Bix Produce invests in efficiency, customer service

St. Paul, Minn.-based Bix Produce Co. has upped its investment in efficiency tools to reduce its labor needs and increase customer satisfaction.

“We’ve invested fairly aggressively in the company,” said Alejandro Montoya, CEO and CFO. “As far as foodservice is concerned, there is no one in the direct produce distribution business that comes even close to where we are.”

The company has relationships across multiple channels from healthcare to schools, national restaurants, local restaurants, business and industrial facilities.

“We’ve had relationships with chefs going back decades and everywhere they go they take us with them, because nobody can execute like we can,” he said, touting the firm’s high service standards and a big selection of produce SKUs. He noted Bix Produce is rolling out a new line of salads, desserts and wraps and sandwiches.

While foodservice demand has been choppy industry-wide, he said Bix Produce has countered that by introducing new products that help operators save labor.

“If anything throughout this pandemic we’ve invested aggressively towards improving those standards,” he said. 

In particular, Montoya said that the company has invested in technology to make “shorts” disappear.

”We’ve aggressively invested in all sorts of technologies from customer relationship management to route visibility software to voice speaking technology to truck scanning,” he said. 

“We’ve made adjustments in the way we pack, the way we stage, the way we slot; everything has been touched with an effort to dramatically improve the customer experience.”

Ultimately, he said, Bix Produce is in a business where the product has to rotate rapidly so the firm can maintain a perfect inventory where there are never any shorts.

Executing to high-performance standards is something the company has continued to do, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

“Honestly, we added a lot of customers in the past year and a half, because they know that they can count on us,” he said. 

The company has continued to invest in its culture of continuous improvement during the pandemic, he said.

“We have created an environment that is employee-centric,” he said, which gives employees chances to demonstrate what they have and what they can do. 

Retention of employees is the best strategy in a tight labor market, and Montoya said Bix Produce has created a place where employees feel great. A second way to fight the labor shortage is being more productive, and

Montoya said that is where capital investment in technology has helped the firm become more efficient.

In addition, he said Bix Produce benefits from good community relationships through the metropolitan region.