From 2016 to 2025, Clark Associates saw its revenues grow organically from $906 million to $3.97 billion. Those topline numbers may turn heads, but they only tell a small portion
of the company’s story.

When companies grow that quickly, they often do so via acquisition. But that’s not the case with Clark Associates. In fact, the company’s growth remains entirely organic.

“We are not looking for growth just for growth’s sake.

There’s lots of ways we could grow faster, but it may not be good for our customers or our employees,” says Gene Clark, the third generation of the Clark family to serve as CEO of Clark Associates. “So long as we hold each other accountable and seek excellence, our business will continue to grow organically.”

Culture Equals Consistency

Often, with rapid growth comes plenty of change, and Clark Associates is no exception. But it’s those aspects of the company which remain constant that serve as the foundation for growth. “The company feels very similar to the way it did 10 years ago. The numbers are just bigger. Our focus on people and technology remains among our key initiatives,” says Charlie Garber,
vice president of The WebstaurantStore and chief information officer for Clark Associates.

A cornerstone of its success, Clark Associates’ culture consists of three key elements: maintaining an entrepreneurial spirit, having a passion for excellence and remaining committed to doing the right thing. “Those three pillars tie back to what we learned from Fred Clark when he was CEO,” says Dave Groff, president of The WebstaurantStore and chief operating officer of Clark Associates’ companies. 

The fact that many members of the Clark Associates’ team choose to grow their careers with the company also provides the necessary stability that allows the company to scale. “We have a lot of people who are mid-career, in their 30s or 40s, but have 10 or 15 years of experience with the company,” Groff says. “What’s special about that is it allows our culture to continue to thrive and evolve.”

One such example of how the culture and continuity contribute to the company’s success is Emily Smith. She joined Clark Associates 16 years ago straight out of college, spending her first three years working in customer solutions before transitioning to the content side of the business. Today Smith serves as a company vice president with responsibility for a variety of areas, including content and search engine management for The WebstaurantStore as well as the company’s merchants division. 

While the company drew Smith’s attention, it was the people she interviewed with, including Groff, that made the difference for her as she was starting down her career path. “I could not ignore the fact that they were young and in elevated roles. And they were smart and capable. It seemed like a great place to start my career,” she says. “Because there were young people in elevated roles, I saw the opportunity to do the same. And that’s still true today.

“We’ve done a great job maintaining our high standards for the kind of employees we expect in this organization,” Smith adds. “We all share the same goals, and we care a lot about who is here and working together to achieve our next best idea.”

The people part of the equation may be consistent, but Clark Associates’ approach to hiring has evolved. “COVID expanded our remote hiring, which is not something we wanted to do when we were an up-and-coming dealer,” Garber says. “This approach has allowed us to expand our talent pool significantly. Now, we can reach candidates almost anywhere, which is great.”

From left: Gene Clark, CEO of Clark Associates; Dave Groff, chief operating officer and president of WebstaurantStore; and Charlie Garber, chief information officer of WebstaurantStore.The leadership team at Clark Associates represents a balance of institutional knowledge as well as fresh perspectives. “About two-thirds of our senior leadership team built their careers here. The other third built impressive careers elsewhere and are bringing their talents to the company,” Gene Clark says. “I don’t know if there’s a right ratio, but this mix has allowed us to grow and scale. It’s great when you have depth of experience and yet plenty of career runway in front of you. We have like-minded and like-valued people working together, and that starts in the management group and works its way through the company.”

How the culture works its way through the company has evolved out of necessity as the company has expanded both in terms of the number of people it employs as well as the number of locations it operates. “Ten or 11 years ago, we were all mainly in the same place, and that meant we absorbed the culture by osmosis,” Groff says. “Now we have more than 7,000 employees throughout the country. We have to focus on having the right people in the right leadership roles and then build training and support around it.”

