Episode Summary: Table 21 with Chris Warner
Host Christopher Wells sits down with Chris Warner, VP at Levy, to explore the massive scale of food and beverage operations at stadiums like Texas A&M's Kyle Field. Warner’s extensive experience, from cruise ships to global sporting events, offers unique insights into leadership, logistics, and culture in hospitality at scale.

Key Highlights:

Notable Quotes:

Final Thoughts:
Christopher and Chris wrap up the episode by discussing the importance of leadership, passion, and perseverance in hospitality. Warner’s story highlights how the right culture and vision can transform even the most complex operations into a world-class guest experience.
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Full transcript

Christopher Wells 0:01

Hi, everyone, welcome to this new episode of table 21. I am, I had the brilliant idea of going for a workout before this podcast because I thought I could fit in a quick cold shower, talking to a gentleman today that works with a lot of athletes. So I said I gotta get in my workout, which turned out to be quite a bit of running in the sun. So but I'm happy I got it. I'm pumped. I'm excited. Chris Warner is my guest today. Chris works with Levy. They operate a lot of anything that's food related. And he'll tell us more. But in stadiums and arenas pretty much if you went to see a game somewhere before all this crazy time or since we recently reopened. You probably went to some of their establishments. So he does things at scale. And I could throw numbers your way to maybe impress you right now. But you know what, I think I'll just bring in the man and let him tell us a story. Like Chris,

Speaker 1 0:52

are you I'm good Chris. I gotta say it's a good name. You got there.

Christopher Wells 0:57

Pretty good name. And you know what, we have the same initials, which is pretty rare. It

Unknown Speaker 1:02

is meant to be.

Christopher Wells 1:03

I noticed that when I when I call him like I don't think I've met many CW is in my days. Thanks for being here today. Glad to have you. I as I was writing the bio, to the podcast, I realize you only do things that at scale a lot of times right you were cruise ships that are scale. Now you run a lot of the FnB and the biggest the fifth largest stadium in the world. So that's pretty exciting as well. And before we get into the nitty gritty of business, I was curious to throw a couple of this or that question your way just so I think it's fun to get to know our guests a little bit better. So since we don't know each other that well I'm curious to to pick your brain a bit. So here I go. Are you an early riser or a night owl?

Speaker 1 1:50

I like to get up early, get things done early, then I know that they're done and then whatever happens the rest of the day like a random wine tasting or a brewery tour. I feel like I've done my workout I've got my work done so early riser.

Christopher Wells 2:05

I love those random winery tastings Are you more jogging or gym? As in lifting weights?

Speaker 1 2:13

Oh god, I would you you would never catch me running anywhere. In fact on my men slowpitch baseball team I either only hit singles or homeruns or got out I do not

Christopher Wells 2:26

That's amazing. Are you more burger tacos?

Speaker 1 2:31

Yeah, I mean, I was burger but living in Texas down here with a great Mexican food scene. You know? Tacos now?

Christopher Wells 2:39

I tacos are on the on the rise. actually isn't a taco Tuesday today? Thinking about it? It is Taco Tuesday. No more Netflix or YouTube?

Unknown Speaker 2:50

Netflix Netflix

Christopher Wells 2:55

chips or ice cream?

Unknown Speaker 2:57

Just to say chips Miss Vicky Salt and Vinegar

Christopher Wells 3:00

that's a good good good good call anything is Vicki. If you asked me Are you more beach or mountain?

Unknown Speaker 3:07

Definitely beach. Yeah.

Christopher Wells 3:10

Probably not as common where you're at now right? I guess you can go on the East Coast right then Texas. Yeah,

Speaker 1 3:16

you know, I mean, you know Galveston is probably the coldest but anymore south of that you know when the Gulf of Mexico because of the Mississippi River portion of it that brown It's not dirty. It's just the sediment from the Mississippi. But as you go further south in Texas, that gulf turns to that turquoise blue and it's beautiful in South Texas.

Christopher Wells 3:37

No. More tea or coffee.

Speaker 1 3:42

Coffee before 10am. Tea the rest of the time. Your Gear coral Imperial green tea.

Christopher Wells 3:49

Amazing. Sounds like a discipline man.

Unknown Speaker 3:53

No. Discipline is not usually associated with me.

Christopher Wells 3:59

Or your middle name. Me neither. But the sign of like, you know, coffee after Dan. I'm like, sounds like you've got some some rules their letter set. That's cool. Thanks for playing my, my this or that. You said you're in Texas now originally from Toronto, I believe, right?

Speaker 1 4:15

Yeah, I'm born in Richmond Hill, which is a suburb just north of Toronto. But we'll say Toronto. Yeah.

Christopher Wells 4:21

Cool. And so you've been in the hospitality business for most of your career. From what I understand what brought you to our industry? What brought you to do this?

Speaker 1 4:34

Well, when I was younger when you I guess you could first start working 15 1617 I was actually a competitive swimmer. So there wasn't a lot of time to work. So a great first job. Well, I was a busboy at a restaurant with Servcorp restaurants that I guess now their most popular for Jack Astor answer. Yeah,

Christopher Wells 4:55

my service job serving server Job was a jackass Thursday in Montreal. So

Speaker 1 4:59

there you go. The 10 steps to service you remember that? But yeah, so then in high school, in my last year of high school, I had some that was at the time in Ontario, where you required five years of high school. So you could work your schedule where you could finish what we call OAC courses. That was the fifth year of high school, if you wanted to go to university, you could actually finish them early, but you still have a certain amount of credits. And I ended up going on a, like a one way exchange program to Costa Rica, and ended up staying there was at least nine months, it was only supposed to be there and a half months. And I remember coming back, and I had all my credits to graduate and I talked with my guidance counselor at the time, and I said, you know, I really like this traveling thing. And being in other places and having that ability, like what, what kind of jobs can I get, where I could travel, and I remember him saying that, you know, the University of Guelph has this. At the time, it was called hotel and Food Administration. It's a degree in business and you can specialize in the hospitality industry. And from there, you know, there's hotels all over the world, there's cruise ships, there's restaurant, like you could work anywhere in the world with this degree. And, and turns out that I have worked many places in the world with this degree, but that that's really what got me into it. And then what kept me it was, you know, the people that you meet in this crazy, crazy industry, there's, you know, equal parts, something wrong with all of us and really good with all of us. So yeah, that's what brought me here.

