Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/999236
March/April 2018 27 21st Century Craftsmanship Crafting Quality Food Waste Solutions Since 1944 Yeah, there's plenty of innovation in our products, from patented operator sensing technology to easy to read LCD digital displays. But there's more to what makes Salvajor products superior. For more than 70 years, family owned Salvajor has been crafting qual- ity into every product we manufacture. Our skilled group of welders and CNC machine operators are true craftsmen. Innovation? Definitely. Our disposers are the only commercial disposer available with a proximity operator sen- sor which saves energy and reduces water usage. For more information on all Salvajor products contact us today. salvajor.com (800) SALVAJOR several weeks. I went to play golf and when I got back to my room, I had the specs. She, not someone from her company, sent them directly to me." Part international distributor, importer, exporter and manufacturer, e Legacy Companies owns 16 diff erent brands—on the domestic and commercial side—and operates as a manufacturer in the U.S. and abroad. In addition to seven distribution centers throughout the country, it has a warehouse in Canada and a factory in China manned by a staff of quality- control and engineering personnel. "It's a full complement of employees based out of Asia focused on making sure the quality and engineering of our imports is up to par before they get to the U.S.," says Asbury. It was this infrastructure, coupled with Asbury's follow-through and expertise on the import side, that made Legacy stand out from other manufacturers competing for Central's business—not the bid. "It is not always about being the lowest bid," says Asbury. "It's also about the support provided before and after the sale." She's gotten to know Kidwell and Price well during the seven years she's worked with Central to develop its private label program, which has ballooned from one refrigeration line to a sizeable chunk of the distributor's business. "We've grown signifi cantly from nothing to several million in refrigeration and the categories have expanded to ice machines, reach-ins, pizza prep tables and bar equipment," says Kidwell, who attributes much of the growth to Legacy's expertise and fl exibility. "After we had been doing business with them for years," he says, "we saw another changing dynamic in refrigeration and asked for help in featuring a product that was even more price-sensitive. Accommodating us could have resulted in her cannibalizing her own business, but her thinking was that there was a part of this business that we were walking away from and should go after it together." Confronting Change—Together Dexter Russell's Vice President of Sales Kevin Clark has been calling on Central for more than 30 years. Back then, he was a manufacturer's rep and the distributor was located downtown Indianapolis in the old red- brick building on 10th and Central. "I was a young guy right out of college who was still trying to fi gure out what a B&B plate was," he says. "Today my role has changed from being a sales guy just trying to write his next order to trying to help Central be strategic in the market and solve our customers' problems." Central has changed, too, since the original owners, Rick and Rita Weinstein, packaged it as a cash-and- carry before shifting the focus to catalogs in hopes of connecting with prospects in underserved rural markets and other segments outside the reach of a traditional dealer. Such foresight— coupled with a strategy to support it with a call-center model—has rewarded the distributor with a loyal following. Mailings (totaling in the millions) go out as frequently as six times a year to each customer type, which includes independents, institutions and schools. "We do a lot of analysis to make sure that the customers we're mailing to are responsive because there's more cost involved in frequent mailings," says Price. ree of Central's 130 employees are analysts. One works in circulation and "keeps a close eye on the response rate and average order to determine which customers react most strongly to receiving a catalog," says Price. "Within our merchandising group, we have two analysts that work on both pricing and product to track which products are high-performers and how those products need to be priced. ey're in the data on a day-to-day basis and really help us make the best business decision." Now the question facing Central is how should it alter its vision going forward in the face of competitive pressures from digital disruptors, backed by nudges from its own base.