Both new and existing associates get access to the organizational culture via what the company refers to as its “playbook,” which outlines Clark Associates’ goals and objectives for the entire organization. “We want to show them what we want to accomplish at a high level. And then we link via the playbook to each internal department’s website that showcases how it supports the overall company,” Groff says. “We are doing a better job of communicating to people what success looks like and how what they do contributes to that success.”

For Clark Associates, cultural alignment provides a path to enhancing its value proposition for its customers. To codify this approach enterprise wide, the Clark Associates leadership team organizes much of what the company does around four main objectives: lower the cost to service, improve the customer experience, pursue obtainable markets and invest in leadership excellence.

This approach “started three or four years ago as we were navigating the supply chain challenges of that time,” Groff recalls. “Organizing around those core objectives has allowed us to get things to people faster.”

In support of those objectives, Clark Associates places a greater emphasis on cross-departmental collaboration. “We pool people together from logistics to procurement to understand how we keep the right inventory in the right locations,” Groff says. “For each of our channels, we ask, ‘What is the opportunity? What are we missing?’ And then we try to address those opportunities.”

One opportunity Clark Associates saw was in the way it creates content. In the past, when the company needed to create content for its websites, an editor would arrange to have a piece of equipment delivered, write about it, take images and videos and then return the product, Smith says. Given that today Clark Associates could have to create content for up to 500 equipment or supply items in any given week, it has created an entire production department to manage this. 

“We have done that thoughtfully because you can’t scale too quickly,” Smith adds. “Content plays a big part in providing an excellent customer experience. We spend a lot of time developing content that can answer our customers’ questions.”

Conceptual design showcasing the test kitchen equipped with combi ovens and modular pieces of equipment that could go into Clark Associates’ RAD when it opens.

The merchant team represents one way the company looks to equip its associates for success while serving customers. The merchant team is divided by product category that aligns with the company catalog. “If you are the merchant of tabletop, you are thinking, ‘Do I have the right assortment of products at the right price points?’” Gene Clark says. “Another part of our merchant team will be similarly obsessed with takeout containers. This approach allows them to be experts in their product categories and give our customers the best experience in that category.”

Later this year Clark Associates will relocate its research and development facility (referred to as “the RAD Center”) to a new, much larger space on the plot of land adjacent to its corporate campus in Lancaster, Pa. (A private school previously owned the land and approached the company about buying it.) Like a large test kitchen/research lab, the RAD Center will serve as a place where Clark Associates’ team members will be able to work with and test the foodservice equipment and supplies the company sells. “The RAD Center will now be on the same campus as our merchant team, which will allow them to get more hands-on with products,” Gene Clark says. The facility will have office space as well as a large area where the company can hold bigger gatherings like town hall meetings.

Clark Associates also maintains a good working relationship with the vendors whose products it sells. “We partner with them by sharing what we are learning, and that can be on so many different levels.” Smith says. One example is in the area of e-commerce. “If we find product packaging is frequently damaged, we share that with them so we can work together to develop a solution. That helps customer satisfaction with their product too.”

Clark Associates will also share information about which customers are buying a vendor’s products and other factors shaping the business. “The data we share is basically overarching trends that shows which product is doing well with which customers. And if it’s not doing well, we will share why, too,” Smith says. “The more we share, the more mutually beneficial the relationship.”

The WebstaurantStore 

Each area of the business continues to evolve. Take, for example, The WebstaurantStore. Clark Associates’ online channel has developed considerably. “Eleven years ago, we were doing a lot of business in a transactional or one-off kind of way,” Groff says. “A lot of customers would reach out when their refrigerator broke down and they needed a new one. Or maybe they had an event coming up and needed additional tableware.”

“We all share the same goals, and we care a lot about who is here and working together to achieve our next best idea.” Emily Smith, vice president, Clark AssociatesIn the ensuing years, though, The WebstaurantStore developed a membership program, which allowed the company to cultivate deeper relationships with its customers and emerge, in many instances, as their primary supplier. “Where they would have ordered from us once or twice a year, now they order from us two or three times a week,” Groff says. “They are ordering those replenishment items like gloves and hot cups.”

