Even though Ken Nagel heads a company that is expected to gross more than $300 million this year, he tries to be actively involved with customers.
“They can reach me,” he said.
Nagel is president and co-owner of Fox River Foods, an independent distributor in Montgomery, Ill., and winner of the 2008 IFMA Excellence in Distribution Award. The company prides itself on continuing to operate like a small business even though it outgrew that designation years ago.
“Most companies change after they get to $20 million,” he says. “But we haven’t lost our upbringing.”
How does “operating like a small business” translate in today’s economy? It’s all about being customer-centric. It means there has to be a well-trained sales force and a top-notch system to provide near-flawless distribution. To accomplish the former, a good deal of focus goes into supporting the sales team. Regular training and sales meetings keep them up on product knowledge.
Fox River promotes national brands rather than private-label products, so broker reps conduct a lot of training. Broker reps also frequently accompany the distributor reps to customer accounts to demonstrate product applications and introduce new items. Longevity helps, too.
“We don’t have a lot of turnover,” Nagel said, adding that the average tenure of a sales person is 10.5 years.
Customer training and education is a specialty of Fox River. In addition to an annual accredited seminar for dietary and health care customers, a number of services are available to customers on-site. These cover such areas as reducing costs, menu planning techniques, suggestive selling and food safety.
Fox River would not be mistaken for a small company behind the scenes. It recently increased its space to a new 283,000-square-foot, multi-temperature expanded facility. In addition to corporate headquarters, it has 15 distribution terminals and five sales offices spread across its six-state territory.
Fox River turned 60 last year. It began when Erwin Nagel bought a meat locker plant in 1948. As the years went by and the restaurant industry grew, the company added dry, frozen and refrigerated products. In 1981, son Ken Nagel and a partner, Frank Karabetsos, bought the company. As co-owners, the two share the responsibilities. Karabetsos, who is executive vice president, handles the technical side of things while Nagel oversees sales, marketing and purchasing.
The company pioneered with technology in distribution, arming its sales force with laptops in 1989. It developed its own prototype program called eFoods for electronic order-taking, inventory control, usage reports and the like. The program became so popular that the company has made it available to other distributors. Nagel says 50 distributors have contracted to use the system.
Commenting on how the economy affects distribution, Nagel said it’s important to be cautious and watch receivables so they don’t get out of hand.
“We’re not a bank,” he said. “We’re just here to sell groceries.”
He believes there still are exciting opportunities for independent distributors that can be more flexible than their corporate counterparts.
One detail that characterizes Nagel’s approach to customer service is his insistence that his team write thank you notes to customers by hand. Thank you cards are good, but “handwritten” is the key. It’s the personal touch that really counts, he explained.
