Coffee Service Corner
AN INTERVIEW WITH OCS VETERAN, PERRET DELAPOUYADE by Ken Shea
Perret DeLapouyade is a 33-year veteran of the OCS and Water industries having spent his time in various leadership positions as an operator. Beginning his career with Standard Coffee Service in 1987, Perret gained experience through a variety of departments before settling into key operations roles, ultimately being promoted to V.P. of Operations supporting Procurement, Asset Management, Route Management, Warehousing, and a National Service Network. He played a crucial role in Standard’s evolution from a 22-state regional operation to a national market share leader, ultimately acquired by D.S. Services. In November of 2019, Perret left his operator role to explore expanding opportunities, which will be announced later this spring.
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rticle development for a column typically runs one week. As I began preparing for this article, the impact of the COVID – 19 virus has been rapidly expanding throughout the world, affecting almost every aspect of daily life, including the Coffee Service industry. While health concerns remain most important, I felt it would be time to reach out to an experienced industry veteran and friend to explore his thoughts on how operators can adjust and adapt both to mitigate potential downsides as well as positioning their companies for even greater success when we emerge from this catastrophic event. KS: Perret, social distancing is decimating office populations and transient traffic. What impact do you see from a consumption perspective? PDL: For the right reasons, office populations began to lean out over the past few weeks, and now we see an even more dramatic drop off as employers fully understand the importance of social distancing to help ensure the health of their associates, much of this being mandated. While this has dramatically impacted near term sales for OCS operators with whom I engage, I also have heard that customers are expressing a high level of gratitude that is reinforcing the value of OCS providers in providing the wide variety of break room supplies and services so that the office staff can focus on the issues they are facing. Unfortunately, some operators might not be able to withstand the corresponding revenue drop-off, and I fear that we will witness a measurable number of businesses closing and/or selling.
KS: Having been a part of a conglomerate with several thousands of water routes, could the coronavirus outbreak stimulate bottled and POU water opportunities? PDL: Absolutely. We have all heard of retail locations running out of bottled water during spikes in demand. And customers, both commercial and residential, have far fewer concerns with these types of issues when working with a provider that has a well-rounded product portfolio along with the supply chain expertise to work through any supply issues that have arisen in a variety of product categories. When we emerge from this crisis, it will be an excellent time for operators to expand their efforts in the water category, and in particular, point of use water and filtration systems. KS: You had responsibility for managing a portfolio of several thousand SKUs. Should the current environment suggest that operators expand their menus within any specific categories? PDL: Ken, that’s a great question. My personal opinion is that having a wellrounded portfolio for your target customer type is the best strategy. For a typical office environment, I believe that in addition to providing coffee and coffee-related items that one would typically carry, items for the entire
KS: Some operators are suggesting that offices might move to e-commerce and eliminate direct service. What message would you give to office decision-makers regarding this? PDL: While we have seen more online activity in recent years. I don’t see companies abandoning the ‘service’ element of OCS any time soon. While product delivery via parcel carrier should be an option in the portfolio, we all are aware that product delivery is only one of the functions of a high-quality OCS operator. Besides, parcel deliveries have to be delivered by a person. A key aspect of DSD delivery that is gaining a lot of attention currently is the cleaning and sanitization of the break area and serving vessels by the route operator.
14 Spring 2020
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