By Jorge Mercado Friday, October 18th, 2024

For a business to last over a century — especially in the competitive beast that is the food service industry — that company must be willing to embrace changing times.

Luckily for Jordano’s Foodservice, a staple of the Santa Barbara community that will be celebrating its 110-year anniversary in February, the company has never shied away from doing what was necessary to help the business grow.

And that is why in 2024, a couple of years removed from the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jordano’s isn’t just skating by, the company is thriving — so much so that the goal isn’t just growing for another decade, but rather another century.

“We are the second oldest company in Santa Barbara and that’s pretty exciting to me, to be that old. I am damn near that old,” Pete Jordano, CEO of Jordano’s Foodservice Division, told the Business Times with a laugh.

“Nothing’s forever and so you have to be willing to change.”

Pete knows better than most about Jordano’s willingness to change. 

“We started with one grocery store,” Pete said, adding that “at one time, we had 18 supermarkets in the tri-counties.”

But fast forward to 2024 and there are no Jordano’s supermarkets or grocery stores.

Instead, the company is made up of two major divisions, Jordano’s Foodservice and Pacific Beverage Co. Combined, the companies post annual sales of more than $300 million and employ over 500 people in the area.

And neither division shows any signs of slowing down.

“And the thing that is most exciting to me is that we have the potential to be in business for a long time,” Pete said.

Jordano’s Foodservice focuses primarily on being a broad-line food service distributor. In fact, it is the second-largest independent broad-line food service distributor in California and the leading independent food service distributor in Central and Southern California.

But perhaps the biggest — and best — change the company made in the past few years was the hiring of Patrick Day.

Day, now the company’s vice president and general manager, first joined about three years ago after nearly two decades at rival Sysco.

Like most people, Day fell in love with the natural beauty of Santa Barbara, but what also stuck out about Jordano’s was the “family-like atmosphere” and the opportunity to work for an independent company as opposed to Sysco, a large corporation.

“Being here has allowed me to be much more independent. We make decisions day in and day out that can be changed today. So if I want to make a change today, I can do that. I don’t have to worry about talking to multiple levels of vice presidents all the way up,” Day told the Business Times.

Still, Day didn’t exactly join during an enviable time. Joining in 2021, he came during the pandemic, a time when Jordano’s — like most businesses — certainly ran into some troubles.

While Jordano’s was considered an essential business, the same couldn’t be said for restaurants, a core customer group.

And even for those customers that were considered essential, the money wasn’t flowing as it once was.

There was uncertainty for sure, but one thing Jordano’s did that likely paid dividends, in the long run, was its commitment to its employees.

“Our food service business dropped something like 40% to 50% within that first month,” Jeff Jordano, president of Jordano’s and Pacific Beverage and son of Pete, told the Business Times.

“As a result, we didn’t need all those people. But we still made the decision to not let anyone go.”

Instead, Jordano’s had a rotation of furloughs, which would allow employees to make money during some periods from the job and others from unemployment and their vacation balances to try to keep them all. 

“We really didn’t think it was about being smart or anything at the time. It was just the right thing to do,” Jeff said.

“But it turned out to be a really good decision.”

The reason why is because as Covid-19 restrictions were loosened, Jordano’s competitors, who let go of such valuable positions such as Class A truck drivers, now lacked the manpower needed to get their business back to scale.

“We never had a shortage, we didn’t lose anybody and so from a recovery standpoint, keeping the stability in our workforce was a huge positive,” Jeff said.

That is why now, Jordano’s revenue is 30% higher than pre-pandemic levels.

Day added that the company’s piece metric, which evaluates a customer’s willingness to buy more products as opposed to just spending more, is also up significantly compared to pre-pandemic levels. 

But the company isn’t just growing revenue, it also added 30,000 square feet of space, a new racking and a new system of picking and pulling products, Day said.

The company is also in the middle of a three-year project to upgrade its enterprise resource software.

“This process really has been like building a house. We have laid a foundation, the walls are up, the windows are up and now, with the computer system, we are working on what color we want to paint the house,” Day said.

“As a result, I see nothing but blue sky on the horizon.”

The same could be for Pacific Beverage, the company’s drinks arm, including a decades long distribution deal with Anheuser Busch. When Jeff joined the business about 35 years ago, he was largely involved in the beer side and gained key insights in that role. 

While the pandemic took a toll on food service, it didn’t affect Pacific Beverage as much.  “People still bought beer, they just did it more at grocery stores as opposed to restaurants,” he said.

Which means that Pacific Beverage is growing revenue compared to pre-pandemic numbers. But that growth is not necessarily from beer sales from Anheuser Busch as beer sales are declining across the country.

Jeff said about 52% of the company’s gross profit is non-Anheuser Busch drinks. 

Instead, Pacific Beverage has added craft beers, including local breweries like Firestone and Figueroa Mountain, and non-alcoholic beverages.

“I think the markets changing pretty rapidly and it’s hard to understand. There’s a lot of data we’ve seen that young people are just not drinking alcohol, specifically beer, Jeff said, putting a premium on research and trying “to pick winners,” he added.  That means stocking brands like Delta-9 THC & CBD-infused drinks which are becoming more popular.

Overall, however, Jordano’s has dealt with change well and Day and Jeff have settled into their roles. 

But that doesn’t mean Pete wants to stop coming to work.

The 89-year-old has been the CEO of Jordano’s since 1975 and though he doesn’t work five days a week anymore, he still tries to make an appearance a few times a week for at least four hours.

“I love doing this and I love being here,” Pete said.

Despite being the CEO for nearly 50 years, Pete wasn’t even so sure he ever wanted to be in such a position and it certainly wasn’t handed to him.

After three years of serving in the Marines, Pete decided it was time to come home and join the family business.

“I was an officer and a lieutenant in the Marine Corps and when I came back, they made me a truck driver,” Pete laughed. “I didn’t think I had any shot at reaching the top.”

But soon more responsibility came. And he excelled. 

And just like he has adapted to change, so too have the people he has left in charge to run the company after he is gone. And the goal is to keep that tradition and legacy going for as long as possible.

“If I die tomorrow, the company’s going to do fine and that’s great, that’s how I planned it,” Pete said.

“Things are good, the only thing that would make me happier is being younger. But, bottom line, our intentions are to continue to grow another generation.”

email: [email protected]