Building a Tech-Driven Food Distribution Business with Matthew Einersen

What does it take to lead a tech-savvy business in today’s competitive landscape? In this latest episode of Redd’s Business and Technology Podcast, Nigel Heyn hosts a fascinating discussion with Matthew Einersen, the Managing Director of P.E. Foods and reveals how he took his company from traditional food distribution to a tech-driven leader.

Matthew shares his journey of embracing technology to streamline operations, boost efficiency, and deliver exceptional service. He emphasises the importance of a supportive team and investing in reliable tech solutions to prevent costly downtime and keep your customers satisfied. By integrating innovative systems and fostering a culture of continuous improvement, Matthew has not only enhanced his company’s performance but also strengthened his team’s commitment and morale. His inspiring approach demonstrates how technology can be a game-changer in achieving business success and staying ahead in a competitive market.

Learn how embracing technology can transform your business and set you apart in today’s dynamic market. Dive into Matthew’s story for inspiration on driving growth and success through smart tech investments.

#MatthewEinersen #TechTransformation #BusinessGrowth #FoodDistribution #InnovationInBusiness

00:00 – Start
00:27 – Guest Intro
00:45 – Matthew’s Background
01:14 – Origins of PE Foods
09:24 – Current Structure and Divisions
12:10 – Family Business Transition and Challenges
16:29 – Technology’s Role in PE Foods’ Growth
19:37 – Embracing Technology for Customer Satisfaction
21:58 – Leveraging Team and Board for Business Challenges
23:35 – Current Economic Outlook and Its Impact
25:52 – Future Plans and Strategic Focus
27:43 – Personal Vision and Work-Life Balance
28:45 – Legacy and Future Aspirations
29:32 – Closing Thoughts

If you would like to discuss any of the topics discussed in this episode further with a REDD expert or if you would like to be a guest on the show, please get in touch either via our website, [email protected], or through any of the links below. https://redd.com.au

https://www.linkedin.com/company/redd-digital/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nheyn/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-einersen-aa6baa252/

(00:21):

Welcome to Redd’s Business and Technology podcast. I’m your host, Nigel Heyn, and today I’ve got a very special guest, Matthew Einersen on his birthday of all days, he’s here celebrating with us. So Matt, thank you very much. Very honoured to have you here.

(00:32):

Thank you for having me.

(00:34):

So let’s start, Matt, a bit about you tell us the story where Matt Anderson’s come from, and obviously you’re CEO of PE foods. And then maybe secondly tell us a bit about PE foods. Sure.

(00:44):

So obviously Brisbane born and bred, married, two children, Matt 10, cam two obviously currently live in Brisbane. I’ve got a little farm out Crpi at the back of Bona there, which I like to spend a lot of time at. And we run a little herd of Santa Keytruda’s breeding cattle. So the goal is, is to spend more time out there sort of in the future.

(01:08):

Fantastic. So as a leader of PE foods, I know that’s a bit of a family, Ty, share with us what PE foods is all about and how it started really. It’s a great story. Sure.

(01:17):

So PE Foods has been around for 42 years. So our business supplies the bakery, hospitality and food service industry with all of their food ingredients. It’s been in business for 42 years. So PE foods actually started out as PE agencies. So my dad started in 1982 and PE agencies actually supplied stem, the sports drink. So supplied stem, the powdered sports drink into it was sports clubs, bakeries, hotels. And he did that for a period of time. He literally started out of a shed with a van, delivered it himself, took the orders, picked the orders, and got them into the customers. He did that for a period of time and then he could see the big guys like your Power Aids and Gatorades coming into the market. So he realised the writing was probably on the wall as far as their marketing spend and their push into market, which was going to take some of the market share away from that STEM aid.

(02:14):

So he was at the time delivering into some bakeries and some clubs and he started asking questions around where do you buy that cheese and bacon or where do you buy your fresh apple from? And he ultimately started bringing products in and he started with things like fresh apple bacon cheese into bakeries. And then he then started getting into a bit of packaging and then ultimately the business sort of turned into a bit of a one-stop shop for bakeries. So a bakery could ultimately come to PE foods, which he eventually changed the name to because he felt that PE agencies wasn’t very descriptive for what the business actually was and he felt he needed to add the word foods in there. So kept it as PE foods. And then ultimately, yeah, as I said, he turned it into a one-stop shop for, and he started in Milton, just near the Forex factory there with a little warehouse.

