partners are probably in a better position to appreciate their success. Several years ago they merged with another area rep firm, which ultimately did not go as smoothly as any of the involved parties would have hoped. "It was a real growth process for us," Kelly says looking back. "Our survival was due to the fact that the three of us stuck together. I suppose had the economy cooperated things might have worked out differently. About six months into the deal things started to change. "That period really aged us, probably in ways that were not good," Kelly adds. "Eventually, we were able to buy our way out of the business and take most of the lines we brought to the partnership with us. We are all incredibly appreciative for this second chance." While dissolving the partnership was the best thing for Kelly and the Mincks brothers, it also meant the trio almost had to start from scratch en route to rebuilding their business. They all worked from their homes for eight months, retiring debt and putting money away prior to locating and moving into an office space in Bothell. The equity from an office building the three purchased in 1991 paired with individual commitments from each of the partners and some other loans served as the capital cornerstone that allowed Kelly-Mincks to re-establish itself in the Pacific Northwest. And by the end of the first quarter of 2005 the firm was on solid financial footing, operating in the black. "When we left the merger, we did not have the biggest lines but we saw lots of opportunity," Kelly says. "In addition, we didn't want to take on a lot of new lines, concentrating instead on re-establishing what we had and re-introducing Kelly- Mincks back into the marketplace." And that strategy, along with another innate quality has paid off for Kelly. "Our work ethic never changed, but we had to learn to walk again before we could run," he says. "It has just been an amazing recovery and we have been wonderfully blessed." Kelly realizes that the most critical assets a company like his possesses are the relationships they have with their customers and factories and the firm's reputation. As a result, he and his partners do not take such relationships for granted. "Every one of our factories could have decided to go another direction," he says. "But without exception, each embraced our new direction and from then on we have just had steady sales growth." One reason for his success and that of his firm seems to be the fact that Kelly and his partners have a clear idea of the role an independent manufacturers' rep plays in today's foodservice industry. "We do our best to represent the manufacturer in such a way as to meet their expectations by working with the dealers, distributors, consultants and service agents in the territory," he says. In doing so, Kelly says the successful manufacturers' reps will train the dealers and their sales reps on the various products they sell. "Our strength is in our relationships and we are dealer-focused," Kelly says. "But you can't butter your bread on both sides, meaning you can't say you are dealer-focused and sell direct." Regardless of how Kelly chooses to butter his bread these days, there's no denying he's on a roll. |
| John SappoOperations Manager, Daubers Inc., Springfield, Va. - Service Agent | |
For some people, the foodservice industry just gets in their blood and they have a hard time leaving their work at the office. That's the case with John Sappo, operations manager, Daubers Inc., FE&S' 2007 Top Achiever - Service Agent. After a brief career manufacturing handcranked, currency counting machines, Sappo needed to make a change when his employer was forced out of business due to the advent of electronic counting packages. So in 1985, Sappo accepted a customer service position with F.A.S.T. (Food Automation Service Techniques) in Stratford, Conn., and over the next four years developed a true appreciation for the foodservice equipment industry. "I learned a lot about the close relationships between the different segments of our industry and how gratifying they can be," he recalls. Then in 1989, Sappo joined Blodgett Combi as national service manager. In this position he created a service manual, which consisted of a lot of photography and engineering work that allowed Sappo to develop an intimate knowledge of how this equipment functions. He also had to identify which of the company's existing service agents could service the product and recruit others en route to establishing a national network for Blodgett. "Back then it was hard to get people to work on a highly specialized piece of equipment like a combi oven," Sappo says. "I really got to like the independent service companies. "At that time, I felt the industry was changing," Sappo recalls. "So, I wanted to settle in a region where I could continue to work in foodservice." As a result, in 1999, Sappo joined Daubers Inc., a family-held service agency, and moved to Virginia. In his role as operations manager and self-proclaimed "fun coordinator," Sappo works with all levels of staff helping them enhance their business and communication skills to help better serve customers and grow the company's business. As part of these efforts, Sappo coordinates most of the training programs in which Daubers' employees participate to remain up-to-date on the latest technologies. When developing a training initiative, Sappo approaches it by first illustrating how to operate the piece of equipment properly and then he shows participants the location of the critical parts. With those sections complete, he goes on to present the overall theory behind how the equipment works and discusses troubleshooting and preventative maintenance. In preparing these training presentations, Sappo pays lots of attention to structure and takes into account how service agents have evolved since he first entered the industry. "A service agent is not 'the rag man' any more," Sappo says. "These people are highly trained and when they are out in the field they are your eyes and ears. So, you have to respect what they say." He also works closely with area manufacturer reps and dealers to facilitate live cooking equipment demonstrations in each of Daubers' test kitchens. "I like working with the demonstrating chefs, the ones that take pride in what they do," says Sappo, who also understands the important role such events play in relationship-building throughout the supply chain. "The stronger the relationships between the dealers and the service agents, the better the market performs. It's the ones without the relationships that continue to struggle. "Our payback for hosting those events is in the involvement," Sappo says. "Customers get more familiar with us and hopefully when they need service they remember Daubers." Along those lines, Sappo also plays a key role in company-hosted social events, too. "I enjoy coordinating the events, planning the menus and am passionate about cooking for the events in our test kitchen," he says. In fact, Sappo's passion about cooking with combis runs so deep that he has one installed in his own home and cites one of his hobbies as regularly preparing meals using this complicated piece of equipment. He also used to donate his time and other resources to a New England-area culinary college while working for Blodgett. Looking to the future, Sappo feels the industry would benefit through more formalized training initiatives on a much broader level. "As far as I know, you really can't earn a degree in servicing commercial appliances," he says. "And we are looking for people that have a gas, plumbing and electrical background and can bring them all together at once. It's tough to find someone that matches our criteria. You have to be prepared to bring in the younger blood and get them trained before our existing workforce starts to retire." An active member of CFESA since 1985, Sappo participates in the association's annual standing Membership Service Committee and has served two terms on the organization's board of directors. In addition, MAFSI recognized Sappo for Outstanding Leadership in a co-chairman position, and the Electric Foodservice Council, another organization that he belongs to, presented Sappo with its Trade Ally of the Year Award. Sappo cites several people as having a lasting impact on his career, including Ben Koether and Mario Ceste of F.A.S.T. "They taught me the importance of careful strategic market planning and implementation in our industry," he says. Another person Sappo points to is Carla Strickland, CFESA executive director. "Since I started in the industry, Carla has given me many tasks and opportunities that have proven personally and professionally helpful in my life and career path," he says. And of Charles Eiwen, president and owner of Daubers Inc., Sappo says, "Chuck has taught me many lessons in our daily service business as a friend and as one of the kindest business owners that I know. At Daubers, it's like a lifestyle that is fun and rewarding." As for Sappo, the reward rests in the relationships. "This industry is all about relationships and I really enjoy that. I am really sincere about that." |
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