Christopher Wells 6:37

Very cool. And you you've done a lot of different things like you You work for large cruise ship, organization, you've worked for how, like you've worked obviously, in smaller restaurant when you started to doing a lot of things that are at scale, right? Cruise Ship is, you know, 3000 crew members. I don't know how many are in FnB. But you you organize stuff for what the Penang games, I believe in Toronto, now you you run with our largest stadiums? How? How are different things different from doing them in a smaller operation to doing them at scale? Is it? Yeah, I'm just kidding. Or even if you you can share, like some of the stats that you did when we talked two weeks ago, you told me some stats about the stadium where you're at now. But even on a cruise ship, like what does it look like? Like how many outlets for fnd? And how many people are working in that department? I know that like two 3000 crew members, but how many of that is for food service and that aspect of it?

Speaker 1 7:38

Yes, actually, on the cruise ship is funny because I was actually in, in human resources on the crash was the Training and Development Manager for both for both Royal Caribbean and carnival. But you know, those ships that they're literally floating cities, you know, my contract length would be anywhere from four months to six months on, and then six weeks to two months off, which is fully paid, which is nice. But you know, when we say it's a little city, it's even a little city it's a it's a medium sized city has different neighborhoods and different restaurants for breakfast, lunch, dinner, late night, cocktail bars, sports bars, piano bars, jazz lounges, nightclubs, you know, I think on the bigger ships, there's 36 or 38 different food and beverage outlets, plus different room service options. You know, there's, I think that the stats that I remember, I mean, this is eight, nine years ago since I've been on ships, but we had over 100 different nationalities on board. And in those nationalities, there was like 167 different languages of just the crew members. So really, you know, we used to, not joke, you know, the cool thing about cruise ships was that all of these people from all over the world, literally all over the world working together, in really tight quarters living together, you know, partying together, that's just you're always together and with very, very few problems, which is not representative of the world that we live in. So it was you know, it's hard work and it's not for everyone, but you know, appreciating the different cultures and customs and languages and, and really understanding you know more about where people come from and really, Chris it I think it just boils down to what I really learned from those five, six years on ships was, you know, we're all just people, that's all we are, you know, we we want the same things. We want to make some money want to take care of our families who want to be treated with respect and, you know, not according to rank or not according to stripe, shoulder and it was great lessons. You know, I would really recommend that anyone. I think I joke with you this as well. I think everyone in the world should have mandatory, you know, four years hospitality. I really think it would change a lot of things In a lot of expectations that we go through just to go on a little bit of a rant here, I'm going a little bit off topic, but just reminded me of something. You know, what our current state right now, you know, it's a major, major labor shortage in the hospitality industry from top to bottom. And a couple of reasons for that, I think, you know, when the pandemic started, and a lot of the older and upper management people were either either retired or asked, or voluntold, to retire early. And then the recent graduates said, Well, you know, Screw this, I'm not getting into this business, and they found something else. And then, you know, there was a lot of people in the middle, you know, that 40 to 60,000, a year manager that that were furloughed or laid off somewhere else. And it's disappointing right now, to see a lot of the backlash in the media, where it's easy for a politician or somebody to get on Twitter or get onto a microphone and say, Well, no wonder you're not having any staff right now. Because you treated them like shit for so long, and you didn't pay them well enough, and you didn't take care of them. And, and there's really no thought that's gone into that, because these are the same people that want to pay $4 for a hamburger, or want to pay expecting, you know, complaining that $40 for a bottle of wine is crazy. And, you know, you were just as long as I have in this business, you can't go to your landlord, and say, Well, my customers want to pay less for their steak, so you have to lower my rent. And then you can't go to the H vac system and say, I can't pay $25,000 to install hoods, and then have and then pay $5,000 a year to have them inspected and cleaned to keep them up to fire code. Because my guests would like their eggs benedict at $8. It doesn't work that way. Right? So it's really easy to say you should just pay people more and give them benefits and give them whatever. Well, he has to fund that at some point. Right. So I think, you know, we really do need to look at living wages and how we address that. But I think there has to be buy in on on the customer side as well. So end of that short rant.

Christopher Wells 12:04

That's a good rant, though, it's true that some people expect to have everything the cheapest or the most affordable. But also, they wanted to be local, and they want it to be organic and fair trade in for everybody to have amazing wages. And obviously, at some point, something's got to give, either. I mean, you know, there's some graphics on that either you have more quality while it goes with the price. And if you want to pay less, usually the quality is less or the experiences less, and so on so forth. So they are though, certain things that can be done internally to to keep people are to attract people, right, some some some, everybody's having a hard time too, because right now everybody's trying to go into the pool of talent and bring people in at the same time. Usually it doesn't happen, right? There's a natural flow there. There's people that are changing jobs. But right now it's hard when you're basically everybody's going out trying to hire so they will be there was already a shortage before this. I don't know if I bet it was in Texas, but I know up here in Canada was pretty bad before the pandemic. So right now everybody's going out and hiring at the same time and everybody, some people are trying to stand out. Some people are trying to be an attractive employer, but other people are, are still a little old school and maybe not too focused on culture, right? Is that something that I'm guessing in? And I don't want to jump ahead? Actually, let me let me back because there's some really interesting things about what you're doing now. So you work for Levy. Levy, from what I know, and you can correct me but they operate. Anything that's food service. And I won't say most, but many, many, many, many stadiums and arenas across North America, but just give us a lowdown on Levy, and then tell us where you're at now and kind of what the scale of your operation.

