“Keiter Stephens not only understands broadline distribution and finance, they also brought in a meat specialist on our deal who had experience managing a meat operation similar to Winn’s. KSA works hard to get it right, because they know there’s no margin for error in foodservice.”
Mike Roach
President, Ben E. Keith Foods
“We engaged Keiter Stephens Advisors to work with us on vendor profitability, and with their guidance, we’ve driven down losses on business with unprofitable suppliers from 50% to 25%. More importantly, Keiter Stephens worked side by side with Jordano’s Director of Purchasing/Marketing to develop the model and incorporate her expertise and vision in the project.
On the customer side, in foodservice, you have to know to the penny what it costs to deliver groceries. KSA helped us uncover potential areas of excess cost or lost opportunity serving operators. Armed with this information, we’ve improved how we manage our sales force by highlighting options for margin improvement and reducing over-servicing, and we’ve improved customer profitability by 20% overall.”
Jim Spencer
Vice President/General Manager, Jordano’s
"Many M&A brokers approach us to consider companies they have been engaged to sell. Our experience with Keiter Stephens Advisors has demonstrated their knowledge of the foodservice M&A process and their high ethical standards. We're expanding rapidly, and they only bring us deals they know we're likely to be interested in — companies with top quality employees and leadership, and with facilities that will help us expand in current markets or into new territories according to our long range plans. Keiter Stephens has handled our due diligence investigations and negotiations judiciously on behalf of their sell-side clients. They have an obvious respect for our industry.
The most telling result about any M&A process is whether you end up with the company you set out to buy. With a group of acquisitions facilitated by KSA on the sell side that are now part of the Reyes Holdings and Reinhart team, we're proud to say we closed on the deals we set out to buy. We've been very pleased with our work with Keiter Stephens Advisors."
Mark Drazkowski
CEO, Reinhart FoodService
“During my work with Bill Beattie, prior to his co-founding Keiter Stephens Advisors, he helped us figure out where our operator relationships were profitable – and where they were not. Why is this so important in our industry? We want to be the best partner we can be. We build long-term relationship with our operators to help them grow their business. Bill Beattie really understands that better than anyone else I’ve seen in finance – that the customer is #1 and always will be, and it takes a sound partnership to service them so that we all benefit in the long run.”
Jeff Miller
Vice President, Thomas O. Miller & Co.
“Keiter Stephens Advisors is unique because they understand the art of selling a family foodservice distributor. They helped us identify the key areas of value in our business, and their due diligence work left no guesswork. Most importantly, throughout the process, they never let things slide, they constantly worked to keep things moving to the next stage, they kept the entire family focused and unified, and made sure we knew what was happening every step of the way.”
Sharon Catanzaro Ledonne
Former President, Frank J. Catanzaro Sons and Daughters, Inc.
“The costs of an independent foodservice distributor are growing faster than our gross margin dollars, but more importantly, our customer base was struggling in a tough market. Rarely did a week go by where I didn't hear from someone who had a client looking to buy someone "just like me". They didn't even know me. The calls went to voicemail, the letters hit the trash, and the e-mails were deleted.
This past year, KSA approached me with a warm, genuine offer to see if it made sense to consider selling the business. They worked hard to understand me and what made my business unique. They understood the pride that every owner feels.
Now that the sale has been completed, I can say Keiter Stephens was aggressive on value but compassionate and supportive to my emotional needs, and they commanded a higher multiple than what those other finance firms were proposing. I sold my business before I thought I would, but I've never felt better.”
Mark Eisenberg
CEO, Natco Corp.