This week on the Titans of Food Service podcast, Nick Portillo speaks with Bill Lewis, the President and CEO of Frosty Acres Brands. They explore the critical role of independent food distributors and how Frosty Acres is leveraging data-driven insights to identify new growth opportunities in the industry. Bill shares his journey from Ohio to Georgia and his extensive experience in food distribution, highlighting the adaptability and customer intimacy that independent distributors offer compared to national broadliners. Nick and Bill also discuss the importance of technology and data analytics in enhancing relationships and driving profitability for suppliers and members alike. 

TIMESTAMPS

(00:15) Introduction to the Titans of Food Service

(02:25) Welcoming Bill Lewis to the Podcast

(07:20) The Evolution of a Cooperative

(22:05) Leveraging Data for Competitive Advantage

(24:47) The Role of AI in Business Growth

(32:09) A Journey Towards More

RESOURCES

Portillo Sales

CONTACT 

Nick: nick.portillo@portillosales.com

There are a million ways to make money in the food service industry.

You just have to find one.

On the Titans of Food Service podcast, I interview real life movers and shakers in the food game who cut through all the noise to get to the top.

My name is Nick Portillo and welcome to the Titans of Food Service podcast.

Let's jump right into it.

On this episode, I'm continuing my journey across America in 50 weeks tour where I travel to each state to interview a food service leader or food service titan, should I say, who is making ways in the industry.

And on this episode, I'm going to be shining the light on the state of Georgia where I'm joined by Bill Lewis.

Bill, he's the president and CEO of Frosty Acres Brands.

Frosty Acres Brands is a national sales, marketing and food service purchasing cooperative that brings independent food distributors together across the United States, Canada and even parts of the Caribbean.

Their mission is to align the sales, marketing and procurement efforts of their members, providing access to national brands and their own private label which they call their exclusive family brands under Restaurants Pride in our conversation today.

So Bill, he's going to share some insights about some exciting new developments at Frosty Acres, including their Data Driven Insights initiative.

This new venture is helping support and independent distributors work together to uncover untapped opportunities and white space to help drive growth through strategic partnerships.

Now, before I dive into my conversation with Bill, I wanted to take a look.

This I've been doing every episode is take a look at the food service industry within that state.

So for Georgia, it's a very vibrant food service scene.

It's known for its rich culinary heritage.

It's also known for southern dishes like fried chicken, collard greens and peach cobbler.

Atlanta specifically is home to some of the nation's top fine dining spots like and I'm going to totally butcher the name of this place, but stick with me Bacchanalia.

While southern staples like the Varsity and Mary Mac's Tea Room remain iconic destinations as well, Georgia's food service industry also benefits from a booming agricultural sector, making it one of the top producers of poultry and peanuts in the country the state.

It's also seen a surge in food truck culture and innovative different farm to table restaurants, keeping the food scene there in the state fresh and exciting.

And without further ado, let's go ahead and welcome Bill.

All right, Bill, how are you?

Welcome to the Titans of Foodservice podcast.

I appreciate you taking time to meet with me.

Thank you for having me.

Yeah, of course, of course.

I know we're talking a little off camera that you're.

You're an Ohio State Buckeye fan.

And, you know, I was mentioning that with the US Me being a Trojan fan, we didn't look too good this last weekend against Minnesota.

But it is what it is and are most your sports, Ohio teams?

I like Ohio State football.

And, you know, that's pretty much it.

I mean, I watch really, you know, the Falcons here in Atlanta or the Braves, but predominantly Ohio State Buckeye.

That's what I enjoy watching more than anything.

What took you from Ohio down to Georgia?

My role with Frosty Acres, actually.

Okay.

I've been with Frosty Acre brands for about 16 years.

Lived in Ohio.

I worked for US Foods Corporate.

I was in marketing there and then took the.

Had the opportunity to come to Frosty Acres to work with independent food distributors about 16 years ago.

If you go back to like the earliest point of your professional career, I know you mentioned going to school there in Ohio.

Did you always want to be in the food business or how did you get into the food business?

So that's a great question.

