Ben E. Keith section

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KAREN E. SEGRAVE

BRINGING MORE THAN JUST FOOD TO YOUR TABLE

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Ben E. Keith has established itself as a broadline foodservice distributor ... but with

of a small business.

SINCE ITS FOUNDING IN 1906, the Ben E. Keith Company has understood the importance of making the communities it serves better places to live. Benjamin Ellington Keith was the first salesman hired for the Harkrider Morrison Company, a produce company in Fort Worth, Texas. Keith took ownership of the company in 1924 and developed partnerships that the company maintains today, including one with Anheuser-Busch after Keith met Adolphus Busch in 1928. The company has been expanding and breaking new ground ever since, and with eight locations in the United States, Ben E. Keith has established itself as a broadline foodservice distributor with the resources of a national company, but the care and spirit of a small business.

BEN E. KEITH MID-SOUTH

calls a 429,302 square-foot campus in North Little Rock home. This distribution center serves the entire state of Arkansas and portions of Louisiana, Oklahoma, Missouri, Mississippi and Tennessee, and it’s a facility that was built with a commitment to Ben E. Keith customers and to the future of the communities the company serves. The Ben E. Keith Mid-South Distribution Center, including the warehouse, is LEED Silver Certified through the U.S. Green Building Council, which means sustainability and public health were top priorities in the design and construction of the facility, and they remain priorities in the day-to-day operations of the center.

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and spirit

COMPLEMENTS OF BEN E. KEITH

the care

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“We’re still about the people, which makes us about the

KAREN E. SEGRAVE

customer.”

— Rusty Mathis, general manager of Ben E. Keith Mid-South.

BEN E. KEITH FOODS UNDERSTANDS its customers’ needs, and the Mid-South Distribution

KAREN E. SEGRAVE

Center was built to meet and exceed them. Starting in the administrative offices, customers know they’re speaking with a real person when they call Mid-South’s local buying staff, because Ben E. Keith Foods wants to be the local choice. Yvette Parker, director of marketing for Ben E. Keith Foods Mid-South, said calls are not outsourced to an offcampus call center, but instead received by onsite employees who are able to help customers find solutions quickly and efficiently. “We hear all of the time how reassuring it is for our customers to know that most anything can be solved in a single call,” Parker said. And at the Mid-South Distribution Center, collaborative working environments — assessed and approved by the Herman Miller Living Office workplace concept — encourage teamwork and transparency among the staff, ensuring that customers are served by a team that’s happy to come to work and communicates and coordinates to best serve their customers.

Rusty Mathis, general manager of Ben E. Keith Mid-South, said people are at the center of what the company does.

“We’re named after an individual and we’re still family-owned,” Mathis said. “We’re still about the people, which makes us about the customer.” It’s this emphasis on the humanity of the customers they serve and the people they employ that sets Ben E. Keith Foods apart.

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The Mid-South Distribution Center is home

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to a full-time health care specialist.

WHEN CUSTOMERS WORK WITH BEN E. KEITH FOODS, they’re working with a team of people dedicated to helping them succeed, but not just in distribution. The Mid-South Distribution Center is home to a full-time health care specialist and dietician who offers nutritional analysis, child care programs and menu automation services; a full-time technology specialist who offers onsite and over-the-phone training with the company’s online ordering system, ACH payment system and route tracker; and a special ordering partner with access to over 40,000 products, including organic, gluten-free, GMO-free and local products. They also offer a menu solution program, menu development, and menu engineering and design, and their experts in produce, dairy, seafood, pork, beef, poultry, paper goods, chemicals, equipment and supplies are available to help customers with their specific needs.

THE MID-SOUTH DISTRIBUTION CENTER

is also cooking up solutions for customers in the facility’s test kitchen. Their onsite chef leads cooking demonstrations, helps with menu planning and works to produce countless combinations of the products that Ben E. Keith Foods offers. The test kitchen is also used for employee and community gatherings as a common space to congregate, eat and learn. Customers can reserve the test kitchen to use for training purposes or demonstrations as well.

A live feed from the test kitchen can also be streamed into the large conference room on the facility’s first floor, which was built to offer a space for customers and community partners to lead meetings, trainings and demonstrations. The space was designed to accommodate different types and sizes of groups, so it can be split into three rooms or used as one large space. The Mid-South Distribution Center was built to help support customers’ businesses because Ben E. Keith Foods knows that when its customers succeed, communities succeed, too.

Ben E. Keith Foods knows that when customers succeed, communities

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succeed, too.

