Canteen Corp.: focusing on the specifics

Nation's Restaurant News, Jan 21, 1991 by Bill Carlino

Canteen Corp.: Focusing on the specifics

Despite the softness that has impacted on most of the foodservice industry, Canteen Corp. managed to book $125 million in new business during 1990, enabling the non-commercial subsidiary of TW Services to approach $1.6 billion in annual revenues -- about 42 percent of its parent company's total sales.

The former Chicago-based foodservice and vending conglomerate has undergone a whirlwind of changes over the past year, including the departure of long-time president Bob Kozlowski and many of the senior-level management staff, and the relocation of its corporate offices to Spartanburg, S.C.

In addition, Canteen decentralized its management staff by establishing three divisional presidents for its East, Central and Western geographical regions who oversee a total of 35 regional vice presidents.

Once perceived as the consummate operations company with a broad-brushed emphasis to its lines of business, Canteen's future mind-set will be that of a specialist.

"In the past, we've pretty much been a generalist company," says Rick Carlson, vice president of sales and marketing for Canteen. "But now we're going to key on specific markets like recreation, corrections and school lunches, and pursue those by taking a micro-approach. We're also going to diversify into different management areas."

As an example of the company's new diversification tear, Canteen recently sealed an agreement to operate four amphitheatre facilities. In addition to providing concessions, Canteen will oversee such non-food services as parking, security, ticketing and maintenance.

"We've got to become more specialized," stresses Carlson. "In these economic times, you can't always rely exclusively on your core businesses to carry you through."

Like ARA, Canteen boasts its own culinary marketing programs like "Pazzelli's Pizza," "Bigger, Better Biscuits," "Muffin Mania" and "Classy Cookies." Last year, Canteen rolled out the Saturn II cuisine program, a series of food court modules.

Carlson says the company is in the process of developing more specialized cuisine programs for the various business lines, but declined to embellish on specific details.