When Byron Ellingson created Bargreen Ellingson back in 1960, he sauntered into the foodservice equipment industry on little more than a wing and a prayer.

What began in a 6,000-square-foot facility with a mere 5 employees in Tacoma, Wash., has blossomed into an enterprise teeming with more than 740 employees in 26 locations spanning the Western U.S. and Canada, serving more than 28,000 unique customers. Today, Byron’s dedicated spirit rings true throughout the expanding organization, with employees embracing the company’s core tenets of delivering quality products and offering exceptional customer service — while having a ton of fun doing it. In fact, the company’s continued efforts to keep the industry fresh, while “serving those who serve others” has earned it the FE&S 2025 Dealer of the Year Award. This is the third time Bargreen Ellingson received this recognition, with the previous times being in 1991 and 2008. 

From left to right: David Ellingson, President and Eric Ellingson, Executive Vice President. Photos by Nick Hanyok Imaging

Continuous Evolution

The name on the front door may be the same but much has changed at Bargreen Ellingson over the 17 years since it last earned this recognition. Originally founded by Byron Ellingson in 1960, his sons, Rick and Paul Ellingson were the second generation to lead the company into the early 2000s. Today, their sons, David Ellingson, president and Eric Ellingson, executive vice president, along with six other family members lead the charge.

It goes without saying that a sense of legacy often keeps family-owned companies intact, a feeling that the business has an intrinsic worth of its own. At Bargreen Ellingson, being family-owned reflects a solid mindset and profound tenacity to stay true to its core values — all of which shape the company’s relationships with its employees, customers and communities alike.

“Under our leadership, David and I have really focused on leveraging the company and the brand,” says Eric. “Ultimately, our customer is very different than they were in 1991. They are bigger and more institutional. We are still as customer-centric as we were back then, but our customers require different things from us.”

While David and Eric’s fathers handed over the proverbial reins to the company more than 13 years ago when David was named president, both Paul and Rick still have their moments of “checking in” on the company, its employees and some long-term customers that they worked with over the years. “It’s a family business. When you’re doing it right, there’s never a real breaking point,” Eric says. “However, 2012 was a really good line in the sand. They knew that to do anything other than step back from management decisions would be potentially undermining David’s leadership. I didn’t join the company until 2013. By the time I got here, they were always willing to offer advice and insight and that continues to this day.”

By the Numbers

In 2010, David led the initiative to move Bargreen Ellingson onto the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that the company still operates on today. In fact, all the company’s 26 branches, including its acquisitions, use a cloud-based ERP system, enabling the dealership to transact across the network of locations seamlessly. This robust system leads to the streamlined efficiencies that has led to some impressive results.

Consider this: With eight acquisitions spanning from Oregon to Wyoming to Utah from 2014 to 2024, Bargreen Ellingson’s presence in the marketplace has grown substantially. From a sales growth perspective, in 1991, Bargreen Ellingson had $21 million in sales. By 2010, company sales surpassed $144 million, and by 2024 sales reached $420 million. As sales grew, so did the size of the company, from 407 employees spanning 20 locations in 2010 to 740 employees across 26 locations by 2024.

Likewise, the company’s categorial growth is also impressive. For instance, in 2010 the company’s disposables category generated $2 million in sales. Fast forward to 2024, that same category reached $30 million in sales.

Employee longevity is also a cornerstone of the company’s success. With an average employee tenure being over 7 years, the Bargreen Ellingson team has much to celebrate, especially considering that Eric, who has been with the company for 11 years, has more than 138 people who have worked here longer than him. David, who is nearing his 20th year at the company, works with 76 people more tenured than him. “If an employee is here for a year, they tend to stay for 20,” David says. 

Chad Allers, Director of Project Sales and Marketing.Chad Allers, director of project sales and marketing at Bargreen Ellingson, originally started with the company in 2002. He left for a short period in 2013 to pursue some creative endeavors in Los Angeles, only to return to Bargreen Ellingson in 2014, and he’s been there ever since. Over the last decade, Allers has taken on additional leadership roles within the company’s design, training, overall sales and marketing areas.

Allers points out while the fact that Bargreen Ellingson is family-owned and operated plays a huge part in the foundation of the company’s culture and values, it’s the company’s core purpose that shines brightest.

