Relationship building in the food distribution industry — an interview with Jack Dweck of Ambassador Foods.

Ambassador Foods is, most certainly, a sales-driven company. Like any other distributor or wholesaler in the food business, we need to move product, take orders, promote new items and maintain volume.

That’s how we make a living. That’s how we’re able to manage healthy, incremental growth year after year.

But all those juicy orders don’t just fall from olive trees. That constant flow of inventory and consistent expansion of both product line and customer network is the result of one thing: Genuine, personal connections.

It’s trust, built one relationship at a time, over a span of 15 years. We’re talking about the human side of food distribution… The one-on-one connections that are often lost in the increasingly tech-driven, self-serve world.

Jack Dweck knows how to nurture and leverage those relationships. He’s been with Ambassador Foods since its inception in 2012, and in that time he’s built a vast network of connections, particularly in the Cruise Line industry.

Before moving to Miami Jack was a New Yorker, through and through, so he knows the importance of cultural fluency and good, old-fashioned persistence in relationship building. Here’s the interview:

How did you gain such a foothold in the food distribution business for the cruise lines? Was there some secret to your success that you’d like to share?

Dweck:

When I first started calling on the cruise lines I was just one of many. It starts with a high-quality product that fits their requirements. And competitive bids… That’s just the minimum. Then you have to prove yourself by being consistent. By telling the truth and delivering on your word. You gotta build a lot of trust… It takes time.

And yet there’s an immediacy to this business that many people don’t really appreciate…

That’s right. In this industry customers need answers quick. I’m a very persistent person. I don’t give up, so if I don’t get an answer I’ll just keep pushing to make things happen.

It’s a challenge. Things move very quickly. I still have a New Yorker’s tendency to push people, maybe a little too hard sometimes. But my customers need answers now, and it’s my job to go get them.

Look… Ambassador is built on service, and service means giving customers the answers they need when they need them. Waiting a week or two for answers on pricing is not an option.”

Is there a good example of how you’ve gone the extra mile for your cruise line customers recently?

Sure… The cruise lines use a lot of heavy cream for their sauces and in their desserts. But the product we were providing was getting too expensive because of the tariffs, so we had to find a source here in the U.S. that’s every bit as good as the imported stuff.

So we did our due diligence, and we found a supplier out in Bakersfield, California. We’ve teamed up with the California Milk Advisory Board, and now everyone’s happy… The cruise lines are saving money, we’re helping a bunch of dairy farms out West break into the Florida market, and we’re moving truckloads of cream. It’s a win-win-win deal, even though it involved cross country logistics.

There’s been a lot of talk recently about how channel management in the food industry is getting more and more automated. Apps allow people to place orders with no human touch whatsoever. What’s your take on that trend?

Technology is a blessing and a curse. There’s always something new that can come along to disrupt things. I’m kinda old school… I believe in real face time, not the Facetime you do on the phone. Technology helps us solve a lot of problems, but it doesn’t replace the importance of relationship building and one-on-one interaction. Some transactions might be completed online, but I’ll never give up that personal connection. I treat my customers well, and I’ve made a lot of friends that way.

You guys often say that Ambassador Foods is different than any other competitor — that you’re in a category all your own. Tell me more about that.

At Ambassador we all wear a lot of different hats. We don’t have silos, like most distributors do. It’s a flat organization, not a hierarchy. Hierarchies just slow things down. Our teams work hand-in-hand, so communication is more direct and more efficient. We team up to get the customers what they need. I’m not just a salesman, I’m also a buyer.

As opposed to brokers, you mean?…

That’s right. We’re working all the angles to put together mutually beneficial deals, usually involving more than just two parties. So in that way, we really are like Ambassadors. We open doors and we bring people together. Even when there are items that we do broker, we get involved in the whole process and deliver high-level, Ambassador-style service. We’re not just sitting around waiting for the next check.

And what about the broadline distributors? You have working relationships with many of them. Tell me how that goes…

I’ve learned that the broadliners are hesitant to bring on a product in if they aren’t sure they have a home for it. Their warehouse space is at a premium. Every slot has to rotate. Has to be optimized. So our team goes out to the broadliner’s end users and we push the product out to them. We sell it through! That’s how we reduce their hesitancy… by supporting the items all the way.