This kind of evolution generates benefits beyond the top-line revenue growth. “It’s really created an opportunity to build out our distribution network and automate it,” Groff says. 

For example, Clark Associates now uses robotic picking at two of its distribution centers. The company also uses an automated packing system. An item gets placed on a conveyor belt and then the system runs it through a tunnel, where the system records its dimensions before building a custom shipping box for the product. Groff estimates the two operators working the machine can do the work of 20 packers. 

“We have invested in technology not to reduce or eliminate jobs but as a way to help scale the business more effectively,” Groff says. “We try to create an environment where it’s a good, solid-paying job. Wherever we are, we want to be one of the top employers in the region. You can stay with us a long time and work your way up. Plus, this thoughtful use of technology means we don’t have to hire proportionally as we grow. That means leadership has tighter relationships with the people on the front lines.”

Clark Associates continues to use technology to provide more efficient customer-facing experiences too. “On the website our goal is to help the customer help themselves,” Garber says. “Some people don’t want to pick up the phone to talk to a salesperson. We implemented an AI chatbot to answer specific questions about a product they are looking at on the website, and the response is nearly instant.”

When pursuing technology-based solutions, Clark Associates takes a very people-centric approach. “The goal is not to replace our customer solutions team. The goal is to use the chatbot to handle some of the more mundane tasks,” Garber says. “This will allow our customer solutions team to spend time relationship building with our larger customers and answering questions about products.”

Clark National Accounts team members collaborating in the office.

As its business has grown, Clark Associates has had access to more data, which it leverages to its advantage thanks to the use of an AI assistant. “We have so much more insight into the organization through some of the tools that help us analyze and interpret data,” Groff says. “It can take large amounts of sales and customer data and answer specific questions about the business very quickly.”

“We have multiple ways to use our data to make purchasing suggestions to customers,” Garber adds. “We are able to look at that data and draw better conclusions to help drive more targeted marketing.”

Garber notes that every department in the company uses AI. “Some have seven or eight kinds of AI they are using. Every department has some language learning models they are using, for example. That’s new within the last four years or so.” Product reviews represents one area where AI continues to have an impact. “Instead of reading individual product reviews, you read a summary of them,” he says.

While Garber says AI represents one of the fastest-evolving parts of the company, part of that success is also due to the fact that Clark Associates realizes some of its potential pitfalls. “There has to be a limit to what technology can do on its own,” Garber says. “We spend time hiring the best people we can and train them. Technology is a tool to augment their talents and not replace our associates.”

All that said, Clark Associates does not pursue technology for the sake of doing so. “We are a human-led company, meaning we are 100% owned by people who work in the business every day,” adds Gene Clark. “That’s pretty unique today. It means our perspective about how we make decisions is focused on what’s best for the business in the long term. Maybe we will accept a slower payback because it will help us in the long run. Conversely, we might avoid some opportunities that will only have a short-run benefit.”

Rather, the company pursues innovation with specific business imperatives in mind. “It’s not cheap to implement so it has to have a return,” Garber says. And the company has been thoughtful in its approach to researching specific technologies it uses. “We have been able to use the cloud and various services to test things before buying it,” he says.

Behind-the-scenes filming of a product video at WebstaurantStore’s production studio.

Taking Flight: Clark National Accounts

Clark Associates has an insatiable appetite for the right kind of organic growth. The company consistently evaluates its business looking for new opportunities. About ten years ago, the Clark Associates’ leadership team identified that national accounts, including large chain restaurants, represented a big part of the market the company had not really penetrated with its existing business channels. 

“We started thinking about how to approach this market,” Gene Clark says. “And now it’s a fast-growing part of our business that has made us a more dynamic company.”

In 2025 the national accounts team saw its business grow by 66%, notes Jason Reese, vice president of national accounts for Clark Associates. “Our approach is centered on growing smart, not simply growing fast. As we scale with larger chain customers and expand to more categories, we’re focused on building the right infrastructure — technology, tools and services — to support our teams.”