“We’re not here just to sell restaurant supplies and equipment. It’s bigger than that,” Allers says. “Foodservice fuels our economy. It is a foundation of our heritage and culture. It connects us to our history as a people and allows us to share and celebrate those beautiful differences through our food.” 

Despite the important economic and social role foodservice plays in communities everywhere, it remains a challenging business with its own unique set of headwinds. “We see our purpose as being true partners, helping customers navigate those challenges and beat the odds,” Allers says. “A strong foodservice community benefits everyone, and we take that responsibility seriously.”

When Allers joined Bargreen Ellingson, the company was still using fax machines and blueprint copiers, it had a fraction of the locations it now has, and the dealer took a regional approach to building its business through design-build and territory sales. “As we’ve grown, so has our scope and reach,” Allers says. Specifically, Bargreen Ellingson has evolved considerably in the national accounts space, growing from 8 national accounts in 2010 to 85 in 2024, and has invested in new technologies and multiple distribution centers to support those customers. The company also has a robust chemical and warewashing division that supports customers through leasing and servicing their equipment. “We’re in 10 states and 2 countries and have done projects spanning the globe,” Allers says. “We’ve expanded our service offerings to ensure we can tackle as many customer challenges as possible.”

Bargreen Ellingson is not merely growing geographically. It’s growing and evolving with its customers, too. “That’s why we do unique things. From culinary service consultation and interior design to even at times stocking unexpected items like giant chicken statues, if it helps our customers,” Allers says. “Because as the world gets more complicated, so do the challenges in foodservice. Our role is to evolve alongside our customers, champion their success and make their lives easier.”

A Memorable Brand 

We’ve all seen them — company brands that seem to have a life of their own in the minds of customers. Consistent messages, effective brand identity usage and a streamlined approach to brand management keep customers connected and coming back for more. That’s certainly the case with the Bargreen Ellingson brand.

Jacob Moody, Chief Information Officer.“Our brand for us is also extremely rooted in the company culture,” Eric says. “During the pandemic, David and I talked about what we are going to be known for. How are we going to survive this? What’s our core strength? What’s our core competency? We determined it was being culture forward, building personal relationships with customers and being an employer of choice. That’s withstood the test of time for sure. That’s our brand.” 

But with 28,000 active customers, how does Bargreen Ellingson effectively maintain a solid, personal customer relationship with each of them? “We’ve always tried to make the company brand — the person, the human,” Eric says. “For instance, we have a salesperson in Billings, Mont., Mike Eckley, who works with 50 of our customers in that area, all who have only ever met Mike. He’s good, they like him and that’s our brand. Our company is totally represented by the individual. Our brand really goes through the human.”

Bargreen Ellingson’s reputation as a very stable place to work also serves as a reflection of its brand. “Some people say it’s the greatest company on the planet. Eric and I don’t argue but that seems extreme, given there’s a lot of companies on this planet,” David says. “But what they’re saying is we’re stable. We’ve been able to acquire a lot of people who have come here to do their craft. They are really important individual contributors. A lot of our growth has come through talented people finding us as a home.”

There has also been a shift in the company culture of Bargreen Ellingson. “When I got here, we had a little bit of culture and it was more like, ‘You’re lucky to work here.’ But today, Eric and I have developed our own culture that is more like, ‘We’re really lucky that you work here,’” David says. “That has been a slow shift, but it has definitely been a culture change over my tenure. We always believe that you must hire the best people, hire the right people.”

Meghan Berry, Director of Purchasing and Customer Services.One of those “right people” is Meghan Berry, director of purchasing and customer service, who joined Bargreen Ellingson in 2019. For Berry, the strong company culture means that Bargreen Ellingson has got an employee for life with her. “Our motto is ‘Serving Those Who Serve Others’ and we really do live and breathe that,” Berry says. “It’s not just with our customers, but also with our people. It’s about just going above and beyond and caring. We have something special here, and we’re filled with passionate people who are very real.”

With “Hoopla” being one of the company’s nine values, along with “Use Good Judgement,” “Learn, Learn, Learn,” “Hire Smart,” and “Pursue Change,” the Bargreen Ellingson team recognizes it is a “product of the industry it serves.” 

“This is a fun industry, right?” David asks. “So we make sure we have a lot of fun along the way. A lot of our best employees came to work here because they still wanted to work in restaurants, but they wanted to raise families. They wanted to have weekends. They wanted to have flexibility, but they still felt so drawn and attracted to the excitement and love and passion of this industry. So we live that every day. There has to be a solid work-life balance.”

