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Distributor Spotlight: Five Point Kitchen Solutions

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Distributor Spotlight: Five Point Kitchen Solutions

Martin Food Equipment FivePointTexas-300x192-1 Distributor Spotlight: Five Point Kitchen Solutions Henny Penny

Martin Food Equipment FivePointTexas-300x192-1 Distributor Spotlight: Five Point Kitchen Solutions Henny Penny
In this exclusive Q&A series, operators gain behind-the-scenes insight into our unique distributor partnerships.
At Henny Penny, we go to market differently than most equipment manufacturers. Through our network of distributor experts, we’re able to provide hands-on-support before, during, and after purchase and installation. Our distributors are in the field everyday solving customer challenges and demonstrating that cooking precision and consistency lead to both quality food and operational savings.
Five Point Kitchen Solutions was established in 2015 to serve as Henny Penny’s distributor partner for the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas market. Within a few years, Five Point grew to serve both Texas and Oklahoma. As of 2021, the company has expanded to serve Florida and Virginia, with four total locations (one in each state) under the Five Point brand.
Get to know Five Point in our Q&A with founder and president Spencer Revenson:
What is your corporate vision and strategy?
Our vision is to be a trusted, mission-critical partner that foodservice customers and suppliers choose to depend on. Our mission is to accelerate the advancement of the foodservice industry. To do that, we are constantly brainstorming and trying new ways to improve the value we offer, both to Henny Penny and our customers. We create new complementary accessories, obsessively fine-tune cook settings, and use every feature available in equipment programming to ensure our offering can best fit the customer’s needs. We strive to have the expertise and responsiveness which creates noticeable results for our customers that can’t be matched by anyone else in the industry.
How many people do you employ?
We have 41 people on staff within the Five Point brand today and will have at least 3 more jobs to fill soon. About 35% are field service technicians, 20% are sales reps, 30% are customer support for sales and service, and 15% are internal support staff.
What is unique about your territory?
Our territory spans three geographically separate areas. Many of our customers also have locations spread throughout the country. A consistently excellent customer experience is very challenging. Demos are a critical part of our sales process, so we are always looking to make our kitchens more accessible and inviting to prospects. We currently have five demonstration kitchen locations and will have at least six by the end of this year.
What foodservice sector are you primarily focused on?
We find the most success in the fast-casual sector of the foodservice market. Traditional retail also contributes a large amount to our business.
What % of your business does Henny Penny represent?
Henny Penny represents 95% of our total business.
What is your favorite Henny Penny product to sell and why?
Combi ovens are my favorite. Our combi oven offering is truly unique in design, size/packaging, reliability, and potential for real-world, useful impact on a huge portion of the foodservice industry. I believe this category has the largest opportunity for growth in the near-term.
Do you carry any other lines or categories aside from Henny Penny?
We are not afraid to experiment by offering other brands of complimentary equipment. However, so far have not found the right fit for something major. We are open to future brands which will compliment Henny Penny and have achievable potential for at least 20% of our revenue.
Who are your key customers and what equipment do they use?
Our larger equipment customers include Buc-ee’s, Braums, Brookshire’s Grocery, Bush’s Chicken, HEB, 7-Eleven, Six Flags, and Pollo Campero. We continue to focus on acquiring new equipment customers that will have repeated needs year after year. Technical service is more diversified. Chick-fil-A stores make up the largest single brand for repair service.
Brookshire’s Grocery has been an equipment customer from day-one. They use OEA, HHC, SCR, and HMR.

Last year, you celebrated 5 years since taking over the Texas market. Tell us about what it’s been like to continue expanding the territory. What do you expect to achieve?
When we started in 2015, we were on a tight timeline with tight resources. We had to choose an office that would be workable as a startup. Now, our Texas headquarters is more than double in size and is better suited for a more extensive investment for our long-term success. Our new space better represents our brand as leaders in the foodservice industry. It is a better fit our culture and gives the team the space they deserve, supporting continued growth of our people and inventory. We look forward to sharing the new space with our customers and partners to continue distancing ourselves from the competition.
Florida ended up having more service demand than our prediction. Scaling up service in Florida and Texas has been a high priority so far this year. We have also been accelerating our transition to a more scalable organization in general, independent of the number of our locations or employees. We knew there would be growing pains, and we quickly discovered the limitations of our existing processes and roles. Planning has been important. But, making data-driven decisions to be responsive to the real world has been more influential than sticking to a rigid plan. One-third of the way through 2021, I’m confident in this being a record year that will prepare us for what comes next.
How have you managed to scale the business across multiple territories?
Managing Five Point as a geographically separate territory forced our software stack to go completely to the cloud and support as much remote work as possible. Many of the traditional “big name” software or hardware options were not scalable, required too much IT overhead, or were simply not relevant to the future. We now use Google’s business suite for our backbone. This is the same stuff that many of us already use in our personal lives, so the learning curve is zero.
Our accounting, inventory management, CRM, and phone systems come from a variety of companies in the US, New Zealand, Australia, UK, and Canada. Most run on Amazon web services and have many integrations between them. It is all software as a service, so there is nothing for us to manage or worry about breaking. This combination means any internet device with a web browser simply works.
Many of our employees bring their own device (phone, computer, tablet or whatever they choose). This choice for our system architecture has removed many constraints on growth, making scale, onboarding, and success of everyone on the team much easier… regardless of what the world throws in our way.
What challenges have you seen hiring new sales and service members?
We focus on values-based management and decision making. Two of our values: “Responsible Decisions Focused on Action” and “Continuous Improvement and Growth through Entrepreneurship” are demonstrated with every hire or discharge. Action and entrepreneurship mean accepting risk. Most times, we can’t know how successful a new addition to the team will be until they have been given the opportunity. All we can do is recruit the best candidate possible and give them the training and resources needed for success. Their performance and decisions are up to them. At the same time, we owe it to everyone on the team to make sure we have the best person for every role. So, we equally have the responsibility to make a spot available for a new candidate if we don’t currently have the right fit. This active choice does wonders for our culture. Accountability and respect replace excuses. Everyone appreciates that they can rely on the rest of their team to do excellent work.
 
 
To learn more about Five Point, visit their website.
 
 

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