(03:06):

And actually I can remember throughout my school holidays we’d go out in his delivery van and I still very specifically remember the smell of sultanas that he used to deliver to customers. And we’d take the product out of the van, deliver it to customers, and then go back to the warehouse and he’d put the orders in and pick and pack them and he’d start again the next day. So PE foods pretty well kept itself as a bakery distributor for a period of time, picked up some franchise business in the nineties, which sort of helped the business grow. And then myself, while I got involved in the business in 2002, it was, and I was reasonably lucky that I had an understanding of what the business did. I’d worked in the warehouse in school holidays, I’d picked and packed stock, and I actually had zero intention of getting involved in our business.

(03:59):

I actually wanted to be a pilot was my aspirations. Being a pilot is obviously an expensive gig too, particularly for an 18, 19-year-old coming up with that sort of capital to get your licence. So I remember just coming out of school, dad said to me, why don’t you consider a customer service role? Someone’s just left. Maybe you can do this for five or six months, save some money and then decide what you want to do. So I took that opportunity, and to be honest with you, in that first three or four months, I just loved it. I loved working the business. I loved the fact that I saw the input that you made towards the business controlled your ultimate destiny and the outcome of the business. I was lucky that it was a reasonably small business back then. So I was able to work through warehouse customer service, had an understanding of procurement, and as the business continued to grow, I got to work in every section of the business.

(04:57):

And it was probably fast forward to 2014, we had one customer that had become quite a big part of our business. We felt the bakery industry, it was pretty flat at the time. There was probably more bakeries closing than there was opening, and I very much felt like we needed to diversify the business. So I felt the best way to diversify the business at the time was to acquire something. Obviously it gave you a customer base straight away, gave you additional products, gave you cashflow from day one to diversify. Obviously all we knew was food at the time, so we felt we wanted to invest our money into food, into a food business. We were buying off a company called Jamil Food Preor at the time, which was basically a specialty fine food business. So it was supplying restaurants, cafes, delis, hotels with all sorts of specialty fine food products.

(05:54):

So things like cheeses, small goods, retail products, imported chocolates. I think at the time they had about 600 customers. So we felt it was a good way to hedge our bet. We kept that business separate because for me it was really important to make sure that we could clearly identify who we were. So we didn’t want to at the time merge the businesses together and lose what our identity is. So we kept PE separate and we kept Jamil separate at the time and we ran them as two separate entities. And then I guess over a period of the next 6, 7, 8 years bought a total of seven businesses. So those businesses were businesses that were strategic in terms of location regionally or were strong in a particular product group that we didn’t operate in at the time. So it was things like small goods, french food, import food service.

(06:49):

We bought a business that specialised in schools up in North Queensland and food service. I opened a warehouse in Townsville because we felt like that there was an opportunity up there to get some market share. And the benefit at the time was, and this is where the diversification of products really started to hit its own, we were able to combine the PE foods bakery product range and the Jamil Food Providor product range into one. And we basically offered that product range to our customers up there. So it was very good because the customers could ultimately pull from the product ranges out of Brisbane because we had quite a large product range. Then it gave them quite an offering for their businesses up there. And then I guess as we continued to acquire businesses, we were able to add those product ranges into the group. So our product range grew.

(07:36):

And then I remember we bought a business up in Cairns because we were in Townsville, we were trying to go into the Cairns market, and I remember the customers saying to us, if you want to be serious, you have to have a business locally so we can get the products five days a week. And obviously travelling up and back from Townsville every day of the week, that’s a lot of wear and tear on your trucks and your team. So we bought a business up there, which was a specialty fine food business. And because at that time we might’ve had a few thousand products and they had 300, we were able to overlay the few thousand products into the offering for the customers up there and you just naturally get growth. So we continued to do that. So we had a Cairns business. We then bought a business in Northern New South Wales down in Austinville called Gourmet T.

(08:23):

And again, it was specialty fine Foods, it was Northern New South Wales. It was strategic in the way that our Brisbane warehouse was actually sending a lot of stock down at the time. So again, a lot of wear and tear on your trucks and your team and infrastructure, et cetera. So we were able to move a lot of our New South Wales business out of our Brisbane facility to the New South Wales facility. Again, we picked up a customer base, a product range, and I guess that’s sort of where we’re at now. So we currently operate six facilities. We got over just over 3000 customers we deliver to on a weekly basis, and that’s sort of our story.