Supporting salespeople and providing them the opportunity to explore ways to hone their craft and grow their customer base has been key to the company’s success. Quite simply, Bargreen Ellingson’s leadership team is willing to let individuals try something, do something. Bring an idea, try it out and they will support it. 

“Our secret sauce is that we, our brand, will not preempt your personal brand. As an individual contributor to this company, people will always buy from you. They won’t buy from Bargreen.com. Ultimately, when our own staff ask us to be better at marketing, we say, ‘You are the marketing, right? You are the person that people buy from. They don’t buy from the company, they buy from you,’” Eric says. “We’ve been able to distance ourselves from competitors that try and make the buying experience more ubiquitous at the potential sacrifice of that individual experience.”

Customer Centricity

Bargreen Ellingson’s customers are more complex than they used to be. As such, the company’s solutions have become more complex, as each customer has different demands. Yet the company has to be able to respond to each one of those demands, ensuring accountability to the customer, as they also try to give employees the ability to take ownership. 

Tom Muñoz, Vice President Operations.“Being there for the customer is really important to us, and it’s not like we’re just saying that,” David says. “We really mean it. In fact, at the bottom of every invoice that is sent out, we have a note stating that if the customer is not completely satisfied, they are encouraged to call me directly.” 

For David and Eric, making sure that Bargreen Ellingson stays relevant to their customers is also paramount, the same applies to caring for every single customer. To do this, the company’s customer service group has put more systems and processes in place to help support some of those larger national customers. In doing so, they quickly realized that these same processes and systems also work really well with single-unit operators. 

“While a lot of people focus on price, there’s a deeper question of value,” Berry says. “When you’re looking at competing with online suppliers, Bargreen Ellingson’s higher level of service means we are able to support the customer from that very first interaction, learning more about their business and being able to help them open their doors or get through that remodel or just have the product that they need in stock to continue operating. The key is determining how to ensure we’re doing that and not missing the mark, as we continue to grow.”

Of course, flexibility is the name of the game within the foodservice and equipment space, as natural disasters, pandemics and terrorist attacks can impact the hospitality industry instantly. “What we consistently see is those customers that see our value, they understand that we can help them keep their doors open longer because we care so much and understand the business,” Berry adds.

Alexis Patten, CPA, Vice President Finance.As Eric explains, the recent pandemic is a key example of this flexibility that Bargreen Ellingson embraces. “When we were looking at the reality of the pandemic and having such a massive emphasis of our strategy on being connected to customers, we realized that we were facing a significant challenge,” Eric says. “During the pandemic, our customers didn’t want to see our salespeople. They didn’t want any foreign contaminants in their restaurants, in their kitchens. They wanted to keep that thing as locked down as possible. And so there was a real crisis of confidence that David and I had, wondering if our customers are just going to buy online forever.” 

Together, they recognized the need to stay connected to the customer and meet them where they were at. So they started a chemical division, servicing and leasing dishwashers because their customers wanted to focus on sanitation. “We knew we needed to bring them solutions that made them the cleanest place on the planet,” Eric says. “And that division has had a lot of staying power, because it really keeps us connected to the customer. It’s helped us grow with those customers as well as into other markets.”

Meeting a particular segment need is also reflective in the company’s millwork division. In the 1970s, Bargreen Ellingson couldn’t get good cabinetry, and with the goal of serving their customer base comprehensively, they decided to build their own cabinets. “Our diversification really is driven by our customer-centric mentality,” David says. “One of the things we’ve been really good at is just letting the market tell us what to do and we listen.”

Of course, supplier relationships are also vital, and David and Eric have spent a considerable amount of time listening to their suppliers about segments of the business that Bargreen Ellingson needs to improve upon, segments that matter to the suppliers. 

“For example, there’s certainly higher volume and lower margin in the K-12 space, but that business matters a lot to our suppliers, so we need to get better at it if we want to be a real partner to them,” David said. “That’s a big shift, and that’s caused us to think differently about the important customer segments we need to focus on. If we only focused on margin, then our business would be one-third the size it is today, and our impact and relevance to our supplier community would be one-third the size it is today as well.”

