There’s no substitute for a good attitude and business acumen. It can make or break a company, even a large, second generation vending operation. For nearly 14 years Jeff Whitacre has been leading Food Express, a 30 prekitted route independent vending operation in Greensboro, N.C. When asked about his job, Whitacre doesn’t talk about cutting costs or pending legislation. Instead he is optimistic, with an ability to pull together different team members and utilize everyone’s strengths.
Fresh food was always central to the company’s service and Whitacre continues that tradition today with fresh food accounting for a significant amount of the company’s revenues. He also invests in various technological advances that help him run the business more efficiently and with a better bottom line. However, the real key to success in Whitacre’s mind is working more on his company, than in it. “My role is to provide the vision, leadership, protection and individual advancement of my team,” said Whitacre.
Vending as a summer job
When Whitacre was 15, he started working summers at Servomation Corp., a national vending and food service company based in New York. His father, Bill Whitacre, also worked at the company as a division president. After 22 years at Servomation, Bill Whitacre and his wife, Nadine, decided to launch their own vending and food service company. They called it Food Express and ran it out of their Greensboro, N.C. basement.
Jeff Whitacre joined the family business full-time in 1990 after graduating from Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. He started in key account sales moving swiftly to vice president of dining service and then president and chief executive officer in 2000. “Food Express has had a great run, we’ve grown to over $25,000,000 in sales, paid off our debt, provided a great place to work for our associates and had a lot of fun along the way,” said Whitacre.
Focus on fresh food
Food Express has a significant number of foodservice operations in addition to its thousands of vending machines, micro markets and office coffee service locations. “The focus on fresh food, customer service, our employees and technological advancements have propelled us to one of the largest independent food service companies in the country,” said Whitacre. Fresh food accounts for 15 percent of the company’s vending sales, and 25 percent across micro markets.
Food Express has implemented USConnect's proprietary “Right Choice for a Healthier You” wellness program across all of its service sectors. Developed by USConnect’s Registered & Certified Dietician, Carmen Gorniak, this program allows Whitacre to address the consumer demands for healthier options. He also makes it a common practice to stock more than 30 percent of Food Express’s snack machines with healthy selections. “Healthy products do sell,” adds Whitacre who uses dynamic merchandising software to determine the best mix of healthy items.
Technology is paramount
All of Food Express’ 4,000 vending machines utilize wireless telemetry, pre-kitting, cashless and loyalty programs. Cashless in particular has been a valuable investment for Whitacre. He reports that more than 20 percent of his vending sales come from cashless payments and more than 70 percent of the foodservice sales. “The cashless percentage of sales increases every month and operators must embrace this to survive,” said Whitacre.
For Whitacre, technology can be utilized to combat some of the most common vending industry struggles: declining same store sales, governmental scrutiny and even consumer irrelevance. “My goal is to transform the way we do business, the way our consumer interacts with us and significantly improve our industry image,” explained Whitacre. His strives to become not just a successful vending operator but instead a food and beverage retailer.
Micro markets have a place
Another rapidly expanding arena for Food Express is the micro market segment. Currently, the company operates 40 micro markets. “The consumer loves the concept but my biggest concern centers around margin predictability,” said Whitacre. Food Express runs monthly, individual micro market profit and loss statements. “There’s no doubt in my mind the P&L is tight and we’ve got room for improvement,” Whitacre said.
Whitacre sees operators jumping into micro markets because their competitors are offering them or they see the chance for increased sales. In doing this, those operators tend to ignore their vending segment and what could be improved in that area. Whitacre believes these operators might be better served by focusing on changing the view of their vending operation. He wants to see them look to change inefficient operations and consumer irrelevant vending machines because it is this segment that makes up the majority of their revenues. “My feeling is that both micro markets and vending machines have their place in our industry,” said Whitacre. “I caution operators not to ignore either.” As an operator that has many segments Whitacre sees foodservice operations, vending machines and micro markets simply as ways of delivering what the consumer wants when they want it. He believes that in order to transform the industry, operators must be professionals in all of these segments.
Leadership wins
Whitacre credits his leadership style for the company’s very low turnover rate. “With over two hundred employees, our turnover is so low we don’t even track it,” he said. His positive attitude sets a tone for the organization as it continues to move forward. “Bottom line, I’m as optimistic about our industry today as I was when I flipped my first hamburger and filled my first vending machine at 15,” said Whitacre.
