Concession Services Inc. (CSI), a Chicago-area vending and OCS product distributor is no longer serving the vending industry, the company confirmed Wednesday, May 27, 2015. Earlier this month, the operating assets of CSI’s concessions division were acquired by Food and Paper Supply Company (FPS) of Chicago, including the vending customer list.
“When we purchased certain assets of Concession Services, it was our intention to service the CSI customer base,” Danny Friedman, vice president and co-owner of FPS told VendingMarketWatch.com. “We have found that there were challenges in processing orders properly that we weren’t anticipating. As a result we have suspended our CSI deliveries while we manage our original foodservice operations.”
FSP is a foodservice distributor owned by Danny Friedman and Bruce Goldberg. It has been serving the Chicagoland area since 1977. Its main customers are restaurants and other concession establishments, so the vending community was a new area of distributing for FSP. Running both sides of the business, foodservice and vending, presented some obstacles.
“We decided we have to do one thing well, and we didn’t want to treat the CSI community unfairly by shorting them product and being late or not making appointments,” explained Friedman. “Instead, we chose to suspend distribution to the vendor community for now.”
Friedman did say he believes the company will find a way to service the vending channel in the future, however could not give a timeframe.
A long history with vending
Started by Paul Rosenbaum in the 1970s, CSI was a well-known vending and OCS distributor in the Midwest. For more than a decade, it had been holding an annual open house for suppliers and area-vendors. Those nearby would flock to the regional shows which included what became CSI’s famous pork chops – free to attendees. “People love them,” said Edith Leonian when she was CEO of CSI. She was CEO until her death in April 2013. Paul Rosenbaum was Edith’s father.