Speaker 1 13:51

So levy is a division of Compass Group, USA CUP couples group worldwide, that we operate in the food services and hospitality side, as you mentioned, for various venues could be arenas, stadiums, convention centers, zoos. We even have a couple properties. We own some brick and mortar restaurants in the Florida and Chicago area. I really, you know, this company was started once a in the late 70s. It was a two brothers and their mother owning a deli. And, you know, expanding now to 4040 something years later, to being the industry leader. I don't want to quote too many numbers. Because, you know, last year was weird, but sort of, you know, top line sales and an industry leader in that sense. And compass is the largest food service provider in the world. So backed by a really strong company. I think one of the things that. You know, one of our mottos is we're all about family. We're a family of passionate people and But this company has made some really forward thinking and unique decisions. And this gets to the people point. You know, I think five or six years ago, compass and levy identified that we have a major people challenge and hospitality, you know, for many different reasons, and it's that we touched on at the beginning, it's not easy to picture working, you know, every weekend at night, and every holiday and every mother's day, and every Father's Day and, you know, every Super Bowl, and, you know, all of those things that are traditional social gatherings is, you know, somebody has to be there to serve all those people that go out. And that's us. And, you know, it's hard to recruit people with the hours and with the pay. And so they instituted a couple of things that I think are great ideas, you know, there was a minimum salary introduced, and then they eliminated maximum or minimum vacation times. So really, it's because we're so many of our properties are seasonal, whether it be NCAA football, or NFL football, where you're working like crazy for six months, and then there's always a down season. And then you're back into planning and getting ramped up again, well, instead of you know, trying to plan your two weeks or three weeks or four weeks off, and then in between all of that the personal stuff dentist appointment, you know, you know, kids have a graduation, that they just decided as a company that you know, you're going to sort it out with your direct manager, how much vacation you want to take. So really, for people in our industry now, taking two weeks off straight to go to the cottage or travel to Europe or like that's something you can now plan without worrying about only have 10 days left or eight days left to take. So I think that's really helped. And I think there's more to be done to continue to attract those people but yeah, so that that is the you know, the food service side of venues and stadiums is the the core of the levy business.

Christopher Wells 17:01

Very cool. And now you are at now I want to say the name and I forget but the the Texas a&m with a new stadium again.

Speaker 1 17:09

Kyle Field is the state. We do the food services for all of the athletics venues here.

Christopher Wells 17:16

Oh, okay. And but that's the fifth largest stadium in the world.

Speaker 1 17:20

fifth largest stadium in the world fourth largest stadium in America. And I think we may drop one with some renovations that are coming up to other college stadiums. But yeah, I mean, it's you know, it's 103,000 at full capacity 110,000 The standing room only

Christopher Wells 17:38

and what does food and beverage and a building like that look like outlets wire, like how many outlets how many people working with you guys on game day, they quit? What's that like?

Speaker 1 17:48

So we have again, in normal times, we have 20 or so year round, salaried managers, you know, maybe another five or 10 year round full time and part time hourlies that that have benefits. For a full capacity game we're looking at about 1800 staff and then we bring in an additional 40 to 60 managers from different parts of our company. So each game and with that, you know, that's 40 plane flights and 40 hotel rooms and 40 rental cars and 40 premiums and organizing all of that so I mean it is it's a football season but each event is you know kind of like at least attendance wise you know it's one and a half times the size of any Super Bowl. You know a slow game for us is 70,000 People walk in the park you know it is a lot of work to get 55 permanent concession stands open another 30 or 40 portables a 4500 person club but 2500 person club 125 suites press box green rooms catering pregame meals postgame meals, staff meals for 1800 people it is a logistical challenge. I mean, you know I think sorry to repeat myself and nobody listening knows that I'm repeating myself but you know, serving a lot of people say why can't you just open the window and serve hotdogs? It can't be that hard? Right? Well you know, the hotdogs have to come from somewhere. And so that starts three months out when you have to do your demand planning with your suppliers for Hotdogs for steaks for chicken for you know we just bought you know $50,000 worth of brisket to get us through our first three games coming up in in September because the prices of meat are going up literally weekly. The prices are going up so we're trying to to hedge our bets with that. So it starts with your suppliers and then the delivery our warehouses 10,000 square feet Trying to find a place to store all that and then get it up to the various areas on seven or eight different levels of the stadium. Then we got to find staff, we got to train them, they got to learn how to use the POS with educate the guests that we don't use cash. I mean, we can go on and on and on. So I mean, it's really the opposite of just open the window and sell hotdogs. Yeah,

Christopher Wells 20:21

there's way too many moving parts. And for the thing is that for the person that's going through a game, they see that counter right there, just open that one, but they don't know that there's 55 of those. And that you need to coordinate employees for it, the technology, the supply chain and everything else. And I'm guessing in a place like that, there's some kind of common Sherry where you keep all the food and you need to dispatch it to all these different outlets. So yeah, there's many, many, many, many, many moving parts for sure.

Speaker 1 20:51

Yes. Including, including one service elevator that if that breaks, for big trouble.

Christopher Wells 20:57

There's one only for the for the seven eight floors.

Unknown Speaker 21:00

One major service elevator? Yeah, wow. Yeah,

Christopher Wells 21:03

if that breaks an hour before a game or a couple hours before, I guess it's panic mode, or there's some there's people running a lot of flare, the adult flight steps with the buck isn't there.

