The day-to-day efforts of John Dunion, Michele Varian and Jeff Tunks are crucial to the success of their respective companies. As the executives charged with buying the food that fuels each of their brands, they have far-reaching responsibilities that affect numerous aspects of their businesses, including product development, quality control and profitability.
The following special report, an annual Nation’s Restaurant News installation called “A Day in the Life,” gives readers a glimpse into each executive’s day as they monitor commodities markets, review inventories, interact with suppliers, gear up for limited-time offers, and, ultimately, ensure that guests enjoy satisfying and safe meals at their restaurants.
Dunion, executive vice president of supply chain management for Carpinteria, Calif.-based CKE Restaurants Inc., oversees nearly $1 billion in purchases annually for the parent of the 1,195-unit Carl’s Jr. and 1,908-unit Hardee’s quick-service chains.
“It’s been a wild ride in the past two years,” Dunion says, pointing to changing global demands, fluctuations in currency values and market speculators on costs and purchasing practices.
Varian, vice president of strategic sourcing for Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc., is in charge of $600 million in annual spending for the parent of the 580-unit similarly named family-dining chain based in Lebanon, Tenn.
And Tunks, partner and chef at Passion Food Hospitality, operator of five casual-dining restaurants in Washington, D.C., helps the chefs at his properties navigate about $12 million a year in purchases, much of it for the costly and perishable seafood for which Passion Food properties are known.
Because each executive works in a different industry segment for companies that vary greatly in size, the tempo of their days is markedly different. But because food is at the very heart of the restaurant industry, the importance of what they do is impossible to ignore.
JOHN DUNION executive vice president of supply chain management for CKE Restaurants Inc., parent of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s Food Systems, Inc., Carpinteria, Calif. Having a West Coast wakeup time ensures John Dunion is in catch-up mode from the moment his day begins at 6:30 a.m. Numbers from international commodities markets already are pouring into his computer as Dunion mulls where they might lead U.S. markets upon opening. “We have to have an understanding where those markets are in order to maximize our spend for both brands,” says Dunion, who as executive vice president of supply chain management for CKE Restaurants Inc. oversees nearly $1 billion dollars in purchases for the company’s Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s quick-service brands. “It’s been a wild ride in the past two years,” he notes. “You’ve got global demands affecting prices, severe fluctuations in currency values and political initiatives that affect that, too. You add into that the market speculators and index trading funds, and it all combines to affect our costs and how we purchase. We really work to foresee market trends, manage our risk and protect our position.” Dunion’s mention of “we” includes the efforts of his two purchasing vice presidents, Russ Costello for 1,195-unit Carl’s Jr., and Perry Krieg for 1,908-unit Hardee’s, both of whom he calls invaluable to his own success. “We have to be in sync to make all this work well,” he says. He adds, “Though I start my day on Central Time, it ends on Pacific Time. At that time of night, all of us are working on our Blackberries.” Dunion attends a host of daily meetings to ensure the multiple teams he oversees are working together. “Between QA and the supply chain, I’m responsible for 55 people,” he says. “That means on any given day we could be in negotiations with suppliers, talking about our position coverage on the commodities market, and going over things like financial reports or cost savings initiatives.” Or he could be meeting with franchisee groups or outside suppliers about product costs. “We have committees and boards within each franchise group to address their specific needs,” Dunion says. “We meet with them routinely and share feedback about what they need done and how we can help.” Dunion also helps prepare information for the company’s quarterly public reports. At any time, he must be able to digest and interpret massive amounts of data and report to CKE’s senior executives, operators and shareholders on how market forces will impact the bottom line. “I have to have a physical presence in all the areas I manage, and that’s the toughest part of my job,” he says. “No matter what’s going on, our team has to be able to stop everything…and get on a