Margins are slim for small distributors, especially in the food service industry. So, how does a local supplier take advantage of bespoke technology solutions without breaking the bank?
Chris Elliott has the answer. He’s the co-founder and head of new business development at Kimelo by Cheetah Technologies, an elegant eCommerce platform that’s purpose-built for food distribution. Jason caught up with Chris to discuss the tech company’s humble warehouse beginnings, its commitment to designing financially accessible solutions, and the app’s role in strengthening relationships between distributor and restaurateur.
“There are 15,000 independent foodservice distributors in the United States. They don’t have the resources to build their technology,” says Chris, who, in 2014, quit his career in the manufacturing industry, bought a van, and started delivering to independent restaurants from local cash-and-carry stores. Then, he built a rudimentary website to handle the business’s orders and maximize its delivery routes. That company, Cheetah, grew rapidly and shifted from delivery to owning and operating a 90,000 sq ft warehouse in Northern California.
Kimelo is the tech spin-off of Cheetah. Its success is due to Chris’s insider knowledge of the food service industry and its proximity to the venture capital environment in San Francisco. “When you pitch investors, they wanna see execution. And we, as a company, were able to execute very well,” says Chris, who knew that it was important to demonstrate Kimelo’s potential in the field. “Our investors believed in our vision that technology is gonna solve a lot of the challenges and, quite honestly, make the lives of these small business owners easier.”
With Kimelo, small to medium-sized food service distributors can access game-changing eCommerce tools like those employed in other verticals: process automation, delivery route optimization, and intelligent customer retention strategies like upsells and asynchronous cart additions. “Technology is the way to move the food service distribution industry,” Chris confirms. “As the children of restaurant owners take over, they say I run my personal life on my phone. How come I can’t run my restaurant on my phone?” Kimelo is making it easier for the next generation of food-focused businesses to do just that.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
QUOTES
“I don’t wanna make this sound easy, but it’s not as hard as you think. When you build an amazing product, and that amazing product resonates with your customers, you see growth. And the investors love to see that you’re solving a real-world problem.”
”Perishability adds a lot of complexity to a distribution network. And so we built a lot of systems to ensure that, you know, we had the right products at the right temperature zones all the way through the delivery system, from storage to picking to loading to last mile delivery and offloading at the restaurant.”
“ These are the classic American entrepreneurs, right? They found a niche, they grabbed it, they built a business.They often built it with their own hands. They have their family members working in it. These are like really hardworking folks, providing incredible value to their restaurant customers, you know? But they run on very thin margins.”
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Distribution Talk is produced by The Distribution Team, a consulting services firm dedicated to helping wholesale distribution clients remove barriers to profitability, generate wealth, and achieve personal goals.
This episode was edited by The Creative Impostor Studios
Special thanks to our sponsors for this episode: Moblico, helping businesses do more business on mobile devices; and INxSQL Distribution Software, an integrated distribution ERP software designed for the wholesale and distribution industry.
