Calveta Dining Services
Calveta Dining Services, Inc.: A Recipe for Growth?
On a June day in 2009, Frank Calveta, president and chief executive officer of Calveta Dining Services, Inc., struggled as he prepared to present growth strategies to his father, founder and former CEO Antonio Calveta. Calveta was a $2 billion, privately held firm that managed food service operations for nearly 1,000 senior living facilities (SLFs) in the United States. When Antonio retired in
2007 after 35 years of leadership, he named his eldest son, Frank, CEO and told him to double the company's revenues within five years. Two years in, Frank confided, "I can't let my father down. I can't abandon the special company culture we have or risk our reputation for quality food service. But after two years in this job 1 still don't have a credible strategy for meeting those two promises and also growing the business as aggressively as my father wants."
Calveta Background
Calveta Dining Services was built on Antonio Calvcta's passion for food and traditional family values. Having immigrated from a poor village in southern Italy, Antonio, often working 16-hour days, grew into a shrewd, competitive restaurateur. Beginning in 1966 with a neighborhood restaurant in Brooklyn, New York that featured old family recipes, Antonio eventually started a second restaurant and then a third.
Antonio recounted how his company had cntNcd the senior market in 1972:
I knew a nursing home manager through our church parish. Bushwick Seniors Home, it was called. He asked if I would come by and try their food. Back then, nearly all SLFs did their own cooking and serving, but a lot of them knt>w tlwy weren't very good at it. I told my acquaintance that I could makbetter fond that was also more nutritious for their residents and would not exceed their current food budgets. l11en I spoke to the families of residents,
On a June day in 2009, Frank Calveta, president and chief executive officer of Calveta Dining Services, Inc., struggled as he prepared to present growth strategies to his father, founder and former CEO Antonio Calveta. Calveta was a $2 billion, privately held firm that managed food service operations for nearly 1,000 senior living facilities (SLFs) in the United States. When Antonio retired in
2007 after 35 years of leadership, he named his eldest son, Frank, CEO and told him to double the company's revenues within five years. Two years in, Frank confided, "I can't let my father down. I can't abandon the special company culture we have or risk our reputation for quality food service. But after two years in this job 1 still don't have a credible strategy for meeting those two promises and also growing the business as aggressively as my father wants."
Calveta Background
Calveta Dining Services was built on Antonio Calvcta's passion for food and traditional family values. Having immigrated from a poor village in southern Italy, Antonio, often working 16-hour days, grew into a shrewd, competitive restaurateur. Beginning in 1966 with a neighborhood restaurant in Brooklyn, New York that featured old family recipes, Antonio eventually started a second restaurant and then a third.
Antonio recounted how his company had cntNcd the senior market in 1972:
I knew a nursing home manager through our church parish. Bushwick Seniors Home, it was called. He asked if I would come by and try their food. Back then, nearly all SLFs did their own cooking and serving, but a lot of them knt>w tlwy weren't very good at it. I told my acquaintance that I could makbetter fond that was also more nutritious for their residents and would not exceed their current food budgets. l11en I spoke to the families of residents,