Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandon Woodall.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Brandon. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My grandfather, Ron Woodall, CEO, has worked in the food business all his life. In the early years he worked at a supermarket and eventually became a partner in the first franchisee group to bring Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants to Houston. After he sold out of KFC, he started his own fried chicken restaurants called Ron’s Krispy Fried Chicken which he franchised and grew to over 70 stores. He decided that it was time to get out of the restaurant business and that’s when Ron’s Home Style Foods & Texas Kitchen Salads were born in 1985 specializing in refrigerated prepared potato salad, chicken salad, pasta salad, barbecue beans and cole slaw. Texas Kitchen Salads is our retail brand that can be found throughout Texas in supermarkets like Brookshire Brothers, Kroger and HEB. He has always believed that high quality products and great customer service will satisfy customers and we maintain that philosophy today at Ron’s.
There isn’t a single day that goes by without “Quality” being a topic of conversation. We’ve trademarked the phrase “Quality Ingredients with Lots of Love” and we literally have the word “Quality” on the walls throughout our new building.
My dad, Steve Woodall is the President of the company while I hold the position of Vice President. I managed to get into the food business at an early age as well working for a local supermarket and some restaurants. I oversee daily operations and the 3 of us work together on corporate strategy. When I started with Ron’s in 2002 we had about 2 dozen products, distribution in 2 states and operated out of 2 different locations. We have expanded our line to over 150 products including various sizes in retail and foodservice which includes several frozen products such as Chicken & Dumplings, Sweet Potato Casserole & Cornbread Dressing and distribution has grown to more than a dozen states. A lot of our growth is due to new products such as Cranberry Pecan White Meat Chicken Salad, and Greek Pasta Salad, & Homestyle Mac & Cheese but nothing would happen without a great team. Our entire team takes great pride in making almost all our products by hand with great attention to detail and food safety.
In May of this year we moved into our new state of the art USDA food manufacturing and distribution facility. We have 45% more office area, almost triple the amount of production area, and more than triple the amount of cold storage which is enough space to quadruple our current volume, allowing us to strengthen relationships with our customers and suppliers.
My granddad (Ron) just turned 90 years old on August 16th and he is at work every day at 8am keeping us in line and making sure that quality and customer satisfaction are our top priorities.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
For the first 8 years that we were in business, we lost money every year. Anyone in their right mind would’ve closed the business and moved on but my granddad was extremely determined to make it work. He is pretty stubborn but he didn’t give up because he truly believed in the products he was selling and knew that even though his higher quality products cost more than the competition, eventually the customers would demand the quality products. More recently the challenge has been keeping up with consumer trends and ever changing FDA and USDA regulations. Consumers are smarter than ever with more information at their fingertips and they crave knowledge of where products come from and how they are produced and since our products are mostly made by hand it has helped fuel our growth.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Ron’s Home Style Foods – what should we know?
Ron’s Home Style Foods is a family owned and operated food manufacturer and distributor with a focus on quality ingredients and customer service. We offer over 50 varieties of high quality refrigerated salads, sides, desserts, dips, and dressings. Our small batch approach to food production with very little machinery allows us to produce high quality great tasting products. We specialize in products like Potato Salad, Chicken Salad, Tuna Salad, Cole Slaw, Italian Pasta Salad, Three Bean Salad, Barbecue Beans, Chocolate Chip Mousse, Cole Slaw Dressing, Sweet Potato Casserole, Mac & Cheese, and much more! Making great products and taking good care of our customers are our top priorities.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
There are so many different things going on that contribute to our success so it’s difficult to choose any one as being the most important. Our unwavering commitment to quality is our number 1 priority because that’s how we differentiate ourselves from the competition but it takes a team of great people working towards a common goal to achieve the level of quality and customer service that we strive for so we couldn’t do it without our team, which also includes our customers and carefully chosen suppliers.
Contact Info:
- Address: 12530 Burdine St.
Houston, TX 77085 - Website: www.ronsfoods.com
- Phone: 713.640.2082
- Email: service@ronsfoods.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/texaskitchensalads/
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/ronsfoods/
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Rons Homestyle Foods
Image Credit:
Jamie Farquhar
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