So we, I've always had a passion for food and working with food.

Wife, my dad, we owned three, four pizzerias.

And I started my career, I wanted to get into sales and get out of operations.

And so my dad made an introduction to.

At that time, there was an Italian specialty division of Cisco Foods in Cleveland.

And I had the opportunity to go work for Cisco Foods and then from there, you know, the rest is history.

So I started out as a territory manager carrying the bag, they called them marketing associates at the, you know, from Cisco, and then left there and went to work for Alliant Foods, which was purchased by US Foods, and then had an opportunity to go up in the ranks at US Foods and then have the opportunity, like I said, to come and work with independent food distributors here at Frosty Acre Brands out of Georgia.

When you look at the distribution landscape, looking at the broad line versus independent distributors, what are some main differences maybe between independent distributors versus Those, those broadliners?

You know, mentioning Cisco, previously Alliant with Trinidad and US Foods as well, you know, what.

What do you see there?

Well, I mean, this is from my perspective, right?

So if you're working for us or Cisco or any of the big broadliners, and I say something that's offensive, I apologize.

This is the world according to Bill Lewis.

But what I see is that from a supplier side, I think that the engagement with the independent distributor is much easier.

The access to the Independent is much easier.

I believe that when you talk about customer intimacy and working directly with the end user, I believe that the independent is more flexible, that has more nimbleness, can bring in the products that say an emerging chain or you come from the broker side.

So when you're talking about introducing new products, working with an independent, there's more receptiveness there, I believe, and a flexibility to make decisions quicker and from a customer perspective, like I said, being more nimble and that customer intimacy being higher.

And again, that's my view on that.

Some would disagree maybe, but I feel that our independence, if technology is that the playing field of technology is leveled the.

I believe that they can perform as well, if not better than the national Broadliners.

Yeah, that makes sense.

What about for, you know, a little background maybe on Frosty Acres itself?

How long has Frosty Acres been around?

We just celebrated our 70th anniversary as a cooperative.

You know, it's from its foundation, I believe that a lot of the distributors that, or even like the companies before they became Cisco, you look back at some of the old material from Frost Acre brands.

There are distributors there that became part of Cisco.

They were independents at one point, as you know, that Cisco is just largely a started off, you know, bringing together independence under one.

And they continue to do that, obviously.

But so it was started out as a cooperative largely for frozen vegetables.

And then they moved into other categories somewhere in the late 70s, early 80s, they really transitioned into what we call traditional broadline food service distribution versus, you know, frozen retail products.

We have about 100 distributors throughout.

You know, we call them stockholders because every one of our members owns a share of stock in the cooperative.

We have them throughout the United States, Canada, the Caribbean Basin, and we continue to grow.

And, you know, my job is to steward the cooperative and help our independent food service distributors to compete against the national broadliners with sales, marketing, procurement, finance, it, logistics, kind of operating as that.

We'll call it the corporate headquarters, if you will, for the independent.

And so it's been extremely rewarding for me to have the privilege to work for our independent distributors to see their business wealth grow and see them expand in each of their markets.

On my side of the business, in the broker business, you have your large national brokers that are on 1P and L.

They cover the whole us and if I were to make an analogy, they would be maybe like a Cisco or a US Foods are your national broad line for US we're an independently owned brokerage agency.

We cover California, Nevada, Hawaii.

So.

But we're part of a group called Sales one, which is kind of like a cooperative, like a shared group where we have separate P and Ls, but we share business practices, we share certain manufacturer partners, we share, you know, many different things across one another.

And it makes us, you know, in terms of being able to compete nationally or compete regionally, it makes us stronger being part of other like minded, like run broker agencies, you know.

So there may be maybe some parallels to what we are and what Frosty Acres is doing as well.

Definitely, yeah.

There's a lot of sharing of best practices.

You know, we do a lot of that to, you know, everyone goes to the market in their own unique way.

And certainly this is not a one size fits all model where you have a standard operating procedure on how you're going to do X, Y and Z when you work at, you know, a national broadliner.

Right.

