P.R.I.D.E.It’s more than a goal at

Florida Food Service

It’s a way of life!

Joel

IN THIS ISSUE:January Food Show 2

Christmas Party 2

What’s Happenin’ 3

Anniversaries 3

Birthdays 4

Sales Meetings 4

Important Dates 4

Welcome Sara 4

Send Us Your News!New baby? Wedding news? Favorite recipe?

Or just a great story? Send your contribution to Julie.Riviere@ffsinc.com

to be included in the next issue!

Spring 2018

Issue012018

In this newsletter, I want to talk about some changes we are making and the ways we are expected to improve as a result. We look for internal improvement, for our team, the people we work with every day, to make this a better place. We look for external improvement, so our customers and vendors have a better experience when dealing with us. People make choices based on how they like dealing with a company. Many people think Amazon is great, partly because they have made it extremely easy to do business with them and also because they can ship “really fast” usually between 1-2 days. From our standpoint, that’s pretty slow! Think about this: FFS daily order cut-off is 4pm. The overwhelming majority of customers get their orders delivered the next day, before noon… that’s less than 24 hours! So, how can we improve that? One way is with our investment in “voice-pick” technology. Our Warehouse Management System (WMS) is on track to become voice-directed in 3 months. The computer will send work tasks to the voice program, which will in turn, speak commands to the warehouse team members. Warehouse lift operators and selectors will be able to hear the tasks and verbally confirm them, ensuring timeliness and accuracy. We believe our customers will benefit greatly from this investment and our team members will benefit as well. That’s what it’s all about… always looking for ways to improve!

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT:

at Florida Food Service

2

1. The Jackson Family enjoying the Christmas Party!2. Harper Jennings and Gabe Carreras.3. (L-R) Rob Wiggins, Steve Jennings, Richard McGill, Levi

Temes

Who would have thought St. Augustine

would have been the place that one would

have spotted Lions, Giraffes and Elephants roaming the hall

of the World Golf Renaissance Resort? Not me! Well, that definitely was the case for our annual Winter Food Show. We had plenty of wild animals among the crowd of customers hunting for great deals. We kicked the event off in style with an event that took the term “party animal” to a whole new level. We had great food, an exceptional band and enough

music, laughter, and costumes that one would think the African Plains were right outside.

The next day we filled the banquet hall with over 120 booths and more than 300 guests as

we got down to the task at hand - proving why FFS is the best distributor in the business!

our January Food Show was WILD!

1*2

3 4

IT’S A

ChristmasParty!

3

4. Josie Ariet, Santa Claus and Jonathan Dougherty5. Employees and friends attend the Wild Game Feast. 6. Fun at the Wild Game Feast!7. Golf Tournament where FFS sponsored the Hole in One.

8. Wearing RED at the office for American Heart Association.

9. We’re getting new wraps on our trucks!

WH

AT

’S H

AP

PE

NIN

’WILD GAME FEAST

Some of our employees attended the annual Rotary Wild Game Feast! Thanks for sharing a meal and memories with us, guys!

It’s been an honor to have these great employees celebrate anniversaries with us! Thanks for all your years of dedication and service to our customers!

May—MICHELLE JENNINGS 10YRS

June—JAMES ISLAM 5 YEARS KIMBERLY BURTON 10 YEARS BUDDY HINES 15 YEARS

July—JULIE ARIET 5 YEARS

August—RUSSELL BURKE 15 YEARS JONATHAN DOUGHERTY 15 YEARS RANDY ARMITAGE 25 YEARS

September—AJ HUTCHINSON 5 YEARS

October—MATT HAYFORD 15 YEARS

November—JUSTIN WETTIG 5 YEARS

December—BRENT KING 15 YEARS

Anniversaries

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6

7

8

9

4

Get SocialHave you been following

us on social media? Florida Food Service

now has an Instagram account, Twitter profile

and Facebook page. Check us out!

We’re thrilled to welcome Sara Maxwell (left) to the FFS team as our new HR Manager! Sara is “Gainesville born and raised,” so you may have seen her around! She is a Gator, with a background in Sociology and experience in many areas of business, including HR, insurance, IT and accounting. We welcome Sara to FFS and wish her the very best in her new role!

Julie Riviere has assumed the position of Controller at FFS. Julie works closely with all functional areas of the company, including accounting, information technology, warehouse

and transportation operations, purchasing, sales and marketing. Here’s to enjoying working with Julie in her new role—we are excited for her and appreciate all her hard work and

dedication!

MARCHDoug Plum 10thMichael Collinsworth 13thBrent King 17thTrenten Hadley 17thMichelle Jennings 18thCorey Spicer 18thAubrey Hart 28thJudy Gustafson 30th

APRILRobert Wiggins 2ndJared Crawford 17thTim Folds 18thSandy Sheffield 23rdJeff Islam 28th

MAYJulie Riviere 6thAnders Georgsson 14thJimmie Gaither 15thJesus Rivera 24thBryan Rohan 26thRosa Woodward 29thJonathan Dougherty 29th

JUNERobert Sabo 1stConrad Boske 10thLevi Islam 14thWillie Williams 17thDenzel Roberts 19thTodd Brown 20thSteve Osteen 23rdRick Armitage 25thRandy Armitage 25thKyle Standish 30th

JULYBuddy Hines 4thJim Islam 4thJenny Stewart 6thJason Islam 7thCary Price 7thLucas Jones 10thBilly Carreras 11thKeith Sheppard, Jr. 17thBen Baker 20thAJ Hutchinson 23rdJustin Wettig 26thHenri Armitage 27thNan Islam 29thPaul Body 30th

Welcome—

august 3rd, 4th & 5th – Summer Food Show & company Weekend

April 6May 11June 1July 11August +Food Show

September 7October 5November 2December 7-8

important Dates

Sales meetings