I recently had the pleasure of joining a panel of Food & Beverage (F&B) executives at the 55th Annual Conference of the Long Island Business Development Council. The panel discussed the latest trends and issues facing Long Island F&B companies as well as the broader impact of these and future trends on F&B companies throughout the country.
Diversity in Leadership
Diversity was a leading topic as Kelly Zhou, partner and inspirational leader of T.O.A. Asian Fusion and founder of YAAAS Tea, discussed her background as a Chinese immigrant. Kelly detailed her journey from growing up in a 400-square-foot apartment in New York’s Chinatown to becoming a successful female entrepreneur advocating for diversity and female entrepreneurship. Kelly is a pioneer in the boba tea industry with nearly a dozen YAAAS Tea locations melding authentic Chinese cuisine with innovative business practices. For example, she employees a state-of-the-art, fully automated tech stack that manages everything from the cooking process (utilizing robotics) and back of the house to front-end customer service.
Diversification Strategies
David Lessing, director at Lessing’s Hospitality Group, a prominent restaurant, catering, food service, and school meal company established over 130 years ago, spoke on diversification as a key to his success. In addition to serving 40,000 guests per day, Lessing’s opened facilities in Florida to offset the seasonality of their New York operations. His approach to diversification goes beyond geographical boundaries to encompass different business models. Lessing’s operates 23 high-end wedding and catering venues, 16 full-service restaurants, three virtual kitchens, one nightclub, and a historic inn.
Industry Consolidation
Sean Rose, CEO Of Clare Rose Inc., discussed how his grandfather started the Anheuser-Busch InBev and Heineken USA distribution business, which is now the premier supplier of alcoholic beverages to Long Island. When faced with the recent serious decline in alcoholic beverage sales, Rose said the company would pivot, saying “there will be a convergence of all beverages on one truck,” suggesting a future with wines, spirits, alcoholic, and non-alcoholic beverages all delivered by one supplier. Sean went on to discuss the impact of cannabis and how shifting consumer tastes will affect operations, as fewer late nights and less beverage sales are shrinking margins. He also touched on how Clare Rose Inc. is innovating by implementing AI solutions to improve scheduling, routing, and order fulfillment processes.
Employee Engagement Initiatives
In Long Island NY, one of America’s favorite foods is always top of mind — pizza. Cliff Weinstein, owner of The Pizzeria Group, discussed applying the lessons he learned from his financial background to build strong systems and data, and more importantly, to engage his employees. He and his partners focus on creating a fun environment for their people in each of the business’ seven locations. He told the panel that his turnover is low because, “we start by making our team as happy as humanly possible and if our employees are happy and fulfilled, they will create great experiences for our customers.” The group’s partners organize team-building events to help the team find happiness, not only in their job but in their personal lives as well.
Summing Up
Finally, I presented several tax saving ideas, some of which are part of the new tax bill (the One Big Beautiful Bill Act or OBBBA), including research and development (R&D) tax credits, accelerated depreciation, cost segregation studies, investment tax credits, empowerment zones, and exemptions of income for tips and overtime pay. I also shared strategies to offset the impact of tariffs, such as the use of Last-In First-Out Inventory Method (LIFO) and the first sale rule, as well as how to deal with the projected 10% increase in healthcare costs and overall increases in property and casualty insurance costs.
As is typical with Long Island Business Development Council events, participants all learned from one another as we discussed other topics like social media, packaging, sustainability, and the lingering effects of the pandemic. From innovative start-ups to multi-generational businesses, a veritable cornucopia of appetizing strategies and structures were on display.
Learn more about our Food and Beverage industry expertise.