(08:58):

Yeah, it’s fantastic. You guys are an essential service. Without you, we can’t really eat and have food and live the lives that we all expect. So hats off to you guys, so

(09:07):

Thank you. Yeah, thank you mate.

(09:08):

And in terms of, I guess reminiscent on your history, it dawned on me you’ve done a fair bit of m and a in that time. So in some ways the merger and acquisition path has been the leader as the CEO. Why would people, I guess, what’s the difference if I’m an owner selling to you guys, what’s the attraction that you guys bring?

(09:26):

My experience is when people want to sell their business, they actually want to see it go to someone that cares and they want to see it go to someone that actually they feel can add value. And the feedback I’ve had from owners selling is they want to see it go to someone that can actually add more value or take it to the next level compared to what they think they can. So I think for us, obviously buying the businesses, it’s good for the owners. They get an exit. In the past we’ve typically kept people on for, or the owners on for three to six months, they’re very happy to transition out of that period. And usually we’ve got changes and plans that we want to put in place as well. And one thing I didn’t mention before actually is as we acquired businesses, we got to a point where we actually had a number of trading entities.

(10:10):

So some customers were actually getting three trucks, three separate trucks per week from three of our different businesses when we had ’em separate at the time. So we felt about two years ago that we needed to get to the point where we could bring ’em all together. And we actually became a bit inefficient because they were operating separately. But go back to what I said earlier, it was really important for us to actually clearly identify who we are as a distributor. So we merged all of the businesses together and then we split the business in two as far as divisions. So we put a bakery division in place, which technically prides itself on being a one-stop shop to a bakery. And then we put an artisan division in place. So again, specialty fine foods, cheeses, small goods, retail products. So when our sales team walk into these customers, they can clearly identify who they work for, what the division is, but they’re actually able to leverage off each other’s product base and the bakery customers can get access to the specialty fine food product base and vice versa.

(11:12):

All of our territory managers are all trade qualified as well. So our bakery division have baker pastry cooks by trade, and our territory managers for the artisan side of the business are all chefs by trade. So again, they can have technical conversations with our customers, our territory managers for the artisan business will sit down with a chef and we’ll get to the point where they’re helping write him menu. We can then put our ingredients into that menu and at least you’ve sort of got it secured for a quarter or one season. So we feel that works really well.

(11:43):

Yeah, fantastic. It’s interesting, we get quite a few hundred business leaders watching and listening to our podcast. And I think just listening to how you’ve done embrace that cross-sell upsell strategy and look, it’s all about giving back. So people listen, the challenges of working in a family led family owned business. So obviously your father was quite instrumental in building the business. How did you find share with us, I guess the trials and tribulations, because I know quite a few friends of mine that own family businesses and relinquishing control can be a bit of a challenge. How’s your experience been? To be

(12:18):

Honest, my experience has been very good. I was very lucky in the way that my father very clearly stepped away one day and I sort of stepped in and I think we are really clear to the team what the direction of the business was. I’ve never liked the perception of how family businesses can be viewed from time to time. And for me, I was really aware of the perception of me coming through the business and I really wanted to prove my worth to the business and to the team. And I guess that really drove me to partly growing the business. So technically I can sit here today and go, well, this is the value that I’ve bought the business. I think as a generation coming through the business, you got to work harder and longer because there is a perception. We were really lucky that I think the team could see that I put a lot of effort in.

(13:08):

I was there every single day. I did add a lot of value to the business, particularly the last 10 to 15 years. I think the most important thing is you’ve got to be really clear on what your structure looks like. And really early on we made sure that our corporate structure was strong. My father, as he stepped out, he made it really clear that the size of the business at the time, he made sure that people didn’t come to him because you see in family businesses where your founders have obviously have started it, they’ve grown it and they still want to have their finger in the pie. And I think that’s where it goes wrong from time to time that people go direct to them and then it cuts out the family coming through and you get all these mixed messages on what’s the direction of the business.