Speaker 1 21:13

And we've done this, it's the ramps, right. So yeah, you can go up the ramps. Yeah. And our early September games, you know, it's a really that's still late summer in Texas. So it's going to be 100 110 degrees. And going up ramps with with dollies filled with bag and box sodas and cases of water and whatever else can get up those ramps, you want to talk about a workout that's a workout,

Christopher Wells 21:39

I definitely be waiting, sweating profusely, if I was doing that. Obviously, one of the things, you know, you were mentioning the company, strive to do things in the last five years to become a more attractive employer to give people the ability to, you know, manage their life, right. That's one thing that people want from our industry. It's not, it's basically like a commitment to never having a holiday or like you were saying before, like trying to do that big focus on culture with many people, a lot of people say it, they don't necessarily act on it. But a lot of people are trying to create a better culture around what they do. It sounds like like Levy's tried to do that in the last five years and and basically be there for their employees and all that. from your standpoint, when you're running the stadium up to 1800. People you were saying in a game day? How do you manage to instill some kind of a culture because you have a smaller team of part time, full time people? And then 98% of your employees are occasional slash by time? How do you create some kind of a culture in a big environment like that? Is there? Are they any, any tips? Or is it basically just having strong values that you try to share with them? How do you how do you approach that?

Speaker 1 23:02

Yeah, you know, I wish there was a perfect answer. And certainly, I don't think that I have the perfect answer. But you know, what I tried to do with my team here, and I have a great team that that also believes in the same thing. You know, like we said, right at the beginning, people just want to be treated like people. And they know, it's our job as the management team to set them up for success to make sure that they're trained to the degree in which they need to be trained, that they have the supplies that they need, that they know that, you know, we're gonna back them up, and this is not, you know, this should be an enjoyable experience, this should be something that, you know, it's a cool thing to be behind the scenes at the fifth largest stadium in the world with a, you know, working at a great school with a great franchise and, you know, anything that we can do on the human side, and to understand that we can't run this place without the staff members, whether they're from not for profit groups, or actual actual hourly staff, you know, it's our role is to make this the most welcoming, and best experience for them. That's what the larger group and really, that's, that's all you have time for, you know, but those little things, where you speak to people and or give direction or, you know, assign them their tasks or organize them for that shift. Those are the, you know, the little key indicators that always sticks in people's head that say, you know, these guys have their act together, or, you know, this place is a disaster. And we obviously want the latter, the former not the latter, for people to think so, you know, within them with my own team. You know, I always say that, at the end of the day, this is just a job. Yes, we need this job. We're not independently wealthy, we have to make money. And if we're going to do that and work this hard and then this amount of time together, we should have some fun along the way. And, you know, understanding, you know, everything with safety and all that stuff, but that always has to come first. But, you know, we need to have a relaxed environment, you need to not micromanage people, you have to understand that these are all director level or senior manager, people that are on this team, that they're adults, and most of them have families and mortgages, responsibilities. And so I think they're capable of managing their own time and their own work, you're just or at least I am just here for guidance and support and to make sure they're pointed in the right direction. And I think, you know, when people know that they can come to work with their own day organized and not, you know, not be asked every five minutes what they're doing, or why they're doing it, but know that there's that support and resources behind them. I think that makes a great culture. And that's what we want to trickle down to the larger group.

Christopher Wells 25:57

Very cool. I mean, principles or principles, right? Whether it's in a large environment, like yours, or, or even a smaller restaurant, it's about treating people like, like people, like you said, and caring about them. And I love that you said you don't want to micromanage them, and you let them manage their schedule, and all that people are, I mean, you don't manage, you know, you can't run the whole, show yourself, right, you find the right people for them in the right position and trust them that, that the work is gonna get done, and try to empower them to do the right thing and make the right decision. So

Speaker 1 26:30

and I think too, you know, you asked before doing something to scale or in a small restaurant, you know, I don't think I don't think the principles change, I think, you know, just maybe the size of your team. And then the size of, you know, if it, extrapolating it to a bigger number, right? It certainly it helps to go through those big events or festivals or pennant games or Olympics, you know, it helps when you see it with your own eyes. But the principles of running the business don't change you, you have to, you have to know how as the leader of of either the GM of the restaurant or leading a property like myself, you have to understand or being the conductor of an orchestra, right, you got to be able to play every instrument, hopefully, you're not the best at every instrument, that means you don't have a strong team, but you know how to do at all, you know, you have to understand logistics and ordering and forecasting, finance, and HR, and you have to understand, you know, you have to be a therapist some days, and you have to be a big brother or sister or sometimes a mother or father. You know, because it's we're so hands on and dealing with people all the time. It's not real. It's not software, it's most of our business is dealing with people and they have things that happen in their life that are good and bad. And you have to that's just part of the business, you know, and it seems like it just a little more exacerbated when you have a large team that it can sometimes feel like there's always something happening, but that's how people's lives are. Right. And that's just the business. Which is why, you know, most days I do love this business, because you know, I don't I don't know many other occupations where you have to wear that many hats, and probably every single day, all of those hats at least once.

Christopher Wells 28:17

Yeah. And you gotta be quick on that. Finding, we got a question on Facebook from pascalis is asking, What about training all these seasons, seasonal staff? Probably not an easy thing, right? Where you were saying you get people from, like paid employees, maybe some nonprofit people that come and work with you. How do you handle training with, with all those people?

Speaker 1 28:40

Christopher? Oh, that sounds like a good Greek name. So yeah, so Decolonise

Christopher Wells 28:45

Bravo Calipatria.

