Yes
Okay now that we got that out of the way. I'm pretty excited about switching over to GFS. This whole industry is going through a paradigm shift and in a way it's kind of exciting to see what happens. Freight is freight it's always going to be there, beverage distribution is a boring consistent, but boring stagnant industry sure it's gone through consolidation, but it's all the same crap. You have you're distributors that sell whatever they sell and that's pretty much it, not a ton of competition in that industry because of how beverages are regulated.
However switching over to GFS should be kind of exciting the company is growing, sure it will have some growing pains and I my self am growing as a person as well which also leads to growing pains of my own, so I am not looking at the world with rose colored glasses on, I don't want anyone to think that for a minute and trust me I don't want to sound Naive either.
However I've never been in this kind of situation before either, I've never gotten to work for a company that is growing and dynamic. Especially in this industry where you have some larger regional distributors like the company Double R works for that have high quality product offerings lower employee overturn and solid union c0ntracts. I tried to get on with R's sister company time after time and they never bit.
On the other hand you have bigger local companies like Hillcrest Food Service of Cleveland, Ohio they are a local only have one warehouse, but their tentacles reach fairly far.
However the major game changer is the SYstems and Services COmpany merging with US Foods that's a huge paradigm shift.
Sure you have some other nationals like Reinhardt, but not to many people seem to care about Reinhardt or view them as anything major (sorry Food Guy) I know Reinhardt here in Cleveland really only does Subways and a couple other chains Famous Daves BBQ is the only one I can think of they might do Quaker Steak and Lube out of Sharon, PA as well I don't know and don't really care to much about them.
However what you have now is kind of a David and Goliath situation setting up. Sysco/US merger is huge they will be the biggest baddest kid on the block when that happens. However at the same time the locals and regional distributors are probably excited because a lot of customers will probably jump ship and they will pick up business.
However you have this no name company as far as Sysco is concerned called Gordon Food Service from Grand Rapids that all of a sudden has showed up on the seen and has gone through tremendous growth in the past 10-20 years has built state of the art massive plants across the country runs an extremely large interstate transit operation. I see GFS trucks on I-71 pulling doubles at all hours of the day, in Michigan it's the same you'll see GFS trucks everywhere running around.
Same with around Springfield, Ohio in 2004 we went down to the Air Force Museum in Dayton and on the way back I kept seeing all these GFS trucks on I-70 tons and tons of them then all of sudden out of nowhere this huge massive warehouse that you can see from the highway appeared and it's there Springfield Plant and I said well that explains that.
Anyhow what I see happening is you have a David vs Goliath situation setting up only David isn't so small. Pretty soon you'll have in the next few years Sysco vs GFS it's going to come down to that. I don't know how it can't. Kind of excited to be part of this a little, which is why I think I might be nuts.
I'll just have to roll up my sleeves and get ready to work really really hard.
The way I see it it's brutal competition now and only the best in service and selection will survive. Now obviously it's impossible to be perfect in those things all the time. All I can do is deliver the products the best I can. Strive for excellence because perfection is not attainable. Also try to keep this attitude.
It's interesting GFS said their strategy was that they don't advertise the way Sysco and US does. They run along the lines of if we do it right and continue to work on doing it right we will gain success on those principals. Well so far it surely seems to be working out.
Okay now that we got that out of the way. I'm pretty excited about switching over to GFS. This whole industry is going through a paradigm shift and in a way it's kind of exciting to see what happens. Freight is freight it's always going to be there, beverage distribution is a boring consistent, but boring stagnant industry sure it's gone through consolidation, but it's all the same crap. You have you're distributors that sell whatever they sell and that's pretty much it, not a ton of competition in that industry because of how beverages are regulated.
However switching over to GFS should be kind of exciting the company is growing, sure it will have some growing pains and I my self am growing as a person as well which also leads to growing pains of my own, so I am not looking at the world with rose colored glasses on, I don't want anyone to think that for a minute and trust me I don't want to sound Naive either.
However I've never been in this kind of situation before either, I've never gotten to work for a company that is growing and dynamic. Especially in this industry where you have some larger regional distributors like the company Double R works for that have high quality product offerings lower employee overturn and solid union c0ntracts. I tried to get on with R's sister company time after time and they never bit.
On the other hand you have bigger local companies like Hillcrest Food Service of Cleveland, Ohio they are a local only have one warehouse, but their tentacles reach fairly far.
However the major game changer is the SYstems and Services COmpany merging with US Foods that's a huge paradigm shift.
Sure you have some other nationals like Reinhardt, but not to many people seem to care about Reinhardt or view them as anything major (sorry Food Guy) I know Reinhardt here in Cleveland really only does Subways and a couple other chains Famous Daves BBQ is the only one I can think of they might do Quaker Steak and Lube out of Sharon, PA as well I don't know and don't really care to much about them.
However what you have now is kind of a David and Goliath situation setting up. Sysco/US merger is huge they will be the biggest baddest kid on the block when that happens. However at the same time the locals and regional distributors are probably excited because a lot of customers will probably jump ship and they will pick up business.
However you have this no name company as far as Sysco is concerned called Gordon Food Service from Grand Rapids that all of a sudden has showed up on the seen and has gone through tremendous growth in the past 10-20 years has built state of the art massive plants across the country runs an extremely large interstate transit operation. I see GFS trucks on I-71 pulling doubles at all hours of the day, in Michigan it's the same you'll see GFS trucks everywhere running around.
Same with around Springfield, Ohio in 2004 we went down to the Air Force Museum in Dayton and on the way back I kept seeing all these GFS trucks on I-70 tons and tons of them then all of sudden out of nowhere this huge massive warehouse that you can see from the highway appeared and it's there Springfield Plant and I said well that explains that.
Anyhow what I see happening is you have a David vs Goliath situation setting up only David isn't so small. Pretty soon you'll have in the next few years Sysco vs GFS it's going to come down to that. I don't know how it can't. Kind of excited to be part of this a little, which is why I think I might be nuts.
I'll just have to roll up my sleeves and get ready to work really really hard.
The way I see it it's brutal competition now and only the best in service and selection will survive. Now obviously it's impossible to be perfect in those things all the time. All I can do is deliver the products the best I can. Strive for excellence because perfection is not attainable. Also try to keep this attitude.
It's interesting GFS said their strategy was that they don't advertise the way Sysco and US does. They run along the lines of if we do it right and continue to work on doing it right we will gain success on those principals. Well so far it surely seems to be working out.