plane to get in to see a supplier the next day if necessary. It’s not that often that we travel like that, but there are times when we do.” JOHN DUNION AGE: 51EMPLOYER: CKE Restaurants Inc., Carpinteria, Calif.TITLE: executive vice president of supply chain managementLENGTH OF TENURE: 13 yearsCAREER MILESTONES: Learning food procurement and processing at Jack in the Box and Taco BellPROFESSIONAL ASPIRATIONS: To continue to see CKE be a very successful company.HOMETOWN: Media, Pa.PERSONAL: wife Elsa; son John and daughter TiffanyFAVORITE PASTIMES: working out, playing golf and watching sports As a young man, Dunion actually aspired to work on offshore oil rigs, yet he found work first in the food-processing business. He says he quickly took to the business, and what followed was a cross-country hopscotch between posts at Black Eyed Pea and Taco Bell, as well as a pair of lengthy runs in product development and procurement at Jack in the Box. He was hired by Carpinteria, Calif.-based CKE in 1996, where his job responsibilities widened significantly. “At any point in time, we’ll have over 100 food, packaging and services contracts in place, so we’ve got a lot of people to talk to during any day,” says Dunion. Building respectful relationships with those suppliers while focusing on CKE’s profitability is a balancing act, he adds. “If you compete with people, but treat them fairly, they respect you,” he says. “…If you only do win-lose deals, they’ll find a way to cheat you back. I don’t think you can sleep at night without the assurance that a supplier respects you and will cover you if there’s a problem.” A day-ending workout helps Dunion sleep, too, he adds. “It gets rid of the stress of the day before I get home,” he says. “I can totally decompress there.” MICHELE VARIAN vice president of strategic sourcing for Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc., Lebanon, Tenn. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store’s 580 units are alive and humming at 6:30 a.m., so it makes sense that Michele Varian is up and working at that hour as well. But you won’t find Varian in the restaurants serving platters brimming with Southern foods. Instead, she’s pondering the day’s challenges and opportunities as she drives to the office. “I start thinking about that day’s hot buttons, whether they’re ongoing projects or whether we’re in the middle of negotiations with a supplier,” says Varian, vice president of strategic sourcing for Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc. “I’m recalibrating and setting my mind on what needs to be done.” And that’s a lot. Varian is in charge of $600 million in annual spending for the Lebanon, Tenn.-based family-dining chain. Varian has been with the company for four years, but she was promoted to the top purchasing post in May. The job finds her managing multiple teams whose members she addresses before the office technically opens. “We’ve learned that those early morning hours are great times to touch base and look for things that might become the next bottleneck for that day,” she says. “We get a lot of tactical things done at the start.” Early on in Varian’s day, she analyzes commodities markets, and she and her team communicate regularly about “what our futures positions are, how we might hedge our risk in a certain area, and how that affects our negotiations with our suppliers.” She has several regularly scheduled meetings that allow her to keep tabs on projects underway as well as her charges’ progress. “I do like to focus on personal development; it’s important,” she says. “I expect each director of the departments I work with to be the CEO of their segment of the business.” Varian says experience also has taught her to rely heavily on outside suppliers for information. She says they have their thumbs on the pulse of the industry and help her see where it’s headed. Varian says she hopes to travel more to visit suppliers personally, but that for now, “my time and resources are best spent here in the office.” Among Varian’s responsibilities is helping with new product trials. Cracker Barrel has a well-established limited-time offering calendar, she says, and it’s her job to make sure supplies for new rollouts arrive on time in restaurants. MICHELE VARIAN AGE: 48COMPANY: Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc.TITLE: vice president, strategic sourcingLENGTH OF TENURE: four yearsCAREER MILESTONES: becoming vice president of CBOCS; relocating to CBOCS purchasing department; MBA in international management from University of Texas, DallasPROFESSIONAL ASPIRATIONS: “To be a productive member of a successful organization and help those around me grow and develop.”HOMETOWN: Irving, TexasPERSONAL: husband