Speaker 1 28:50

Yeah, so you know it. Again, it goes back to logistics, we obviously have to segment or training. So there's some good parts about technology in these last few years is that a lot of our technical training, you know, chemical awareness, responsible alcohol service, sexual harassment, business, that business ethics, those are a lot of online classes that we do. We do pay people for us, we say you have this block of time to finish this training. And this will be added to your paycheck. If you finish it in one hour. Great if you take all six hours is what it is. As an organized as a property. Texas a&m has a training day for all staff, if that's, you know, ourselves or security or event management or Building Ops. And that's usually you know, let's call it 3030 500 people and that's usually a four hour deal where, no matter what we all want to try to represent the brand here of Texas a&m, even though we're contractors, we're all you know, proud to be working at the school and part of this organization. So that's sort of the rah rah to get people on that page and then we do our individual training. trainings with either the nonprofits or our hourly staff and that can take, you know, we start that probably three weeks out, usually scheduling in the evenings, because most people have second jobs. And we bring them right into either the area, the bar, or the concession stand they're working in, we go through the technical ABCs of the job, you know, point of sale training, end of night procedures. And listen, I wish I had an unlimited budget, because I'd probably like to quadruple patterning. Reality is it doesn't work that way. But But yeah, that's how we do it. Great question.

Christopher Wells 30:35

Very cool. Yes. Thanks. Pascal is for the question. And you for the the intro in Greek. And I guess I don't know, if you started there, I started working with a beautiful Greek family for the first five years in the business. You mentioned tech, using tech for online training, which obviously makes a lot of sense, you have tools today that can allow you to, you know, see who's watched what and how much time they spent on it and throw some quizzes in there. So obviously, great technology there. Pos, obviously, for you guys to track sales across such a big operation. How big of a? I mean, our industry is really late to adopting tech. And I'm curious to know, in an environment like that, how much do you guys harness that when it comes to you're talking about supply chain bring in a lot of product getting that product dispatched in the stadium? Is there a lot of tech behind that? Or is it still pretty old school?

Speaker 1 31:27

No, it's definitely gotten a lot better. You know, I think it's hard to at the risk of sounding insensitive, saying that there may have been some silver linings during the most devastating time, at least in my lifetime, worldwide. But, you know, I think we've learned at least here we have what to say here. I mean, Texas, in the larger United States, you know, there's now the when you're trying to make a decision, two years ago, it was, you know, a lot of deliberation, and can we do this? Or Can't we or why not? And it just seems that that decision matrix has been accelerated, where it's like, you know, this will make things easier or more streamlined or, you know, be beneficial to the operation in some way? And the answer usually starts with a yes. And then work backwards with, you know, how do we get this done? Technology is a huge part of that. You know, I think there was already investments, at least with our company into a new purchasing system, you know, looking at ways of, you know, now that we've gone cashless, and a lot of properties are going cashless, that end of night inventory, you know, there's much more openness to, how much time do we want to spend counting cups and counting, whatever, when the opportunity for theft is basically not there, at least to this to the opportunity cost of doing an inventory in a place the size, I think a lot of places are adapting to that as well. And I think, you know, mobile ordering, at least in the places that have reopened in the States, there's been an uptick. In the mobile ordering side, some stadiums have gone to 100% mobile ordering at the direction of the client. So I think, you know, saying to somebody the other day, I think, you know, the future, as I think is, as it was already trending was that personalized on demand experience, because competing with, you know, the living room and the 85 inch TV, and the comfort of your own home and your own clothes in your own bathroom, and not having to worry about paying for parking, and, you know, not having to pay $10 for a beer. I think there's always going to be competition from that now. But there is something about the live experience that is never going to go away. So you know, working with to fans and staff, and every one of us how do we keep people coming back to the stadiums and technology and data? This is such a huge part of that. So it's it's way less old school than even five years ago, and it's reading faster than almost every other industry. And that's not just stadiums. I think that's hotels, I think that's cruise ships. I think that's flying and check in and our whole industry, I think is accelerating

Christopher Wells 34:10

now. That's really cool. I'm curious to know, game day. What's, what's Chris's day like, on game day? Where you I mean, is it just putting out fires? Is it kind of just making sure everybody's in the right place? People are motivated, I'm sure it's a like you said before, even on an average day you wear, you know, seven, eight hats. And on any given day, you'll wear them all but what's the game they scenario like for you?

Speaker 1 34:39

So, you know, this would be my fourth football season coming up here at Texas a&m. And I can tell you, almost verbatim how the season goes. is really really hard no matter what doesn't matter how like, you know, talking with a friend the other day I was in Austin last week, talking to my counterpart at Austin SP which we're opening The Saturday for the first time. And he was at Wrigley Field for many years. And you know, same team, high volume account, same, like not obviously the Cubs, but I mean his team, a really low turnover, you know, people wanted to work there, probably still do. But opening day was always hard, you know, the building's been closed for six months. So every opening day is really hard, I usually walk, you know, somewhere between 25 and 35 miles an hour, you know, right around that on the game day, tons and tons of notes, trying to get to every area that I can to see it with my own eyes. You know, I have a great team here as well. So you know, the the fires to put out are relatively minimal, it just, it's really hard to get 1800 people in here on the first day and run the event. From there, the second game, for whatever reason, is usually an 11am game, which means our chefs are starting at midnight the night before. And most of our check ins starts at 4am. So that really sucks on that second game. But after that everyone's in a rhythm. And then my game day just becomes visiting different suites, you know, talking to all sorts of people from, you know, the student section to, you know, any part of the concessions, and then the VIP suite holders. And that's kind of how my season ends. And you know, my mind's always thinking of by game two or three, I'm already thinking of next year, you know, what do we what are we going to change? What would be cool? What are we going to implement, you know, dealing a lot with sponsors, so it gets I do get to that sort of higher level 30,000 feet by game three, and four.

Christopher Wells 36:50

So really down on the ground for the first few games, and then you get to that point where you're seeing the business as a whole. And you can start to be more in planning mode, and not necessarily in the urgent stuff. But how do we grow long term? And that's what I mean. First game is literally like reopening a bunch of businesses, like you said, I can only imagine going close for six months at Wrigley Field when you're opening up, you know, 100 businesses in the same day, pretty much even though they might be small businesses. It's still like you said, there's a lot of moving parts in there.

