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Green is just one of the advantages of this new facility, however. Warehouse operations have improved with voice-picking software and 40 receiving doors. As a value-added service, customers can get hands-on product experience in the culinary academy and janitorial training center.
The Philadelphia-based company was started in 1963 by Tom’s father, Tom Furia Sr., as a supermarket packaging distributor. Over the years PJP added jan/san and foodservice lines to the operation.
Tom Jr. has been there since the beginning and remembers as an eight-year-old boy the day his father opened the doors to PJP. He considers himself a “traditionalist” when it comes to family business, knowing early on he would join his father at PJP. All through high school and college Tom Jr. worked at the company after class. He joined full-time in 1977 after graduation and became president 10 years ago.
Q: Besides the LEED facility, how else is PJP is embracing sustainability?
A: We have a program called BagSmart to recycle plastic bags. We put collection units in front of stores that we sell to. We partnered with Goodwill Industries; they pick up the plastic bags and take them back to their center to go through them and make sure there is no waste other than plastic bags in there. They bail them up and when they have a full trailer they send them to Trex Co., to make organic plastic benches or other things from them.
Outside our facility we have a garden that was donated by one of our suppliers. We grow fresh produce for PJP employees and any extra is donated to local food charities.
Q: Composting is a growing green trend in foodservice. How can distributors help customers compost?
A: We’ve aligned ourselves with an organization called Organic Diversions so if we’re out talking to an account, whether they’re a hospital, school or supermarket, if they’re interested in food composting, we bring that company in to educate them. They do the hauling of the product and what we sell are the replacement bags and containers to collect the product.
Q: Are the culinary academy and janitorial training center new additions to the company?
A: The culinary academy is brand new for us. We just started distributing restaurant equipment about five years ago. We can do full-service kitchen, we can do front of the house, back of the house, tables, chairs, booths, tabletops, glassware, flatware, china and so forth.
So we have a full working kitchen in our academy. It was designed so one of our customers could test a piece of equipment, like a dishwasher, combination oven, convection oven, deep fryer, skillet or grill. At the same time it holds up to 30 people. We could have a chef come in and have a class and it has video cameras that are fed into two large screen TVs above. So if one of our customers wanted to test a menu and show their foodservice directors that’s what it could be used for. We also have a ServSafe certified trainer on staff so if any of our customers wanted to come in and get training we can do that.
In our marketing room, we ran out of space in our old facility. So [in the new one] we have flooring down to do floor demos and things of that nature. Our top manufacturers will have kiosks that will be supported with a video screen.
We are challenging our vendors to come up with an iPad application [for their product] and instead of pulling samples we can look at the app on the video that’s on the kiosk, but also feed it into the culinary academy and show it on the two large screen TVs that we have in there. When we have a customer in we can do a really good demonstration of what we have to offer them.
Q: What’s the biggest advantage to having these training facilities?
A: Our competition doesn’t have it. Since we’ve opened up in mid-May and have had customers come through to see the facility and to take a look at the academy, it’s definitely been a selling advantage for us.
Q: If you personally could cook up one meal in the new culinary academy, what would it be?
A: Branzino (Mediterranean seabass). It’s full of flavor and a healthy alternative.
POSTED ON: 8/12/2011