Dave; daughter Angela and son DavidFAVORITE PASTIMES: genealogy, reading history, travel “As I’m tasting those, I’m asking myself, ‘How can we can source those products effectively?’” she says. “One thing I learned when I came here was about Cracker Barrel’s high product standards. Now it’s my job to maintain them by making sure the products we get meet our specs. That’s an ongoing challenge” that her portion of the company addresses “with regular supplier audits.” Varian says the lone drawback of her new post is that it didn’t come “with a crystal ball. In the course of one day, there’s so much I look at that’s out there in the future. And trying to manage what goes on here daily and have it support our future objectives takes a lot of time and resources.” Time away from the office for relaxation is also important. For Varian, that starts about 12 hours after the day began. “I try to be out by 6 so I can get home and spend some time with my husband,” she says. But even then, she adds, “there’s always one last check of voice mail and email.” JEFF TUNKS partner and chef, Passion Food Hospitality, Washington, D.C. Jeff Tunks prides himself on being a hands-on chef, but as a partner in five restaurants, including PassionFish, DC Coast, Acadiana, TenPenh and Ceiba, he can be only so many places at once. So Tunks, partner and chef for Passion Food Hospitality in Washington, D.C., relies heavily on email to know what each restaurant needs, and to guide his chefs on purchasing products. “Every morning I get 10 emails—five from the front-of-the-house and five from the back-of-the-house of each restaurant—and those include logs of what happened the day before, things like sales breakdowns, [receivables] returned, 86’ed items…everything I need to know about what we’re spending with each company,” Tunks says. “I can then compare that to daily sales, get a daily food cost…and guide them in purchasing.” When Passion Food was started 11 years ago, Tunks established a highly trainable system of procurement that requires his closing chefs to conduct nightly inventories and leave recorded orders for providers to receive in the morning. To “teach them and get the chefs into the rhythm of purchasing the right amount,” he insists they call him after each night’s close to go over the next day’s order. “That means having them call me after 11 each night to tell me what they have left in house. They do that until they get it down.” Tunks puts the annual spending for food and beverage at all five restaurants at $12 million, much of which is dedicated to the costly, perishable seafood for which his restaurants are known. At PassionFish, opened last year, particular focus goes to the sushi bar, where Tunks says you can find him eating lunch almost daily. “Not only do I love eating it, it’s good for me, and I get no better idea of the quality of product we’re getting than by trying it myself,” he says. Though Tunks’ chefs actually call in their own orders, he maintains regular contact with suppliers to discuss where and how they source their products. That includes regular visits to their companies and trips abroad. Tunks has visited Iceland to tour fish-processing plants and Nicaragua to find coffee. Before opening his Asian-themed spot, TenPenh, he toured Southeast Asia for menu ideas and suppliers. The morning emails also tell Tunks whether products received meet his strict standards. If not, suppliers hear from Tunks personally. JEFF TUNKS AGE: 47EMPLOYER: Passion Food HospitalityTITLE: partner and executive chefLENGTH OF TENURE: 11 yearsCAREER MILESTONES: 1983 graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, N.Y., where he received the Francis L. Roth award for outstanding performance by a student; worked for chef Dean Fearing at the Loews AnatolePROFESSIONAL ASPIRATIONS: “To remain a great chef and become a great restaurateur.”HOMETOWN: DallasPERSONAL: wife Katharine; sons Jordan and BradleyFAVORITE PASTIMES: skiing and golfing with sons, spending time at Outer Banks, N.C., beach home “Our guys really go through what comes through the door before accepting any of it,” he says. “If a particular vendor doesn’t perform well for me, I put them in the penalty box for a while.” Soaring food costs over the past three years made running seafood-centered concepts tough, Tunks says. But ironically, he says the recent economic downturn has benefitted his costs. “With fine dining struggling like it is, there’s a little bit of a glut of high-quality seafood,” he says. “We’re getting 1-pound lobsters for $5.50 right now, so I can put that on a lobster roll and serve it for $16.… Yeah, our sales are off some, too. But with food cost improving, we can still be profitable even with the slowdown.”