Like so many others, Jeremy Allen, president of Vanco, grew up in the kitchen equipment sector. The path to his current role wasn’t so straight, though.

Jeremy AllenAllen’s grandfather started a kitchen equipment service company in 1963, which his father, Gary Allen, took over in the 1980s. Naturally, Allen’s first real work experience was with the company. “I did all kinds of jobs there,” he says. “I did data entry, changing prices on parts, counting inventory, some small repair stuff. Being a parts runner was my job in high school after I could drive.”

Allen went from that high school job to college at Purdue University. After graduating with a degree in building and construction management, he and his high school sweetheart-turned-wife, Emily, moved to California, where he took a job in electrical contracting. Their West Coast experience was great, says Allen, but after four years, they decided to move back home to be closer to family and to start their own.

This return didn’t include a job in the family business, though. In 2001, Allen’s father sold the company to a national chemicals provider. Allen got another job in electrical contracting, but within a few years, he grew dissatisfied with his trajectory and started looking for a change. “I talked with my dad about doing something together,” he says. “I didn’t have [equipment service] on my radar, but he suggested it after going to the National Restaurant Association Show in 2010. He had some conversations with [Vanco’s then-owner] Bryan Durr. One thing led to another, and he sold the company to us. So Dad and I joined up as business partners and bought Vanco in 2011.”

Allen started as Vanco’s vice president and eventually moved into the top role as his father transitioned into retirement. In 2022, he bought his father’s share in the business.

Under Allen’s leadership, Vanco has grown substantially. The company had around 15 field technicians and 8 office staffers in 2022. Today, Vanco has roughly 65 employees, including
40 techs. 

Much of this growth has come organically. The company, for instance, has added remote technicians to the Louisville, Ky., and Evansville, Ind., markets, and seperate markets.

By far the biggest single piece in Vanco’s expansion, though, was its 2023 acquisition of Professional Food Equipment Service (PFES) out of Fort Wayne, Ind. That deal literally doubled Vanco’s size, Allen says. That acquisition took nearly four years to come together, notes Allen. The two companies were in discussions pre-pandemic, then hit pause just to keep on top of their respective businesses. After the surge in service in 2021, conversations began again. In 2023, the Vanco finally closed on the purchase. 

Overall, merging the two companies has gone “amazingly well,” though naturally there have been some challenges, says Allen.

One challenge has been integrating the two businesses’ software systems post-merger, Allen says. While the company is now over the hump, he recommends other merging firms carefully consider the timing of this sort of integration.

“Really pay attention to your cash flow and understand how that plays into the picture,” says Allen. “Our big issue was a billing backlog. We went from standing up a new system right into our summer rush. What we could have done differently is maybe done that outside of our busy season.”

Culturally, though, the deal has been a great match. PFES’ previous owner at one point worked for Allen’s father, so there was a natural trust between the companies, and most of PFES’ employees fit right in with Vanco. The purchase even allowed Vanco to provide promotions and new career paths for some of these employees.

These promotions haven’t been a given. Hiring and advancing the right people is a key to Vanco’s success, Allen says. Getting to this point has been a bit of a journey, though.  He acknowledges that false starts have slowed down Vanco’s growth. Those missteps have taught him to be firm in his convictions about who is (and who isn’t) a good fit.

“You can’t be wishy-washy on that. If you’re going to grow, to expand, to build, you’ve got to be confident in the people that you have. You have to know you have the right people on board, that they have the right skill set, the right attitude, the right  motivation, and the right heart. Having people that are that right cultural fit and are aligned in what their goals look like is essential.”

Creating the Culture

Building Vanco’s culture has been a major component of Allen’s work over the years. While he obviously wants to provide a good life for his family, money isn’t the sole reason he comes to work. The firm’s purpose, he says, is to “enable better lives through service.”

“We are in this to make a difference to people, to make a difference in the lives of others,” Allen says. “It starts with our team, then it extends out to their families, the communities we work in and the customers we serve on a regular basis.”

Vanco’s vision is supported by a set of four core values: trust, empathy, professional attitude and expert quality. These aren’t just phrases in the employee handbook. Each tenent is accompanied with a behavior statement about how these values should play out in the real world. Through quarterly check-ins, team members can reflect on how well they are practicing these core values.

Practically speaking, “making a difference” in customers’ lives requires being reliable and trustworthy. According to Allen, that includes being honest with customers, such as advising them when a unit isn’t worth repairing. “We want our customers to say, ‘What am I going to do about this? I’ll call Vanco; they’ll know,’” he says.

Serving the community, meanwhile, typically involves helping groups that provide basic needs, like food, clothing, housing and spiritual support. “We like to find those ones that have foodservice operations, where we are uniquely capable of helping them. We might do a deeply discounted service, or we might do free work for them,” says Allen.

Recently, the company has been encouraging team members to take a more active role in this aspect of Vanco’s culture, Allen notes. He’s been encouraging his team to come to the company’s leaders if they have an organization or a cause they’re committed to. 

This sort of initiative, combined with the company’s purpose-driven culture, has helped Vanco with employee retention, Allen says. Vanco is known in the foodservice industry for having many long-term employees.

Retention, of course, is a priority for every company on the service side. Allen addresses retention issues on the industry level. As a board member of the Commercial Food Equipment Service Association, his priority is to promote recruitment and training of new technicians. It’s a goal he shares with most leaders in the service sector. “We all recognize there’s a shortage in skilled labor and we need more techs. The way to solve this is to scale up to deliver more technicians through faster, high-quality training,” he says.

Such training, of course, positions these aspiring field technicians for a career that can be not only fruitful but meaningful. “We’re called to our purpose, which is to be of service to others. That’s really one of the things I try to drive home with our people,” Allen says. “I think our people believe in that and understand that’s what we’re all about.

Outside the office, Allen and Emily dedicate much of their time to raising their four children, age 6-15. This includes kids activities like sports, as well as outdoor time like boating, wakeboarding and snowboarding.

What is a lesson learned you have never forgotten?

Not to make myself a bottleneck to the business. I’ve had to learn to give up control, or delegate and empower others better. I want my team to know I have confidence in them.

What would your team say is your superpower?

Authenticity. I want to know people, to learn something about them and to connect. Part of my personal “why” is to foster life-giving relationships. 

Where or to whom do you turn for inspiration?

Number one, I would say my faith, a belief in a relationship with God. He gives peace and rest in a chaotic world and a stressful business. Number two is my wife, Emily. She has helped me see the value in personal development and growth.