Strong Leadership 

The strength of Bargreen Ellingson’s leadership team is in the DNA of the organization. Having 26 branches of a company can create a silo effect that requires unique characteristics that only strong leaders can manage. 

“If you look at the 26 branches of this company, they all operate under the same cultural guidelines, but they all operate somewhat differently in what they focus on, namely their customer segments, and in their amount of inventory that they stock, etc.” David says. “Things like that require the manager to be in control of a lot of different aspects of effectively running a business. This requires that person to develop and hone a lot of their skills, and it requires us as leaders to give a lot of autonomy to that person. If you are going to be a leader in this company, and you’re going to stick around for the long haul, you have to develop those talents. It’s not a suggestion. It’s a requirement.”

Terry Arellano, General Manager.It’s been 32 years since Terry Arellano, general manager at Bargreen Ellingson’s Portland, Ore., branch, joined the company, starting as a driver, working through almost every role in the company, gradually working his way up to his current role as general manager. He says that Bargreen Ellingson promotes an environment that celebrates the individual and his or her talents. 

“They give you soft guardrails, and obviously there’s structure, but they really allow individuals to come in and be who they want to be and develop what they want to know,” Arellano says. “I love the fact that I can ‘fail forward,’ and can actually work with a company that doesn’t judge but uses mistakes or failures as a learning experience and an opportunity to develop and help people grow through the challenges.”

Allers adds that what you read about in leadership books and hear about in TED Talks, the company’s leadership team really strives to live by those principles.

“For example, we do an on-boarding class for new hires, and it’s equally heartwarming and sad the number of people in those groups that say our company is the first place they’ve felt like they were treated like a human, like they mattered,” Allers says. “We’re far from perfect and are always striving to do better, but that sense of community is powerful. Our success isn’t built on any one role — it takes all of us, from sales to drivers to accounting, showing up every day with commitment and care. That’s what makes this place special.”

Challenges 

Craig Welborn, Director of Special Projects.From the tragedy of 9/11 to the financial crisis of 2008 to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bargreen Ellingson, like many others, has withstood the challenges facing the hospitality and food service industries throughout the decades.

“What I’ve admired about the company is that they take a negative situation, and they create something out of it,” Arellano says. “They’ve done a really good job at shifting and pivoting. During times of crisis, they embrace that attitude of, ‘we may not be able to do much, but let’s do something.’”

For instance, after 9/11 Bargreen Ellingson launched its disposables product division and during the recent pandemic, the company introduced the chemicals division to help customers with their cleaning and disinfectant needs. 

“At its core, the company’s focus remains the same: solving customer challenges. Those challenges are just different than they were 10 years ago,” Allers says. Of course, rapid growth can dilute company culture if you’re not intentional. Allers used to know every salesperson personally — now, the company is large enough that he doesn’t, which changes the dynamic.

“That’s why we’ve invested in new tools and approaches to stay connected, ensuring that as we expand, we remain a company that feels personal and values-driven,” Allers says.

Full Speed Ahead

Alyse Wilson, Director of Supplier Relations.Looking ahead, the vision to remain a family business indefinitely continues to drive Bargreen Ellingson. Staying growth-oriented is also top of mind for the company’s entire leadership team, as it explores “going wide or going deep” in places like Arizona, Philadelphia and Oklahoma, says David. 

“When we talk about the reality of where our industry is heading, the highest and best use for Bargreen Ellingson is to be able to handle complex customers,” David says. “That’s what our suppliers want us to do. That’s what our salespeople are gravitating toward because those complex customers are willing to go more ‘all in’ with us if we’re able to solve their problems.” 

Indeed, the company’s relentless drive to innovate and improve, not just for themselves but for the entire foodservice ecosystem, continues to set Bargreen Ellingson apart.

“We don’t just sell products; we create solutions, build relationships, and champion our industry,” says Allers. “We invest in new technologies, expand our services, and push ourselves to be better partners every day. We may not be the biggest dealer out there, but I’d argue we have the biggest heart. And that’s why this award means so much to us.”

“One of our employees said, ‘I’m never not going to work for a family business because even though you guys are kind of knuckleheads sometimes, at least I know I can call you,’” Eric says. “That truly does matter. This award means a lot to us because the torch has been passed. And this award matters to all of the people who work here because they want people to know what’s going on here. They want people to know that this place is special.”