And so there, there are a lot of different ways that each of our member distributors go to market.

And it's differently, but at the same time there's a lot of commonality to that.

And I believe that in a cooperative structure where you have people collaborating and people working on issues, that while I have my own unique set of circumstances in my market, there's commonality and then I can take something and glean something from my conversations with you and I get better, you get better, and then all the boats rise.

So interesting to hear that you guys have that with your brokerage business also.

Yeah, when we first started, we, my dad and I, when we started the business, we started just in Southern California, which was great.

There's a lot of brands out there that were looking for just Southern Cal.

But as time went on, we wanted larger brands, we wanted more scale.

It protected us being in a group like Sales one, especially as we grew into other markets because sometimes brands say, hey, I have a change in strategy, I have a new executive team and, and I need a broker that's going to cover the whole country.

I need a broker that's going to cover the whole west.

So there's also protection as well.

Being in part of a group, being part of a larger organization, as opposed to just being on our own little island.

So tell me, when you look at your day to day at Frosty Acres, what does that look like?

So the day to day, you know, we're working with manufacturers on developing marketing programs for the cooperative.

You know, our mission statement really says kind of what our day to Day is right, which is to create a better everyday experience for our members and our supplier partners.

And so aligning around the priorities of our, the manufacturer partners and then having those priorities from the manufacturers, the things they're looking to do, also understanding what our member distributors are wanting to accomplish in their business and making sure that you're aligning resources around those two vital components of the cooperative is to serve both the supplier community and our member distributors.

Sure.

To answer your question more specifically, we're also looking at ways for us to help our members engage better with the end user.

So we've invested a lot of time and effort into technology, data analytics, growth strategies and helping our members deploy those growth strategies.

I always say that not all cases are created equal.

And so making sure that the cases that are going on their truck to their customers are both beneficial to the end user operator and also to the bottom line of those independent distributors.

So my sales team, our member services team, is focused largely on helping our members get access to those products that are going to be best for their financial strength and also provide great value to the end user customer.

From the category management perspective, our team is always looking at ways for us to provide greater value to our supplier partners and then the same token looking at purchases that are what we call out of program and helping them get in program with the suppliers, you know, to provide them with the greatest case increases and for our members, the greatest financial return possible.

So yeah, we call it, we kind of call ourselves the anti buying group.

And the reason we say that is because we never want to be just a collection agency of marketing allowances.

To me that seems, and again, this is the world according to Bill.

But always try to say that I want to provide more value than I take.

And so if it is not, if our relationship is not going to produce the financial results, whether that's new placements, growth in cases on the supplier side or on our member side, if we're not providing great value to them and giving them more competitive footing in their marketplace with pricing and marketing programs and IT and strategies to help them grow, then we're kind of missing the mark.

I never want to be, I never have wanted to be in a place where, okay, your job is to get marketing programs.

My job is to send you my purchasing history on those marketing programs and you give me a check at the end of the month.

If that is all that I am going to do in my career, that's probably not a use of the resources that God has given me to be a professional.

I Want to do more.

I want my team to want more.

I want us to serve our members, serve our supplier partners, use every ounce of creativity, every ounce of resource to make a difference.

And that's why we want to be the anti buying group.

Not nothing disparaging about my competition.

I'm just stating that we, we want to be different.

One of our taglines is different by design.

We want to employ and be different, be important.

I said I'd rather swim at a country club than be in a general population.

Swim.

You know, I want that bespoke experience and I want our members to feel that way too.

So we want to provide, you know, excellent service.

We want to provide excellent product to our members and to our supplier partners.

And I want people to see the difference.

So the day to day is about making a difference and letting that difference be seen by the key stakeholders which are our proud member owners and our supplier partners.

Yeah, that makes sense.

So essentially let's say I was a supplier, right?

I would come to Frosty Acres, I've got a product, a portfolio of products and would the engagement be, hey, I want to kind of.

Do you have private label opportunities or is it mainly I want to work with your, I think you mentioned a hundred different members, probably maybe more.

And essentially let's say it's a chicken item.

I want to be your, I want to be your member's preferred chicken item.

