Menu Maker Foods slowly gobbles up competition

Slow and steady: That’s Dick Graves’ recipe for success.

Graves started Menu Maker Foods 41 years ago in Jefferson City and has been steadily expanding ever since.

Menu Maker provides food products to restaurants, grocery stores, nursing homes, schools, hospitals and summer camps.

Introduced to the food service industry through his father’s company, John Graves Foods, Graves opened his business in 1968 with partner Melvin Childs, a longtime friend. The company had four employees and a product line of 250 items.

“My dad opened his company in 1947, and we had one work truck and no family car,” Graves said. “The company sold meat to mom-and-pop grocers and was my entry into the industry.”

Graves began Menu Maker with a meat-centered product line similar to his father’s business in Chillicothe and soon grew to incorporate a broader line of product including dairy, canned goods and frozen foods.

By 1977, Graves had bought out John Graves Foods and integrated the company under the Menu Maker name, expanding the company’s sales reach from central Missouri into the northern parts of the state.

Over the years, Graves bought out other small food suppliers, including beverage company Timbers Fine Foods in Brookfield in 1978, Wilson’s Foods in Jefferson City in 1988 and Austin Coffee Service in Columbia in 1995.

Over time, each of these companies was brought under the larger Menu Maker umbrella, and by the mid-1990s Menu Maker offered 7,000 products and employed 120 people.

During the last 10 years, Menu Maker has continued to grow and today employs nearly 220 people and offers more than 8,000 in-stock products plus an additional 15,000 available products.

Last year, Graves opened a warehouse operation in Vinita, Okla. The 48,000-square-foot warehouse serves as a sister space to the 75,000-square-foot warehouse operation in Jefferson City. Additionally, Graves has a 30,000-square-foot meat processing operation in Chillicothe operating as Mr. G’s Meats.

The company’s territory now extends 800 miles, including areas of Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Kentucky, Iowa and Illinois.

Current competitors include national brands Sysco and U.S. Food Service. However, Graves said he has seen several of his competitors come and go in the past because they try to do too much, too fast – a business practice he has avoided.

“A lot of my competitors haven’t made it because they try to throw everything up at once,” he said. “It’s like building a house. You have to do it one brick at a time. I have never tried to bite off more than I can chew, and that’s the way to maintain a healthy business.”

One of Graves’ biggest obstacles in building a solid business has been finding the right people to work with. From factory workers to sales people, Graves personally hires all of his employees.

“My father taught me you have to treat people as you would want to be treated if the roles were reversed,” he said. “It’s a basic principle, but it’s what makes my business. I know each one of my employees personally. I’m there many nights until 2 a.m. with the loading crew; I visit my people in Oklahoma. It has taken 40 years to build what I have here, and I am very careful about who I hire. I have to find the right people with the right heart.”

In the future, Graves sees more of the same. Recently, Graves’ wife Tracy has joined the Menu Maker team and is working to create organizational systems to make expansion more feasible. Menu Maker is planning a 30 to 40 percent increase in its work force within the next four years. With the company’s current available warehouse space, the business can grow up to 40 percent without having to increase the physical space of the operation, Graves said.

“I’m always looking for new opportunities and new business in new geographic areas,” he added. “I just love the relationship building with my customers.”

Trade show boosts contacts, sales

As part of Menu Maker’s efforts to maintain good relations with customers and suppliers, the company hosts a food trade show each year in Columbia. This year marked the 25th annual show, which was held July 17 and 18 at the Holiday Inn Executive Center.

For the event, Graves invites all Menu Maker suppliers to display their products. A typical trade show will host nearly 400 suppliers, each sitting at booths in which they are available to answer questions from customers.

Menu Maker hosts a customer and supplier appreciation dinner the evening prior to the trade show, which includes industry-related educational speakers and entertainment.

“The purpose of our food show is to familiarize and educate our customers on what we have, what’s new for the coming year and what special deals we have available through our suppliers,” Menu Maker owner Dick Graves said.

Graves Menu Maker Foods
913 Big Horn Drive
P.O. Box 104507
Jefferson City, MO 65109
(573) 893-3000
www.menumakerfoods.com