Why Snooze Chose FDR
FDR’s co-founder Richard Keys goes way back with Cindy Keys, the Director of Purchasing at Snooze: An A.M. Eatery. They are siblings, but they are also former co-workers and remain colleagues in the restaurant industry.
“I may have a lot of history with Scott (FDR Co-Founder) and Richard, but I so enjoy leaning on them as a resource for different things that come up at Snooze.”
Cindy explained that she, Richard, and Scott started out their careers together at a multi-concept restaurant company, Cindy as catering director and Richard and Scott as chefs. Since then, all of their careers have gone different directions, but they continue to partner up whenever it makes sense.
What The Work Looks Like
“Snooze is all about clean label ingredients and sustainability,” she said. “Some ingredients are easy for us to find, but many are not. When I can’t find a clean label English muffin, I know that Richard and Scott are the guys to talk to. They know the industry in and out.”
In addition to ingredient sourcing, Snooze and FDR have also teamed up to complete nutritional analyses for the Snooze menu (the company currently has 25 locations in Colorado, California, Arizona, and Texas, and is on track to have 31 restaurant locations by 2018), consulting in the build-out of their test kitchen, and potentially other services in the near future.
“Of course, I enjoy working with FDR because Richard is my brother,” Cindy said. “But I did shop them. FDR is priced competitively, and they are so knowledgeable in all aspects of the industry including operations and the manufacturing side. I’ve found that a lot of other agencies will focus more on the retail CPG side, without having an understanding of operations and full service. FDR is the full package.”
Cindy also said that one of the biggest FDR differentiators is that the team does their homework.
“I’ve found other consultants usually push back and require us to do a significant amount of work. With FDR, it’s a relief to know that the work will just get done and that they will provide insightful feedback.”