(13:54):

So if I think about the last 10 or 15 years, more specifically recently, we’ve got an executive leadership team, we have a senior leadership team, and we’ve always had a very clear corporate structure that the team knew who was who in the zoo as such, even with all of our management team as well. So for me, I’m really grateful that we had, I think what was a really successful transition where you’ve seen businesses that they don’t have so much of a successful transition. My father still comes in a couple of days a week and he sits on our board over the years. He’s been a great sounding board. We get on extremely well. And to be frank, I don’t ever think we have had a disagreement. We’ve never had a heated word. We very much see eye to eye. And I think the greatest gift he could give me and my mom is they were very supportive of me changing the direction of the business because we knew we needed to do something different. And right along the way, they’ve always been my number one supporters and I am extremely grateful for

(15:00):

That. Oh, that’s fantastic. Hearing that you do see that family is sometimes a bit of that ego or a bit of that control is hard to relinquish, but you use the word support. I think you’ve been mature enough to know that you’ve had to double down and prove to everyone that you’re able to take this business to the next level. And I think to your father’s credit too, has been mature enough to step back and say, look, Matt’s in charge, I’m going to support him. So mate, fantastic family story.

(15:23):

Yeah, and look, I think the gratification is when Peter comes into work, dad Peter, and he goes, I’m really proud to see what the business is today. For me I find that really humbling. It’s great feedback and it’s really nice to walk in the office and see the size of the team. And we’re really lucky in the way that we have an extraordinary team. I have a phenomenal exec leadership team, we’ve got a great senior leadership team and right throughout the entire business we’re really lucky to have an extremely supportive team. And without that, at the end of the day we’ve got nothing without our team on board. So we’ve got a great team culture.

(16:00):

Yeah, fantastic. Matt. Look, my internal philosophy of life is to make sure the generation that you correct does better than you, right? So for me, just seeing what I know, obviously I know you guys as clients, as friends, but seeing what Peter’s established and what you’ve taken at the next level mate’s. Fantastic. And I guess flipping that, you’re a young successful CEO that understands the value of technology. I can’t let you not go without asking this question being a technology business, but talk to me through where you see technology adding value and things like cyber and all of that in your business. I know we’ve spoken at nauseum over the years, but I think you had an outage many, many years ago where backups weren’t able to be recovered and just realising that, hang on a second, technology is oxygen to my business, I can’t function. So just share to the listeners, I guess the importance of making sure you make mature and smart decisions around technology.

(16:52):

Look, I think if you go back, what was it maybe 14, 15 years ago, we were with a company back then and we had an outage and we realised that the backups weren’t working, they hadn’t been testing ’em. And as a person that has been through a business that was down for a number of days and the stress on the business, the team, the customers, I’m very aware of investing in technology to make sure that doesn’t happen. I think if you look at our business, probably five, six years ago when we started to merge all the businesses together, my goal for the business was to be a tech-based business that delivered food and that was the message to the team. So we started a process of introducing warehouse management systems. We just recently put a product in that basically takes all of our orders the day before it looks at our fleet, it looks at the amount of kilos a truck can deliver, maximum driving time, and it technically spreads all of the orders right across our fleet to make sure drivers aren’t going over their driving times, making sure that deliveries get done in a certain period of time and it gives the drivers goals along the way that they got a hit to get the deliveries done.

(17:56):

So that’s made us really efficient. Obviously we brought you guys on a number of years ago because again we wanted to keep investing in that efficiency infrastructure and the sort of dollars our business turns over on a day-to-day basis. These days we just cannot afford to go down. And I think the best way I could describe it is our customers need ingredients and if we’re down for 24, 48 hours, those customers are going to go and buy off someone else because they can’t close their venue just because we’re shut. So for our business, the challenge is once that customer goes to a competitor, it’s then very difficult to get that customer back. So as you know, we’ve invested heavily in our server environment, our backups recently we invested in Arctic Wharf, which gives us some protection around cyber because again, for the investment that we made, I’m a big believer of it’s not until you actually go down that you go, I really wish that I’d spent the money when it was on my mind.

(18:57):

Because when your business is under such severe stress and pressure, whatever your investment is for one decision where it’s 7,000 grand or whatever for Arctic Wolf, you would get to a point the day that you’re down and go, I would spend that every day of the week to make sure that we are not down now. And the problem is for every day that we are down, that then impacts the next day and the day after catch up and it’s almost impossible to catch up. We just don’t have the infrastructure in our business to then add all of that in the next day and so on and so forth because our businesses apart from Saturday night, we’re 24 7 these days. So you can’t afford to even have an hour.

