Enid-based Advance Food credits rapid growth to happy employees

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Jul 3, 2007 by Katherine Adams

Thirty years ago, Advance Food Co. had fewer than 10 employees and less than $10 million in annual sales.

Still privately held, the company now grosses $600 million and employs 2,000.

Chief Executive Officer Greg Allen doesn't credit that growth to financial prowess or high-tech machinery. He said the company's success is strictly due to keeping employees happy.

Advance Food's corporate headquarters, distribution centers and four of its processing plants are in Enid, and it's one of Oklahoma's fastest-growing distributors of frozen, heat-and-serve foods.

An additional 400 people will be employed when Advance opens a new, state-of-the-art processing plant in Enid later this year.

"We have turned out to be one of the main sources of employment and training for a lot of semi-skilled and management trainee people in Enid," said Allen.

And many have stayed.

Staying power

"There have been literally hundreds of people who started with us and have been promoted to higher-skilled positions as a result of our growth," said Brian Hayden, vice president of Advance Food People's Services Department.

He also said the employees at Advance are, on average, in their 30s, so comprehensive family benefits are important to attract and keep them.

"Most companies refer to my position as human resources, but we don't," Hayden said. "We are all about the people, as the name implies. Human resources sounds very sterile."

Allen said it's not just about finding the right people, it's about treating them right so they're also invested in the company.

Learning from others

Advance Food Co. has bought out six other companies, and Allen said they have learned a great deal from them while going through the acquisition process.

"When you go through acquisition, you contrast what you've done with what others have been doing," Allen said. "You can't grow a company if you don't treat your employee base well. I went to one company that had four reserved parking spots for their executives right by the front door. Everyone else's parking spot was far away. Those spots were often empty but the names were on them. It just showed an attitude that management had toward others - I could tell this was not a fun place to work. It's very simple, but a lot of companies do not treat people right, and that includes customers and competitors."

Jan Feldotto, who works in the People's Services Department, began working with Heartland Beef in Spencer, Iowa, in 1995. Advance Food Co. bought Heartland in 1998. In 2003, Feldotto was offered the opportunity to move to the then-new facility in Enid. She said that during the move, she felt she was working for a different kind of company.

"I was really pleased with how I was treated by Advance," said Feldotto. "They really take care of their people. It was a very smooth transition. They helped me with everything."

Caring management

Feldotto said managers cared about her almost as though she was part of an extended family.

"A lot of companies make you feel like you're employee No. 101," she said. "But here, the owner of the company comes out and visits with employees and makes an effort to mingle with the hourly folks as well as everyone else. I never had that experience. The management really tries to go to the different facilities in Enid and make connections with the employees. It is pretty impressive."

She said one of the main reasons why employees choose to remain with Advance is the employee benefits package, which includes a low- cost health and wellness center on site.

Mike Cooper began his career with Advance 15 years ago in maintenance. He's now a research and development manager with the company.

"Early on in my career here, there was a lot of opportunity for growth," he said. "There were a lot of vacant positions, and I took advantage of it."

Cooper said the challenge has been to keep everyone in the company going in the same direction.

"I think a big reason for our growth is our CEO and VPs are really good at reading people and they're good at looking at the qualities people have and seeing where their talents fit best," he said. "I think this is why we've retained so many of the employees - the core people who were there from the start stayed around. That's huge. We got where we are now because there's a team of people who stayed together."

Growing pains

Rapid growth presents its own obstacles and struggles. Allen said the biggest hurdle has been keeping training up to speed with the rapid growth. Employees become frustrated, Allen said, when the communication and deployment of new procedures doesn't flow smoothly. Although it remained the company's biggest problem, Allen said it was inevitable with rapid growth.

"The founders wanted to try to turn this into a national company, and they did that on a vision that the market was in the right place and that they were in the right place geographically and in the chain of supply," said Allen. "They had that vision and they were absolutely right.

"This company thinks it should invest in the people so that they will want to invest in the company and build something that's great," he said.