And because you have so many members, you can buy it at scale, right, to maybe lower, you know, give more cost efficiencies across the nation.

Is that kind of how it works?

Yeah, so we have several, you know, we have great national branded manufacturers that are, you know, that will continue to sell their brand.

But we believe that, you know, there is a opportunity and a need for private, we call them exclusive family brands.

And you know, we find that, you know, the independent needs to have their own brand to compete.

The information that we receive from, you know, data sources like Data Essentials, for instance, state that, you know, operators are open and wanting to have in particular categories, you know, they're wanting to have the, we'll call them distributor brand, that's how their terminology is.

So I think that there's an opportunity there.

If you, you're putting them, you're putting those items that the customer, the end user has in their mind is saying, I'm willing to purchase the distributor brand in this category and if you align around the needs of the, and the wants of the customer and provide them with a competitive quality level and a competitive price point, the independent can, can win in that particular case.

And I know that, you know, for instance, some of the large broadliners have very lofty and very aggressive brand growth goals.

And the reason for that is that it's, you know, it's, it's a more, it's more profitable in most cases than that of the national brand.

Now, is there a home for national brands?

Absolutely.

And I think that, you know, from our perspective, we, we believe that we can grow both the national brand and our exclusive family brands at the same time.

I think that in your walk as a broker and you work with independent distributors, the majority of them are, have a tremendous opportunity with account penetration.

Their drop sizes may be less than the national broadliner.

Not in all cases, but in the majority of the cases there's opportunities for growth there with the customers that they're dealing with.

So if we have the ability to provide strategies, programs and you know, technology that helps deliver more effectively on national branded partners and also the exclusive family brand products, it is a win win for both sides of the, the aisle.

Yeah, that makes sense.

You were mentioning, you know, around data using data Essentials when I talked to a lot of my manufacturer partners or just people in the industry.

When you compare, you know, the food service side versus the retail side of our business, you know, in retail you've got, I think it's IRI and Nielsen data.

There's so much information out there.

But then on the food service side there's, it's not as robust I think would be the word that I would use compared to what they have on the retail side.

But with using data Essentials you mentioned, hey, there's certain product categories that can fall under, there should be, these types of items should fall under your exclusive family brands and then maybe others and other categories that should be in a different category.

When you look at, in terms of data, what other ways are you leveraging data essentials or other data that's available out there?

In the food service industry, we have.

The privilege to receive a large amount of data from our member distributors and we use that to provide 100% reconciled billing to the supplier community on the marketing allowances.

So we do that.

No one else in the industry that's a, that's a, you know, quote unquote, traditional buying group has the ability to provide that line item detail.

So there are a lot of key learnings that we can Capture from the data that we're getting from our member distributors.

The second thing is that from the data essentials perspective, you know, we're taking that information to help equip our members with insights into specific channels that they're calling on.

Right.

So we stratify and know the types of business.

So if you're distributor a, we know that your breakdown of customer is, you know, 45% this and 35% this, etc.

And so we're able to build out and provide to our supplier partners member profiles that help them to sell the right products into the distributor based upon the channels that they're servicing.

Right.

The second thing is that from, from a, from a data perspective, we've really done some very, very, I think, innovative things as it relates with a technology partner.

I don't know if you've heard of Pepper before.

Pepper is a.

Yeah, they're a digital marketing e commerce platform that a lot of our members have signed up and are using that as their order entry systems for customers, the end user.

But out of that, you know, the supplier community, you know, we all suppliers say that we want to sell more into the independent restaurateur.

Right.

And that is the murkiest information.

If you were, you know, if you were dealing with a national account or a regional account, you know, people, there are companies that are out there that have all that information, know the price points, know what they're buying, et cetera, et cetera, you say, okay, well now we have this large group of independent restaurateurs and to get to that information is exceptionally difficult.

And I know that you as a broker probably deal with the same challenges.

So we developed this program called Profit iq and essentially what it is is a platform that manufactures with the permission of our independent food distributors.

They get access to kind of the standing within that account.

