Case Studies Food and Beverage

Zeek Szidon wasn’t necessarily having a career crisis at Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods Inc. However, he wasn’t happy with his third-shift job in milling and bagging operations because he disliked the hours and the dust aggravated his asthma. This was in 1996, and after Szidon gave two weeks’ notice, he had a conversation with […]

Adopting a child is a life-changing decision. So is opening a business. But they don’t often go together as they did for Rob and Emily Webb of Just Love Coffee. In 2009, Rob Webb was on a flight to Ethiopia as the couple prepared to adopt two daughters. While on his adoption journey, he had […]

She didn’t know it then, but when JoDee Johnson was a little girl growing up in Michigan, borrowing Uncle Jim’s binoculars and using them to study houses across Portage Lake, she was on her way to becoming a design and construction manager for some of the biggest restaurant brands in the U.S. “It’s funny how […]

John Neal remembers many moments where his Boise State University lacrosse teammates relied on him to put the ball in the net or to make a big defensive play. That was six years ago, and while he’s retired his lacrosse stick, he says he’s kept the leader mentality. Case in point: in 2017, Neal took […]

According to David Owen, by 2030 the number of skilled trade employees in upstate New York factories is expected to dwindle—if not disappear completely. It’s information gleaned by Owen, the director of corporate maintenance and facilities at LiDestri Food and Drink, a contract and private label manufacturer of food and beverages based in Fairport, New […]

Working at down to minus 20 degrees is a challenge for humans and machinery alike. For the former, it takes wearing the same kind of gear one might wear on an ice-cold snowmobile ride: gloves, long underwear, heavy duty outerwear and face masks covering every inch of fragile skin. For the latter, extreme cold isn’t […]

It’s not just customers who rave about Chicken Salad Chick as a healthier alternative to run-of-the-grill-and-fryer food. Landlords have also taken a liking to this Alabama-based hybrid of fast-casual and sit-down dining that commenced with franchising in 2012. That was just four years after its founding by Stacy Brown and her late husband, Kevin. Chicken […]

After his employer prepared for the worst that Hurricane Laura might deliver, Rodney Watts may have been thanking his personal deities when the storm mostly spared Eastern Texas, necessitating just minor repairs to one Circle K on the Gulf Coast while a couple of others endured brief power outages. Overseeing facilities for most of the […]

You know you’re on to something when kids love eating salad. And not only that, they look forward to the bundles of leafy greens you bring home and can identify the different varieties on their plates. This has been Josh McCollom’s experience with his two young children since joining Kalera—and it’s a motivating factor for […]

Miami will be on Brad Mignone’s travel itinerary. As will Pittsburgh and Santa Clara, California. Quite possibly some other locales that might also keep him away from his Las Vegas home for a couple of days a week. For when you’re senior director of development and construction at one of America’s fastest growing high-end restaurant […]