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CUSTOMER SUCCESS DEPENDS

on their orders being delivered safely and on time. Food safety is a top priority for Ben E. Keith Foods, and the Mid-South Distribution Center has a 99.28% food-safety audit score to prove it. The warehouse facility is audited every year by a thirdparty auditor, and it is certified to a food-safety standard recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative. “The audit itself is a two-day review where every process that we have is verified as documented, current and signed,” said Michael Roach, director of operations. “All paperwork from receiving and shipping is reviewed for accuracy. The facility inside and out is inspected for cleanliness and maintenance upkeep. We are graded on standard operating procedures’ accuracy, documentation, involvement of the entire organization, code dates and temperatures of food and storage areas: the cold chain.” That 99.28% score means customers can be assured that the cold chain is protected and they are receiving only the highest quality products.

“Food safety is paramount to us, and we believe that it should be paramount for our customers as well,” Mathis said. As general manager of Ben E. Keith Foods Mid-South, Mathis said that “in today’s environment, you hear about all the product recalls, and we want to protect the food all the way into the customer’s establishment. In fact, we consult with them on the best ways for them to store their products.” In addition to food safety and handling consultations with customers, Ben E. Keith Foods also sponsors and hosts ServSafe courses.

“Food safety is paramount to us, and we believe that it should be paramount for our customers as well.”

— Rusty Mathis

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THE MID-SOUTH DISTRIBUTION CENTER

“We are intentionally different about how we go to market, different than your average wholesaler.”

— Rusty Mathis

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was built with customer success in mind, and Ben E. Keith Foods understands that customer success depends on access to quality products. “We are intentionally different about how we go to market, different than your average wholesaler,” Mathis said. “One of our go-to market strategies is offering brands our customers know and prefer, which means we still offer a lot of nationally branded products, along with our exclusive brands and private label.” That’s why they’ve expanded their product offerings to include thousands of brands, including Kraft, Heinz, Pillsbury, McCormick, Tyson, Kellogg’s, Rubbermaid, Solo and many more, as well as the Ben E. Keith Foods exclusive brands and private labels, like the Essentials, Homestyle and Ellington Farm brands.

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IN ORDER TO HOUSE those expanded

“With this

brand offerings, the 350,132 square-foot warehouse facility at the Mid-South Distribution Center was built with room to grow and room for Ben E. Keith customers’ businesses to grow. Parker, the Mid-South director of marketing, said the large facility will allow for customers to have more choices in their own businesses. “With this new large warehouse, we are able to source and bring in more items to expand the number of items we have, not only in quantity, but in diversity of items,” she said. The technology at work in the warehouse ensures efficient, accurate order retrieval through the automated storage and retrieval system. The ASRS in the dry storage and freezer areas has a combined 19,000 locations.

“Instead of dedicating an entire pallet or rack space for an item across the warehouse, it condenses the storage area by putting the product on trays and going up into the air,” Roach, director of operations, said. All day every day, every time an order is placed for one of those items, it rotates locations around so that any of those potential items are stocked at the ground level for a selector. This allows us to carry more items and more choices for our customers.”

The ASRS has also allowed the warehouse facility to open the selection of products for restaurants, such as special menu ingredients and specific utensils or tableware.

new large warehouse, we are able to source and bring in more items to expand the number of items we have, not only in quantity, but in diversity of items.”

— Yvette Parker, Mid-South director of marketing

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AS A BROADLINE FOODSERVICE DISTRIBUTOR, “We have full control

over the maintenance and welfare of our vehicles.”

— Rusty Mathis

FOR BEN E. KEITH FOODS, customer service doesn’t stop on the doorstep. Its delivery drivers ensure customers’ needs are met accurately, on time, and with care. Ben E. Keith customers are happy customers because this dedication to service reaches beyond the threshold of customers’ businesses. “We buy from Ben E. Keith because they offer the freshest products available. We have a knowledgeable salesman, and their deliveries are on time,” said Steve Binotti, executive chef of Petit & Keet.

BEN E. KEITH MID-SOUTH DIVISION 1 Ben E. Keith Way North Little Rock, AR 72117 501-978-5000 BRIAN CHILSON

Ben E. Keith Foods depends on its drivers and vehicles to ensure employees and their orders arrive safely at their destinations. That’s why Mid-South’s Truck Maintenance Garage is a one-stop destination for truck drivers. Complete with a fueling island, a truck wash and eight mechanic bays, the Truck Maintenance Garage allows for drivers to have all their needs met in one place. “We have full control over the maintenance and welfare of our vehicles, which is very important to us, for the comforts of our drivers to their safety on the roadway,” Mathis said.

YVETTE PARKER Director of Marketing Ymparker@benekeith.com