For instance, if you're a representative for ABC manufacturer, you can see how you're competing against any others that are in that space anonymously.

Obviously you'll be able to see because of the breakdown of the customer, you can see where your product's going from, hey, is it a K through 12, QSR, casual dining, etc.

Showing where that is, where that's at.

So you get to see share, you get to see where it's going and then really cool information that comes out of it is the white space opportunity.

So utilizing, you know, scraping of information from several data points, we're able to say, okay, if a customer used the example of chicken, if they have a chicken tender on the menu and they're not buying that chicken tender from that distributor.

It's going to show up as a white space opportunity.

And so we're able to help the manufacturer then coordinate with their brokers and manufacturer representatives on helping that independent to penetrate into new white space opportunities so that there's organic growth for the member distributor and also for the supplier partner.

So we're really excited.

That's actually launching the end of this month, 1st of November.

And so that's how we're taking, you know, the data and actually what I call weaponizing the data to actually go out and carve a space and create new opportunities for, you know, our, our member distributors and also our supplier partners.

Amazing.

I have not heard anybody doing that before.

Giving the white space opportunities because a lot of times, yeah, you leave, you know, using a food pun like leaving meat on the bone.

Right.

There's other areas that you can go back in there and say, hey, there's.

We offer more than just one or two items.

Yes, yes, yes.

And we have a very high expectation and hope for this.

It's a fantastic, it's a fantastic product that, you know, that Pepper is going to be hosting and working with supplier partners on.

But we've had pilots of that so far and had really good reception from our member distributors and also those suppliers that we did the pilot with.

That's fantastic.

That's fantastic.

Could, you know the hot button acronym that's used in the last year or two is AI.

Is there AI that's involved in this?

Or plug in their data into an AI type machine and help out.

So several things that, several things that we're really excited about from the distributor tool perspective on the DSR side is there are AI tools that are being deployed inside of.

They have a product called Casey that enables a dsr.

And listen, I go back to the days when I was an MA at Cisco and if I had to like go call on a new customer and then get an order guide and code that order guide and come up with some type of, you know, deliverable back to that end user.

It's ours.

It's ours.

The Casey tool from Pepper is taking information from.

Okay, it's a taqueria, for instance, Right.

And all the other taquerias that are being sold by that, that member distributor, it's going to say, and look at the menu and say, okay, well, they're buying these items which are very similar and essentially would sell, provide you the average sell price by the distributor and build out the order guide for A brand new customer and also provide you with.

Show me all of the, of the taquerias that are in a three mile radius of where I am right now that we're not selling and it provides that.

It kind of.

So yeah, AI tools are being used for that.

As it relates to Frosty Acre brands.

I have a team of people that have been working on utilizing AI to streamline some of the operations because we're getting in millions and millions of points of data and we want to create low touch, you know, high return and, and so if we can utilize some of the learning, the machine learning that's out there to accelerate the performance of our team, we see it as a competitive advantage and we're also utilizing and I don't know if this is AI, if you can say quote unquote AI.

I think a lot of things get put under AI that may or may not be AI, but it's fun to say is that, you know, the more we can provide dashboards, analytics for our members, our member distributors, giving them insights into their business in a way that they have not been able to perhaps prior to and then also from the supplier partner perspective, the more information and data, directional data.

Now obviously someone's got to go out and do the heavy lifting, right?

You can get paralysis by analysis.

But if you have actionable things that you can take from the data that is being gleaned and then there is a, let's call it a sales activation process that is coupled with that data you can make things happen relatively quickly in your business as far as accelerating penetration within your customer base, selling, like I said, not all cases created equal.

Selling the right items into your customers that create profitability for your business and also profitability for your supplier partners.

We're doing a lot more of that and managing data and mobilizing data or like I used to, I like to call it weaponizing data to go out and fight that fight, you know, you.

Know, you're speaking the language of a lot of, I know, like working with the manufacturer community, you know, these, the executive teams, their leadership teams of wanting more data.

I like what you're saying too, of hey, there's maybe some white space.

Maybe we can use AI or machine learning to identify those opportunities.