Speaker 1 37:22

Yeah, and you have to remember to I mean, these are outdoor venues that are exposed to a lot of different elements. And this year, last year in Texas, you know, we had the big freeze for that seven to 10 day period, we had water pipes that burst everywhere, significant damage to many areas of the stadium, including our warehouse. But I mean, that was an anomaly. But, you know, six months of really intense heat, sometimes really deep freezes. You know, different furry friends that wander around.

Christopher Wells 37:54

They have time to get to where they want to go. Right.

Speaker 1 37:56

Yeah. So but yeah, yeah, so that just you know, it's different than the Bell Center, which hard enough open after an offseason. But you know, in an irregular year, the Bell Center is doing concerts and hockey, and, you know, I'll be doing 150 160 events a year. So at least keeps up some normalcy and some use, we're here, we, you know, we literally turn everything off, we unplug the fridge, we turn off every light, and then fire it all up again. So

Christopher Wells 38:25

probably not easy to manage. Also, you're talking about managing supply before you need to manage what's going to be left at the end, I'm sure I mean, obviously, you guys have a lot of other outlets where you can probably send products and like there's other venues that are operating year round, or that are still operating for something else during the season. But I can only imagine, like, trying to plan that you don't want to run out but you don't want to be wind up with a full warehouse, the end of the last game, right?

Speaker 1 38:51

Yeah, you know, that's where some of that, you know, cruise ships, they do an absolutely spectacular job of basically pulling into port and refilling an empty ship. Right. I mean, they have their inventory and ordering down to, you know, the gram of strawberries that they'll need, you know, for a certain, a certain voyage. And you're right, you know, we try to hit that sweet spot. You know, it all depends on how the team is doing and how the balance of the schedule looks and how the weather looks, you know, we're, we're one Severe Thunderstorm away from our whole season being a financial ruin, right? Because, you know, it's it's, we do run the other venues, it's true, but you know, 85% of our revenue is driven from seven football games. So if one of the seven shoe let's call it weather, or the team is whatever not doing well or the the schedule is weak for the balance, you know, it's it can get dicey. So, you know, between sharing with our other venues or other properties here in Texas, you know, they're just some things that you can't do anything with, you know, 55 concession stands with that. unbox soda, you know, it's a, it's a, it's a huge number. I don't I don't know how many numbers I'm allowed to say on here. But it's a, it's a five figure number of soda that's left in Lyons, that we just can't do anything with it just because the size of the place. So all that has to be accounted for and budgeted for and forecasted for. But you're right, we try to hit that sweet spot. And we make those projections, every game leading up to that, that seventh game, because once that season ends, you know, there's really nothing to do with it. The other venues are small, you know, so

Christopher Wells 40:36

very interesting. I can imagine the the, I mean, it's like anything else, you said, you do the best you can and you try to plan it. But it that's such a large scale, it's, it's, it's crazy, when you're imagining that, you know, you may waste five fingers of water and sugar pretty much sitting in lines there, right? There's not much else you can do there. And what's really interesting stuff is far from anything I've you know, experienced in my life. So I'm, I'm kind of, I would love to fly down and see a game behind the scenes in an environment like that. It must be crazy.

Unknown Speaker 41:14

Well, we could we could use the labor. So for sure,

Christopher Wells 41:17

but you'll have me working, I won't have time to go around. But maybe maybe I can I can bring up some bibs up the up the ramps there. If you've been in the business for 1520 years, probably, maybe even more, but what would you say to a young person from 15 years ago, seeing what you've learned? You've worked in many different places. Now you've been with a company for seven years.

Speaker 1 41:45

Yeah, this one this run with levy is six years. And, but I have worked for them for you know, often on 12 or 13 years. I started as a bar supervisor, but I tell you, well, first thing I would tell young Chris, is that there will be a time in 2000 and sex, no, sorry, it doesn't attend that you're on a cruise ship. And you will be the girl and she will become your girlfriend. And you will have the opportunity to go on a different ship that goes to Australia in the South Pacific in one season, and Hawaii in the other season. And there's a chance you're going to decide to want to do that because you want to stay with this girl. Don't make that decision. Go to Australia. Really. But now, you know, I I've been really lucky, Chris, a lot of it has been lucky and timing. I've been really lucky with some great bosses in my life, including my current one. And that's not just to win points. But I've had people that have taught me a lot and supported me and and you know, I haven't been afraid when a door has opened if it was to go on a cruise ship or even going before that to go to Costa Rica by myself as an 18 year old not speaking Spanish and staying there for three quarters of a year. To go into Vancouver and working in the Olympics, and then getting I was lucky that one of my friends was running that that program there and, you know, having the Pan Am Games opportunity fall to another one of my friends that hired me, you know, I just think you know, and then being vocal, you know, it's not maybe just myself, I would give advice to would be anybody. It's don't be afraid to ask for what you want, you know, and ask for it with logic and, you know, passionately and, and have something to back it up. Right? If that's asking for the salary that you think you deserve or asking for the job that you think you deserve. You know, I think too many people, especially ones that I interview, you know, when it comes to the salary part, it's like, I've never seen people more nervous that when I asked them how much they want to get paid, well, maybe this and maybe that. It's like, No, I want to get paid this amount of money. Or I'm not going to take this job. I wouldn't say that part. But, um, but I think that's just the advice to anybody getting in this business. Don't be afraid of doors that open recognize when they do open and ask for what you want.

Christopher Wells 44:26

Pretty cool. You said there's some people around you that I've believed in you people that you know great people in your life that have elevated you and help you get to where you're at who would be three people that have had an influence on you. Other than that girl that that messed up that trip to Australia, but that could be your career, your life but people that have had a good influence on you and that have helped you get to where you're at now.

