Service Foods Inc. delivers groceries directly to homeowners throughout Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

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Service Foods Inc. is more than a grocery home delivery service. CEO Keith Kantor and his partner, President Harold (Trey) Pounders, have transformed the Norcross, Ga.-based company into a one-stop shop for all things food-related for clients in its market.

“Instead of thinking of us as a food company, customers think of us as a place to find out anything about food either through a phone call, e-mail or on our Web site,” Kantor says. “Not only can they find all that information, but we’re able to stay in touch with all our customers.”

Service Foods delivers groceries directly to middle to upper-class homeowners throughout Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. The company boasts top-quality, “chemically purer” foods to which it adds no growth hormones, preservatives, dyes or colorings. Through its processing facilities in Tifton, Ga., and Greensboro, N.C., Service Foods delivers beef, poultry, pork, veal, lamb, seafood, and vegetables as well as prepared items such as lasagna, pasta, lemon pepper chicken, chicken cordon bleu and chicken tenders. Almost all items are individually vacuum sealed in bio-degradable Iolon film, Kantor says.

Nutritional Awareness
Service Foods takes its customers’ nutritional intake seriously. Kantor says the company works with chiropractors, nutritionists, dieticians and others in the personal-care industry to ensure it has the healthiest options available for its clients. He also says about 90 percent of his customers are referred to Service Foods by these professionals. The company not only employs a number of these experts, but Kantor himself is completing his master’s degree in nutrition to better understand what customers require for a healthy lifestyle. He foresees this direction as a huge boost in business for Service Foods.

To keep in better touch with its customers, Service Foods regularly distributes newsletters, e-mails, video e-mails, and voicemail blasts with recipes, meal ideas and food-safety tips. Kantor says this is all in an attempt to keep in touch with customers as often as possible.

“When these professionals are working with a patient or client, they are putting them on a diet,” Kantor says. “We have registered dieticians on staff and other professionals on staff to do that for them and actually supply the all natural foods.”

Even with the economy currently in recession, Kantor believes Service Foods will expand and remain profitable. After all, people still need to eat. Now it’s a matter of filling different niches, if necessary.
“We might have to look differently to find customers and find some different niches,” he says. “The amount of food eaten doesn’t go down; it’s where customers go to get it. We want to make sure with everything possible, we’re the choice for them.”

Carbon Neutral
Service Foods is certified as “carbon neutral” for its environmentally sensitive practices and procedures implemented at its processing facilities. This is all part of the being a sustainable company, which could be a deciding factor when customers choose their grocery provider.

Service Foods worked with Atlanta-based Verus Carbon Neutral to determine what is necessary to become more environmentally friendly. Verus Carbon Neutral indicated that not only is Service Foods a “model of efficiency,” but it is also proficient in helping its customers eliminate their carbon footprint by saving approximately 144,000 gallons of gasoline annually by eliminating trips to the grocery store, Kantor says.

Service Foods’ other green practices include:

• Recycling more than 100,000 cardboard boxes annually;
• Providing reusable delivery totes to divert another 120,000 cardboard boxes per year;
• Shredding and recycling all menus and paperwork produced in the offices; and
• Sending all renderings from its production facilities to other companies for recycling.