Spiral conveyor system used for pick processing automation inside Clark Associates’ Hagerstown, Md., distribution center.When the national accounts team does take on additional headcount it often targets industry professionals with experience in this area. Reese, for example, has been with Clark Associates for one year, but his foodservice industry experience extends well beyond that. Reese spent the bulk of his career on the operator side, working for large and midscale chain restaurant groups. “The industry has taken me all over the country. I’ve lived in Chicago, New York, Boston and Washington, D.C., as well as overseas,” he says. 

“We are hiring industry professionals who understand the customer’s brand and that business and can make recommendations about equipment and layout,” he says.

Like many dealers doing business in the national accounts space, Clark Associates offers a variety of services to its customers, including project management, design, equipment procurement and installation as well as the ability to handle resupply orders on a national level. “There used to be this perception that the national accounts team only does smallwares. We do an awful lot more than smallwares,” Reese notes.

That is where Clark Associate’s prowess as a technology developer comes into play. “We are better than anyone at the data side of the business. We do the data analysis and come back with presentations about what they buy, how they buy and what it’s costing them,” Reese says. “When you put tools in the hands of those decision makers, it allows them to move really quickly and in a frictionless way.”

The key to Clark Associates’ ongoing success in the national accounts arena will not be due solely to its people or to the services the company offers. Rather, it will be how those two elements complement one another. “We have maybe 50 to 60 people that you could say are in account management or business development roles,” Reese says. “So, we are not covering the country with boots on the ground. We are more focused on what we can provide from a services perspective and feel that’s a competitive advantage. It’s in the people we hire and how we train them. It’s how we incentivize our people to do business with our partners.”

The company’s experience in supply chain management also helps. “We try to look around the corner at supply chain challenges. And we can execute a complex program like a nationwide rollout,” Reese says. “We can partner with the operator and fine-tune the approach to get to exactly what they are looking for and then roll it out to 7,000 units at once.”

That experience Reese and some of his colleagues have working for multiunit operators gives them unique insight into their partners’ needs. “This is a portion of what they do,” he says. “And they need what we do, but we should never slow down what they are doing. Dealers can do that by having the delivery days wrong, the product being installed improperly. We don’t let that happen. We should be able to speed up what they are doing.”

A Restaurant Store employee collaborating with a customer on an order.

Steady Strategy, Strategic Growth: The Restaurant Store

Although Clark Associates operates a very modern environment, old-school cash-and-carry continues to play a prominent role in its business. 

“As we scale with larger chain customers and expand to more categories, we’re focused on building the right infrastructure.” Jason Reese, VP of Clark National AccountsLike other parts of the company, The Restaurant Store remains very data driven. Most customers come from within a 10-mile radius of a given location, and more than 60% of sales come from replenishment items, says Hans Weaver, president of The Restaurant Store. He joined the company four years ago, holding a variety of leadership roles before assuming his current position. “We will welcome anyone into our store, but our primary customer is the independent foodservice operator with one to a handful of operations. We cultivate the relationship when they are looking to buy a piece of equipment, and we build on that over time when they come back to us for disposables and resupply items.”

The Restaurant Store has a total of 14 locations, including 11 in the mid-Atlantic region. The three newest units, all opened within the last two years, operate in Florida in the Davie, Jacksonville and Orlando areas. “We are prospecting new locations, and when the opportunity arises, we will look to expand,” Weaver says.

When exploring potential markets, The Restaurant Store team examines a variety of factors, including population density, number of independent restaurants in the area, year-over-year population growth and the dealer competitive set. “Despite its simplicity, the business model has remained effective and largely unchanged,” Weaver adds. “We’ve adapted to changing customer preferences, but success ultimately relies on execution.”