Unknown Speaker 44:54

She's only three. I mean,

Christopher Wells 44:57

you can make more but if You don't want to hurt people's feelings. But sometimes people have a hard time getting to three because I put them on the spot, but

Speaker 1 45:06

Okay, so you want me to like I can use their names. That's, of course would love to? Yes, I think one guy that you should have on even on your show to his name's Dan Moore and Senior Vice President of food and beverage for Maple Leaf sports, we met 20 something years ago, I think he was senior accountant at Roger center, when levy was there, that was my first go around with Levy and I was a bar supervisor, a restaurant supervisor, and just to kind of grow up with somebody through those years, that he's also been extremely successful. To have that, that friendship and to have those offline conversations and to share. I mean, you know, we we talked a lot of nonsense, but you know, we also share a lot of information on everything from staffing and, you know, incentives and you know, how to deal with bosses and how to deal with senior people like presidents and CEOs and boards of directors. And, you know, just to know that, you know, somebody is looking out for you. And I hope he feels the same way too. But he's been a great friend in this business. Another friend of mine, who was a former client of mine, now, one of my great friends, his name is Alex Milanovich. Serbian dude, shout out to Alex. But he was the one that hired me at Pan Am Games and really showed me, you know, taught me a lot about bringing a group together, and how to treat people and how to understand that, you know, we are one group, but each person sort of needs their own way to be handled or dealt with. And then, you know, his leadership there showed me what what a group of people can do. Together. And, you know, we were, we were, our department was catering, cleaning and waste. So all of the venues 36 venues plus the Athletes Village, we came in, well, under budget, our, our guest comment cards, that we gave out 15,000 of them, we had like a 96% positivity rating. So the results were there, but the fun and the relationships we had along the way that was, you know, one of the greatest times of my life. And then, you know, on the personal side of if to go with family, you know, I think, you know, lost my mother, and 2009. But, you know, her, her, my dad, were supporting me with all of my crazy ideas, and my sister as well with whatever, whenever I wanted to do, and there was always support, there was never questions of why do you want to move to the jungle or, you know, back on a crew, you're going to be away from your family for six months at a time or even now, you know, why do you want to move to Texas? Those were never the questions, it was more it was always support that, you know, this is what you want to do. And that's what you should do. And, you know, I don't think I've always behaved in a way that deserved all that support. But it worked out fairly well. That's the

Christopher Wells 47:59

amazing thing with family. Right? They the there's this unconditional love and support. Many times, I mean, hopefully not everybody has that in their family. But glad you did. I've had it well surrounded with people that support crazy ideas. And were what seemed like crazy ideas for other people that are, you know, seem normal to us and are calling and what we want to do. So thanks for sharing that. And I'll definitely reach out to Dan and try to get him on the show. If you say should be here.

Unknown Speaker 48:29

I'll I'll prompt him for you.

Christopher Wells 48:32

Perfect. I appreciate that. There's a lot of myths in our industry and probably even more so in something exhale at scale, like what you're doing. But is there a common myths about our industry that you'd like to debunk? Or you've already done a few today? But are they things even maybe in the context of what you do that you said a little bit before people think just opening the door and selling hotdogs is there? But are they? Is there another myth that you you see that you'd like to debunk or that that irritates you?

Speaker 1 49:06

Yeah, I'll just speak in generalities. You know, there's a huge myth that we are we as an industry, we're just raking money in, you know, that these $10 beers or whatever it might be just creating this enormous amount of profit for, you know, either the owner of a small restaurant or a corporation. And a couple things that, you know, we're all a business, right? I mean, I never see anybody at the gas station when gas prices go up. Asking for the manager and saying the gas is too expensive, right? You don't see anyone at Walmart. Like if you look at commodity prices in the last six months, tomatoes are up like 200% Like, all these timber is up 6,000% Like, I mean, you don't See people at Walmart and saying, getting their bill at the checkout and going, you know, this experience wasn't worth it, these tomatoes are too expensive, I would like them for free. And for some reason, you know, and again, this is the negative side, there's, for the amount of people we serve a year as an industry. You know, the majority of people do have a great time, and they're just not vocal. But the myth is that this is easy money, and we're raking it in and in reality, especially independent owners risk everything. You know, they're their own house and their own food and their own family's livelihood. Plus being responsible for other people that work there. And, you know, how many times have you seen a glass break in a restaurant, right? Oops, dropped the glass? Well, well, the bartender is like, Oh, well, and they clean it up. But that's $9 Out of the owners pocket gone. Bottom line, never to be seen again. Right. So, you know, I think restaurants are whatever the 90% fail rate, you know, and of the 10% that succeed, you know, if you're putting 10 points to your bottom line, and then you're doing a pretty damn good job. That's the myth. You know, it's really, it's, it's not easy. It's not exceptionally profitable. And I don't know why people think that.

Christopher Wells 51:19

Yeah, it's exciting. It's an exciting business. You've said it before, but it is very, very, I mean, if you're doing 10 points, 10% profit, you're you're above. I mean, the industry average is four to 7%. And I tell people that and they told me, I'm crazy, but I'm like, do the math. And but the interesting thing there like, that's the way I like to explain it too, is that that $9 glass? If you're doing 10 points, and you're doing really well that means on $100 table or $100 tab at the stadium or $100 Well, you just make a profit from that right? So much more, you're gonna have to sell to recoup that too. So you breaking last break this Rico model, you don't punch this in, you forget that you wait that then you've wasted 5060 bucks. Well, that's the profit from Remax. Right. So

Speaker 1 52:08

what do I know? Sorry to interrupt, I don't know. You know, when you said it's exciting, I wanted to jump in there. Because I don't want to sound like Debbie Downer. Because, you know, we've done so many weddings in my career, and, you know, so many birthdays, and so many retirement parties, and so many I'm cancer, free brunches, and, you know, to really see that Europe, even though you're behind the scenes, while you're out in front of people, but you're providing the non tangible experience, right. And so many people's memories in their lives, have something to do with the food, the experience, the beverage that we were part of. And that's, that's a really cool feeling. And that's the majority of it, you know, there, it's, you know, I just want to make sure that I'm not sounding too, Debbie downer here.