It makes it more targeted.

A lot of times on the broker side is, you know, someone may ask, hey, what are some targets we can go after?

We ourselves have brought in a full time data analyst to help us with those things.

Put together power BI dashboards and review and understand the data that we have to help us make better decisions of where exactly could I sell a chicken tender to, you know, where do I have the best opportunity?

Where do opportunities, you know, lay as they are?

So it's really fascinating.

It's cool to see the industry, the food service industry moving that way.

But I know especially with COVID and the pandemic, it really sped up a lot of this technology, you know, it's just a different way.

Totally agree.

It's still going to be a people business, but maybe there's technology, AI, whatever you want to call it, more data that can help us as people become more proficient, more efficient, you know, in our day to day lives.

Nick, don't you think that data should enhance a relationship?

Not take away from a relationship?

Meaning if I'm providing, I've taken the time to provide the analytics around it.

It lends greater credibility to our conversation.

It's not a hunch, it's not a gut feel.

It's here's where you're missing it based upon what's happening in the industry, here are the opportunities.

And now because of the relationship that you and I have, Nick, now we have a conversation that is, you know, has guardrails around data, right?

And data should make us make better decisions, or at least we hope if you have the right information.

Right, but the right data should help us make better decisions and how and help us to enhance our relationship.

Because I'm making you more profitable, I'm becoming more profitable.

So I don't think that the human element is ever going to go away.

I just think all it's going to do is those that are not using these types of tools may find themselves into.

I like Bill, but everything is an antidote, not a fact.

So if we could have more fact based decisions around analytics, it's going to enhance our relationship.

Totally agree.

You know, there's still a large base of people that are resistant to it as well.

Or maybe they don't understand it, but as more and more people open up to it and use it and learn it, you're right.

You're only enhancing when I go, when I'm standing in front of a customer.

You're only bettering your relationship.

You're not going to lose that human element.

But if I can say, hey, if you are looking at X or if you're looking at Y, these types of things can help your business.

And this percentage increase or whatever it may be, it just goes so Much further than just having the normal.

Hey, you know, Bill, you're my buddy.

Just listen, I'm trying to sell some chicken tenders.

Will you buy?

Right.

Exactly, exactly.

When you look out into the distance, you know, I know you've got some new projects upcoming here in the next couple months, but what else do you want to achieve in your career that you've not yet achieved?

Well, that.

That's a heavy question.

I always say this.

I want to keep doing what I'm doing as long as I'm relevant to keep doing what I'm doing.

And I want to stay curious, Nick.

I want to see what's going to be taking place in our.

And I love our industry.

It's such a fun industry to be in.

I met the more amazing people in this industry.

I'm so very eternally grateful for where I am and what I've experienced.

What do I want for my career moving forward?

I would say that more.

I want more.

I want to continue bringing more value to the key stakeholders that I'm responsible and in making happy, if you will.

I want to be.

Continue to serve my team and help them and push them to be as successful as they could have ever imagined.

I want to enhance the life of my family to provide a future for them.

I think that I want to get to the end of this race, if you will, and say I gave everything I had to give.

That that is what I want.

I want to just.

I want to be like a vessel that's been completely poured out and there's not a drop left, you know.

Amazing, amazing.

Well, Bill, thank you so much for taking the time to come meet with me.

Thank you for sharing that as well.

I feel the same.

You know, some people are like, well, what do you want to achieve?

I like how you answer that.

I just want more, you know, and more.

More of everything that I could quantify it potentially I could definitely qualify it, but just more, you know, and there's so much to achieve and you know, I think you and I may have a similar personality in that regard.

It's hard to describe to some people, like, you know, just more.

That's just where I'm going and right.

I'm super goal and objective driven and I'm just going towards that.

And as you know, you just kind of grow and it gets increase as time goes along.

But I just want to say thank you.

I really enjoyed our conversation.

Bill, thank you for having me today.

I really appreciate it and good luck to you and all your endeavors and you know, go conquer the world, man.

That's all yours, you know.

Sounds good.

Thank you, Bill.

Thank you.