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Case Study: Kitchen Partners Limited
Refresh your business model: Concentrate on providing greater value for your customers.
Details: Kitchen Partners Limited
Employees: 55
Sector: Food Processing
Key Business Activity: Developing custom food products for clients across Canada
Contact: 2545-96 St
Edmonton, AB T6N 1E3
780-438-9300
www.kitchenpartners.com
Jeff Clark is an early riser. The president and COO of Edmonton-based custom food manufacturer Kitchen Partners Limited gets to work every day when most people are still in bed. “Our business is in full flight by 6 a.m.,” says Clark.
Clark says progress had already been made to improving productivity by the time he arrived four years ago, but a new business model was required. The company had no strategic plan and there were some gaps in management and employee capabilities.
It was also a two-fold operation that offered both food distribution and food processing services. “We made changes, and we made the decision to grow both sides of the business and determine later if we wanted to change the model again,” says Clark, who brought along experience gleaned at Maple Leaf Foods and Labatt. One of the primary moves was the name change in 2006. Founded as Floron Foods Services Inc. in 1984, the management team wanted a name that better represented company culture: Kitchen Partners. The “partners,” Clark says, describes the relationship between the company and its clients (including major players such as Boston Pizza) and the relationship between ownership and employees.
Clark assembled a new management team that would collectively create the company’s building blocks, focusing on appropriate staff and a viable strategic plan to move forward. Employees were engaged and constantly asked for input. With a strong team and direction in place, Kitchen Partners experienced tremendous growth in the first three years of the new model.
Last summer, they made another bold change — they eliminated the distribution arm of the business, a big risk given that it comprised the lion’s share of Kitchen Partners’ revenues.
Distribution, Clark suggests, offers slim margins. Following this latest change to the business model, food processing has grown five-fold. (KPL makes custom stirred foods, assembled foods, starches and proteins for clients.) “We focused on creating value for customers because we are exclusively a custom processing facility,” says Clark, emphasizing the company’s commitment to using the best and freshest ingredients in their products. “We don’t sell Kitchen Partner brands. We work for a number of food service operators across Canada. We like to call ourselves a solutions provider.”
Clarks says there’s greater clarity within the company. Previously it had two businesses with two models that required care and feeding. Now, with one focus, it can build the world-class capabilities necessary to compete. With growth running at about 25 to 30 per cent annually, the goal of becoming a $50-million company is in sight.
Building Blocks
“We sat down one day and said we’re essentially building our company from scratch. We wanted to list the necessary things to make a company great. Any organization could look at this list and ask, ‘How are we doing?’ Test it one day, then go back and test it six weeks later, then a year later. It’s about continuous improvement if you want to compete on a global stage,” says Jeff Clark, president and COO, Kitchen Partners. Here’s the list of questions business owners should ask themselves:
- Do we have the best people to grow and sustain the company?
- Do we have a plan to address gaps and issues that exist?
- Are we building a culture that’s meaningful and sustainable?
- Do we regularly thank, reward and support our employees, partners and suppliers?
- Do we understand the critical processes that support our company? Are they documented, reviewed and constantly updated to improve performance?
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