(19:36):

And as a leader, what would you give advice to those leaders out there that don’t really, they’re scared of technology or don’t understand it? How did, even before meeting us, how did you embrace it as this something that you wanted to really, you said you want to have a tech business that just happens to deliver products, right? So how did you get that mindset? I

(19:53):

Think there’s a couple of things. I think at the end of the day we’ve got to be the very best we can be for our customers and operating a very manually driven business is not going to make you the very best you can be for your customers. So if I think about a customer attention and customer churn and I go back say five or six years ago, we might pick up five customers, you might lose two or three, you might pick up six, you’d lose one. We don’t lose much business these days and I think it’s because we’re as good as we’ve ever been for our customers. We deliver in full on time. Our service is good. Customers get their products, they know when they’re going to get it, they get a text message to say delivery is on the way. And so I think at the end of the day it actually comes back to being the very best you can be for your customers.

(20:40):

So to answer your question, the efficiency for me was a big driver. And also at the end of the day, I think if you can make your business and easier to operate for your team, you retain your talent in your business. No one likes a hard clunky business to operate. So if you can get a business that is efficient, easy, everyone comes to work going, today’s going to be a good day. Our system isn’t breaking down, we don’t have computer systems dropping out and they can go home at the end of the day and go, things ran well, that actually improves your company culture as well. So I think it’s a multifaceted answer. It is

(21:15):

Good advice though. And the culture. I remember many years ago an accounting firm that we tried to sway to come across as a client, but they kept on saying, we are losing staff. Staff don’t stay here. They come and join us for a few months and then they leave. And we really, when we just dissected it is they weren’t embracing technology as a differentiator. There were these uni grads that were looking for new technology and they’d stepping back in time, so why would they stick around? But look, you’ve been hats off to you. Not just hit because you sit in front of me, but genuinely have embraced stuff and been very open to staying ahead of the curve, which is why you’ve done so well. I was going to ask another question. I guess from a challenging business environment, economy, all of that sort of stuff. What was one thing that you will always turn to when you’re stuck? You mentioned that you run things to Peter. How do you solve a challenge, whether it’s technology, whether it’s business, whether it’s efficiency, whether it’s people, as a leader, what do you turn to?

(22:06):

I turn to my team. I’m a really frank person. I have very open discussions with our team. There’s nothing that is on my mind that I don’t share with them. So that’s what I’d say I’d do. Probably two or three years ago I took the initiative to set up a board and we brought an independent chairperson in. Again, good for corporate governance, I think good for the structure of the business. Good to keep us thinking 3, 5, 10 years ahead. So Amanda is our chairperson. She’s been really good. She’s someone that I talk to a bit about challenges, issues. She’s really good around getting us to think a bit differently. As I said before, Peter’s on our board, so he brings 40 years of experience in food distribution. He’s really good from that perspective. But I think the team, because at the end of the day if your team don’t understand what your challenges or frustrations are, they actually can’t help you fix those problems. So I just think clarity with your direct reports, clarity throughout the business is really important. Whenever I’ve shared an issue, a frustration or problem and the team understand the reason why I might fit feel in that way or the reason why we need to make a change in our business, if they have all of the information information’s power. So if they’ve got all of the information at hand, they can often make really good decisions to help embrace the change and make the change themself.

(23:27):

Really, really good advice. Just hearing it and to publicly share that and really appreciate it. Matt, changing gears for a few minutes, in terms of the economy, we were talking before the Queens Wolf has just launched and in terms of restaurants and the buzz that’s going around with some struggling and some growing, where do you see, because obviously you are right at the coalface with what’s your thoughts on the economy and just things in general? Yeah,

(23:53):

Look, it’s really interesting. So if I look at the last couple of months in our business, we’ve had a fantastic start to the financial year. It’s interesting in our business because we are very reliant on discretionary spending. So clearly if the economy is challenged and cost of living is expensive, that should have a knock on effect to our business. But we’re seeing both parts of our business, the artisan and bakery side of the business going reasonably well. I think the last couple of months we’ve benefited from the tax cuts flowing through. I think the electricity rebates have been a benefit where people are getting a saving there. Our business, if you think about the last 40 years going through GFCs, floods, fires, covid, we see that discretionary spend shifts. So if people don’t typically have as much money in their pockets, you might see the artisan restaurant side of the business drop a bit, but you actually see that lower spend in bakery increase.

