|
Category:
Published: December 2006
This month we highlight the entrepreneurs of Decrescente Distributing, who transformed a one truck delivery service into a multi-million dollar enterprise.
Success Magazine: What does success mean to you?
C.J. DeCrescente: Tough question. Success to me entails a lot of things: earning the respect of our customers, fellow employees and suppliers; being recognized as one of the top performing wholesalers in the country while, most importantly, still being able to maintain the proper work-life balance with my family.
Carmine DeCrescente: For me, it's being fortunate enough to see the family business that my father started evolve into what it is today and to be able to watch my son and my grandchildren have the passion to want to take it to the next level.
SM: How did your family get started in this business?
Carm: From 1933 to 1947, my father, Angelo, worked as a salesperson for a small Troy brewery called The Stanton Brewery. In 1948, the Fitzgerald Brothers Family approached him to distribute their beer that they had begun to brew. They thought with the customer rapport that he had, why not go on his own and be a distributor in a territory where he was well known and respected. My dad, always ready for a challenge, said, "Why not?" So he started with a one-truck operation, a 1947 Studebaker. From there, he was able to acquire more brands and territory as the foundation for DeCrescente Distributing was now established.
SM: C.J., How did you come to take over the reins?
C.J.: I started in the business when I was a teenager, usually riding in the truck as a helper, working in the warehouse and merchandising supermarkets. I really wasn't sure that I wanted to be in the business when I was a kid. I had actually thought about being a physical education teacher. When I realized how much I enjoyed selling and interacting with people along with the competitiveness it brought, then I started looking at the business differently. From there, my father moved me to different routes and began to have me involved with more strategic things in the business as he slowly backed himself away. He was never going to just hand over the keys because I was his son, and why should he? He'd worked very hard to get us to where we were. I was also very lucky to have an adjoining office to his, so I had a "built-in mentor" only 25 feet away at all times! I don't think there was ever a cut-off time that he turned it over as much as it evolved to that.
SM: How do you stay competitive?
C.J.: The customer always has choices, and we need to always remember that. So as long as we're in the business, every day is going to be competitive. You are either trying to gain new customers, and ultimately consumers, or at the minimum maintain what you have. I also think you can always get better... whether it's technology, more training, or figuring out how to be more efficient. There's always something you can be doing. We enjoy the many contests where we compete against our fellow wholesalers both in state and nationally, and we especially enjoy winning. One of our highlights was winning the Beverage World "Wholesaler of the Year" award in 2004. Beverage World is the number-one magazine in the beverage industry. We were selected as the top performing wholesaler(not the largest) of all the beverage wholesalers in the country. That was really special!
SM: How do you develop loyalty in your workforce?
C.J.: If you believe that people are your most important resource, which I do, then the answer is simple; you have to take care of them. We are strong believers in training and promoting from within whenever possible. Besides the financial aspect, we try to do the little things such as Halloween and Christmas parties for the employees' children, an Employee Recognition Program where we award various gifts (up to and including Rolex watches) for years of service. Whether it's turkeys on Thanksgiving, hams at Easter, or treating our employees at our annual Holiday Party, we work hard to compensate them properly while providing some acts of appreciation. We also have our Human Resource department have quarterly employee focus groups and we simply ask two questions: What are we doing right? and what can we do to improve? We also ask that if an employee brings in a problem, he/she also brings a proposed solution. These focus groups have been extremely successful.
SM: How do you maintain your current strength in market share?
C.J.: We hire independent third-party consulting groups to come in on an annual basis and do a check-up of our company. We ask them to be open and honest and then we build an action plan based on their findings. It outlines our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Another thing to our advantage is that we also have a lot of veteran employees. Approximately 25% of our workforce has 10 or more years with our company, which represents about 75 of our 300 people currently employed. And, we all know the value of a veteran employee.
SM: What do you see for the future of your company?
C.J.: We currently service 11 counties from our Mechanicville-based facility. We do have areas of those counties, however, where we do not have the franchise rights for certain brands. So, we hope in time to be able to fill in these territory voids where we will be able to sell all our products in each of the 11 counties. We also feel very good about the growth of our New Age division due to the success of brands such as Vitamin Water, Red Bull Energy Drink, and our local favorite, the Saratoga Spring Water company. We are also interested in expansion into other areas if the right situation presents itself, either inside or outside of New York State.
SM: You do a tremendous amount of philanthropic giving, why?
C.J.: To be totally honest with you, we feel very fortunate that we are even in a position to be able to give back to the communities. It's really rewarding to see different people come up to us and thank us for our help and participation in the various charities. We also require our Senior Staff members to be involved in one of the major charities in the Capital District as part of their advisory board service, or at the minimum, participating in their functions. They report on their charity work at our quarterly management meetings.
SM: What is the EAC committee?
C.J.: The EAC Committee stands for Employee Activity Committee. It is a group of our employees (approximately 15) from various departments at DDC who organize various employee and family events. A few examples are the children's Halloween parties, "Lunch with Santa," and exclusive premier movie showings. We have most of the events right at the distributorship with the employees' families attending. We have vending machines throughout the facility and 100% of the proceeds are given to the EAC to fund these various activities.
SM: What advice would you give to new entrepreneurs just starting their business?
C.J.: Success doesn't come easily. First, you have to have a plan and you have to know what you're really trying to accomplish. You also have to be willing to lead by example. Roll up your sleeves and get in the trenches with your employees. Share with them what the big picture is and ask for their opinions whenever possible. This will help to get their buy-in into the task at hand. Once you have the right people in place, invest in them and get them the best training possible. Last, but not least, never ask them to do anything you wouldn't do, and above all, never forget where you came from.
|