Express pickup represents one such example of how the company has evolved its cash-and-carry approach. Customers visit the dealer’s website, select what they want to buy, purchase those items stocked at their local store and can pick up their orders within four hours. Upon arriving at the dealer’s location, the customer pulls into a spot in the parking lot and lets the store know where to find them; an associate will then bring out the order. The Restaurant Store also offers next-day delivery of items stocked at the store level within a 10-mile radius of each location.

While these features help make the transactions frictionless, The Restaurant Store still understands the importance of customer service. “The enlightened hospitality that we offer has to remain present in every way we interact with our customers,” Weaver says. “It’s important for our customers to know they have an advocate for them in our stores, someone who can help them make good decisions.”

That’s why, when hiring team members for The Restaurant Store, Clark Associates often targets individuals with experience working as foodservice operators. “A lot of our associates are known in the culinary scene in the regions they represent,” Weaver says. “When customers come in with challenges — whether expanding a menu or replacing equipment — our team can guide them through those decisions and establish ourselves as a trusted partner.”

Like all other parts of the Clark Associates’ enterprise, efficiency remains a key factor fueling the development of The Restaurant Store. “The Restaurant Store focuses on items that people are more likely to want to pick up in person. Last year at this time we had 7,000 items in each of our locations. Over the past few months, we have reduced that by 1,800 items,” Weaver notes. “A smaller number of items increases efficiency and allows us to be more competitive on the items that mean the most to our customers.”

Cultivating Continued Growth

Rightly or wrongly, depending on your perspective, top-line sales remain the default way to measure success among foodservice equipment and supplies dealers. But the leadership at Clark Associates looks beyond those numbers and often asks some tough questions to develop a clearer picture of the company’s progress.

“The enlightened hospitality that we offer has to remain present in every way we interact with our customers.” Hans Weaver, president of The Restaurant StoreTo maintain its leadership in the industry, the company will have to concentrate on three specific areas. First is remaining hyper-focused on its customer base. “We have to maintain that shared passion about what our customer is experiencing and working with our vendors,” Smith says.

Adds Garber, “How are our customers talking about us? Do they buy from us because they feel there’s no other option? Or do they generally like us? How do we feel about our standing? How are our competitors doing out there? Are they doing anything better than us? For us, there’s such a drive to stay 20 steps ahead of everyone else. It’s exciting to develop new technologies.”

Second, the company will have to continue to invest heavily in technology. “That’s key in having the best information on our site and the best user experience,” Smith says. 

Third, the company must continue to invest in and support its people. “When I think of measuring success, yes, I think of how customers are responding. But I also want to ask, ‘Are we developing our team members? Are we fostering an environment where team members can contribute new ideas? Do our team members have the resources they need to be successful?’ The people-oriented items are important because the people we have make the biggest difference in our success. We have people who want to grow, take ownership of their efforts and work collaboratively.”

Groff succinctly sums it up. “Success to me means we have become an employer of choice for people who want to be at the top of their game in their chosen field. This can be an accountant or a merchant or a developer or an operations person,” Groff says. “You can be your best by working within this organization and its culture.”

“Our culture is always focused on improvement and what ideas can help the company and customer operate more efficiently. We are never satisfied,” Garber says. “There’s always a next idea. We have so many next ideas that we feel are groundbreaking and it is exciting. The culture was built early by Fred, and it has been maintained by us, and it will be continued by our next levels of leadership.”

What’s more, despite all this success, the Clark Associates team feels like it has only just begun. “What also excites me is how this technology we’ve invested in will have a transformative effect on serving our customers at a relatively low cost,” Groff says. “We have had a ton of growth, but when we look at what’s out there, there’s so much more opportunity for growth.”

Undoubtedly, plenty will continue to change at Clark Associates as the company continues to grow and evolve. What won’t change, though, is it’s focus. 

“We don’t worry too much about what everyone else is doing. We will keep striving for excellence. We want excellence for our employees. If we are striving for excellence with our employees, then we are delivering excellence for our customers,” Gene Clark says. “And that will ultimately lead to customer satisfaction and sales growth.”