(24:48):

And again in Covid. If I think about our diversification strategy, clearly the hospitality side of the business was decimated for a period of time, but the retail and bakery side of the business exploded. And then when people came out of Covid and then had quite a lot of extra money in their pocket, the bakery piece still was really strong, but people had money in their pocket. So the artisan restaurant cafe side of the business absolutely fired up. So my view of the economy as it is right now is it’s going okay. I think another interest rate increase would hurt big time. I look at our day to days and our business again, that’s another marker of how the economy’s going and where, as you said, where the coalface of our business and I’m not seeing any concerns there. So look at this point, if we can avoid another rate increase, I think we’re odds on for a reasonable Christmas.

(25:43):

Oh, that’s fantastic. Listening to that positivity from you Matt, so I appreciate that future looking, what’s the future plans for, we will talk about PE foods, what you can share, where are you guys looking over the next future and then obviously what are you looking to do over the next couple of years?

(25:57):

Seafood. So I think we’re going through a process at the moment of almost right sizing our business. So any underperforming products we’re moving on. We’ve got some suppliers that if they continually out of stock us, we’re respectfully parting ways and we’re trying to just build a really good core business around our customers. I measure, whilst we’ve got all of the numbers and data and power BI and information in front of us, I measure the business in an intangible way and that is the noise in the business. So the noise is your customer complaints, your staff complaints. I think the goal is to just simply make the business as good as it possibly can be. Continue to invest in efficiency, obviously infrastructure, technology, probably moving on maybe 12 months in advance. We’re always looking at different acquisitions or different opportunities and it’s got to be good for the business because any acquisition that you make or any big bit of business that you bring into the business, no matter how good you are, it will take your eye off the ball for a period of time whilst you integrate it.

(27:07):

So I think it’s got to tick the boxes. We supply products into every state of Australia apart from Northern Territory. It’d be good to have a facility maybe down in Sydney or something like that. But I think just with the business that we’ve got at the moment, the opportunities that are in front of us, I think for the next two to three years we just concentrate the customer base we’ve got, we focus on organic growth because obviously that’s the most efficient, profitable growth you can get rather than going out and buying business. That’s probably the direction for us.

(27:40):

Fantastic. And for you more time down at the farm, what’s the personal want?

(27:45):

Look for me having the exec leadership team drive the day to day I think is extremely important. As someone that ultimately is driving the direction of the business, I think it’s really important to have think time and think time is time where you go, where do we want to be in three years, five years, 10 years? And stepping away from that day to day. Whilst I’m still very much involved, but not necessarily involved operationally day to day, I think I’m extremely lucky to have a very capable exec leadership team to make my life a bit easier, get some time away from the business. I would love to spend more time out at the farm. I love it out there. Our family loves it out there. But I also really enjoy what I do too. I enjoy working with our team. I enjoy seeing our customers, suppliers going around our depots and visiting our teams. So certainly the foreseeable future is very involved in the business still. And I guess, yeah, we’ll see where we go.

(28:44):

Last question, what would you want to be known as your legacy?

(28:47):

That’s a good question. I think building on the foundations that my father started building a business that was built through diversification. So it has multiple income streams that gives the team options. It gives us a greater spread across customers, suppliers, and products. It de leverages our risk. So I think my legacy is to have built a diversified food distribution business that ultimately the team can run on a day-to-day basis and have a culture ultimately where everyone comes to work, they enjoy what they do and they’re really invested in seeing the business be successful as well.

(29:28):

Awesome. Matt, look seriously, I really appreciate you’ve been a success story that not many people know about. Like I mentioned before, I had some friends say, oh PE foods, tell me more about them. So hats off to you and your family. You’ve done amazingly well. You’re a great friend. I look up to you as a mentor, what you achieved. You’ve done amazing and happy birthday. Thank you for your incident to spending time somewhere else. You’re here having a podcast with little old night. So mate, really appreciate it. I couldn’t

(29:52):

Think of anywhere else. Better to be mate. So thank

(29:54):

You. Thanks mate.

(29:55):

Cheers.