Christopher Wells 52:59

Not at all. I mean, it's a hard business. And I asked you about a myth. So usually, that means a lot people think, maybe not very clearly about something in our industry, but I don't think you'd be where you're at if you weren't positive and being able to bring people in teams together. So thanks for sharing a lot of that stuff. Very interesting topics and they're very interesting points and fun to see it from your point of view, in the kind of environment that you work in. Before we we let you go time flies, obviously when we do these, but I like I like to do a little rapid fire questions with you. You enjoy a beverage like wine, beer or spirits? Do you have a drink once in a while? All of the above all of the above? What's your favorite?

Speaker 1 53:47

Okay, I know this is rapid fire. So let me try to go quickly or beer. If I'm drinking beer. I mean, I love trying all kinds of beer but I really love Boddingtons and Guinness those nitrogenated beers. Yes. For liquor, you know, like pre drink at a nice restaurant, smokey Manhattan with make 46 One large ice cube. No cherry, lemon and orange twist. And then wine. I mean, I've just started a pretty decent sized wine collection right now. So you know you name it. I'm trying to

Christopher Wells 54:24

Nice. The best trip you've ever taken.

Speaker 1 54:32

We, okay, best experience in my five years on cruise ships with the first time going to India. And the first time being in Mumbai and taking a day with we found some random person on the side of the road to give us a tour. Her and her husband had an air conditioned car which was a big deal. It was real field 52 degrees with the humidex I mean it was I've ever seen in my life. And they we thought my friend and I thought it was gonna be This expensive tour and they ended up charging us $20 per person for like any battery. But yet to see the real sights of Mumbai and really understand what certain situations that other people live in, but still Chris, they were just like you and me. They're just people. Money. Very nice, very sweet. And then family trips every year that we go to the cottage. I'm lucky that the football schedule here still allows me to go home in the summer. Just those weeks at the cottage are fantastic. What to look forward to every year.

Christopher Wells 55:34

It's amazing. Your favorite restaurant.

Speaker 1 55:40

Best Restaurant experience that I think you have to do once was the French Laundry. went there with some friends. My sister and brother in law for my 40th birthday was fan like just outrageous. My favorite local restaurant, there's a restaurant called Terra restaurants. It's just north of Toronto. I put it up against any restaurant that I've ever been to in terms of service. And here in College Station Texas. Shout out to the Republic steak as my go to spot.

Christopher Wells 56:14

Amazing. Um, what would be three words that best describe you?

Unknown Speaker 56:21

Are you a fan of the office?

Christopher Wells 56:24

A little bit. I have some friends that are like, way over the top boy that

Speaker 1 56:29

was the Dwight line, the Dwight Schrute line where they said describe yourself in three words. He said what did he say? Like alpha male? Merciless jackhammer,

Christopher Wells 56:43

or I'll take that you landed on the desert island. You can bring one album of music. What would it be?

Unknown Speaker 57:00

Counting Crows August and everything after?

Christopher Wells 57:03

Amazing. Haven't heard that in a while. That's the one with Mr. Jones drones and all the hits that yellow, the yellow cover there. Every song

Speaker 1 57:14

is great on that album. And I still listen. I think it came out in 91 or 92. And I still listened to it to this day.

Christopher Wells 57:21

Yeah, very good. I thought it was later on than I thought it was like 9495. But yeah, time flies. You said before you enjoy Netflix, more than than YouTube. Any web series that you're watching right now. Anything we should check out?

Speaker 1 57:38

Well, I'm watching for I think the fourth time now Peaky Blinders. And if you haven't seen that you personally I highly recommend it. You need to get through the first two episodes.

Christopher Wells 57:48

I did start the first one and I saw my my lady was watching it the other day. I'm like, Man, I really helpful for it. I didn't get through it. But now you're saying that I'll stick around for a couple episodes.

Speaker 1 57:57

Yeah. And I mean, all five seasons are great. on that show.

Christopher Wells 58:02

I mean, I think if you could have dinner with anyone living or dead, who would be at your table.

Speaker 1 58:10

It would be my mom, my dad, my sister. grandparents. All of I mean be a big family dinner. That's what

Christopher Wells 58:19

family man at the cottage I'm guessing at this. Where's that? Where's the cottage? north of Toronto?

Speaker 1 58:26

Yeah, it's in little town. Indian Hills, amended Albritton area.

Christopher Wells 58:30

Okay. Well, um, you're gonna hit it this summer. I'm guessing you're going to go up there soon?

Speaker 1 58:36

Well, we need this bordered open. In Texas. I'm not going to come home to quarantine for 14 days. So I just read an article today that brother in law sent me seems like, you know, like June July border opening is going to happen. So, I mean, that's what we're, it's not it's not in my control. So all I can do is hope and, and hope to see the family there this summer.

Christopher Wells 59:02

That's amazing, Chris. It's been a really cool conversation. I appreciate you coming on and sharing with us and getting some insights into what you do and who you are. I would definitely love to share a smoky Manhattan hold the cherry. Give me the zests and a large ice cube with you. I'm sure we'd have a good time chatting even more about our industry and other stuff. And you could teach me about college football. I'm begging to the NFL and I'm starting to watch college football. But wishing you even though we're quite early in June, but then an outstanding season in the fall. And thanks for coming on.

Speaker 1 59:41

That was really fun, Chris, great idea. Really glad you're doing this to to get some exposure to our industry friends and hopefully people learn something from it. It's great to be with you.

Christopher Wells 59:50

Amazing. Thanks everyone. See you soon.
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