august2024 - 18

to sell its food to other channels
that are not current customers such
as airports, convenience stores and
gas stations. " It's a new venture for
us, so we can do more with our
commissary, " said Jen. In 2024, the
company hopes to become USDA
certified.
SUCCESS BASED
ON SERVICE
Over the last 13 years, Buffalo Strive
has seen an immense amount of
growth. Despite this growth, the
company has never lost sight of its
main focus: its customers. " We thrive
on service, so during the moments
when we felt like we were losing that
component, that's when we would
realize we needed more help, " said
Jen. " Being a local family-owned
business, we have always wanted to
be that company where customers
are immediately getting the service
they need. "
Customer service is so important
to the company that they
wanted to include it in their name.
As they were brainstorming names
early on, the Cortos kept coming
back to the word " strive. " " I think
that word embodies who we are, "
said Jen. " We have a 'whatever it
COVID comeback
As with many other vending operations, the COVID-19 pandemic hit
Buffalo Strive Vending hard. The company had just closed on its new
facility when it had to lay off all but four of its 22 employees at the time.
" We had to figure out what we could do to keep ourselves alive and
running, " said Jen.
Rather than hunkering down to survive the storm, the Cortos got to work.
They reached out to hospitals and began providing meals, snacks and
snack boxes to frontline workers. " We [as a business] found ways to get
through COVID, and we came out stronger than before, " said Jen. Once
businesses began requiring more employees to return to work, Buffalo
Strive was able to bring back many of the employees it had laid off during
the early days of the pandemic. Since then, it has more than doubled its
number of employees.
takes' mentality. We will do whatever
it takes to give our customers
what they're looking for. "
As the company has grown,
it has gotten better at knowing
when to bring on more staff. As the
clientele increases, Buffalo Strive
has had to hire more drivers and
warehouse packers. For every five
to 10 employees, the company has
hired personnel to manage the
workers. Today, the company has
an operations manager, warehouse
manager and commissary manager,
to name a few positions. " Our
mantra is 'A relentless pursuit to
serve others,' " said Jen. " We have that
tagline hanging in our facility, and
that's what we represent and live by. "
Because service is what the
company strives to provide, it's the
indicator of whether they need
more help. " Anytime we feel like our
service is lacking, that's when we
know we need to step it up and hire
some good people, " Jen added. " We
try to hire and train our staff to be
the best there is. "
Despite receiving requests for
service from outside its service area,
Buffalo Strive is not ready to expand
its radius quite yet. " We thrive on
our food and service, and if we go
too far outside of our current service
area, we would lose those components,
and that just takes away from
who we are, " said Jen.
Going forward, Buffalo Strive
has brought on a salesperson to
pursue more local locations, and the
company is preparing for even more
growth in the coming year. " It's crazy
to see that 13 years ago, we started in
this small little office space, and today
we are in a huge warehouse and we
are bursting. It's surreal to see how
much we've grown, " Jen reflected.
Currently, the company has
more than 350 vending machines, 80
micro markets, 70 employees and 11
Over the last 13 years, Buffalo Strive has seen an immense amount of growth, from
a few vending machines in a single school to more than 350 vending machines and
80 micro markets. A focus on strong customer service helps Buffalo Strive thrive.
18 Automatic Merchandiser * August 2024
routes, all built from the ground up.
" We didn't come from this industry, "
Jen added. " We just started with
an idea and have worked hard and
watched it grow to what it is today. " ■
august2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of august2024
