Economic Vitality Unplugged

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Music
[Instrumental music]

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Keith
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Economic Vitality Unplugged, the podcast where we explore the people, businesses and ideas driving growth right here in Tallahassee-Leon County. I'm your host, Keith Bowers, the Director of the Office of Economic Vitality. And today's conversation is one I'm especially looking forward to because we're highlighting a business that operates behind the scenes, but plays a critical role in keeping our local economy moving.

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Keith
Joining us today is Ana Melendez, the owner of A&E Wholesale of North Florida and also serves on our Citizens Advisory Committee. And she brings a valuable insight and perspective to our work across the community. Ana, welcome to the show!

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Ana
Thank you so much, Keith. I'm excited to be here. And you know, I've been here now ten years in our beautiful city of Tallahassee. So really excited to share my story today.

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Keith

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Keith
For those folks that may not be familiar, tell us a little bit about A&E and what you do.

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Ana
Sure. So, A&E Wholesale is a distributor of convenience store products. We have our warehouse here in Tallahassee, and from this location we distribute to over 1,200 stores in North Florida and South Georgia. And we have approximately 3,000 items in categories ranging from candy to that gas station medicine that you see, where it's just two packs to all sorts of juices, water, sodas, different cigars.

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Ana
So a lot of different items within those 3,000 SKUs (Stock Keeping Units).

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Keith
So, you deliver to these convenience stores, you basically help them stock their shelves and they order directly from you. So how, logistically, how does that work?

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Ana
We're a private carrier, so we don't use other — a lot of people do third party shipping — but we live right here in Tallahassee. We have our own trucks and our own vans. So, we have our own delivery vehicles that get loaded in our warehouse here. And then we go out and distribute to convenience stores. And it can be convenience stores with gas, it can be convenience stores that are a local store.

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Ana
It can be Dollar Generals, Family Dollars. And we also service liquor stores because a lot of the juices they buy from us. We don't sell alcohol, but we– everything else. So, the liquor stores love to have the access to the juices. Another pretty unique thing about us is that we are open to our customers, so our own customers can come for pickups. So, they can either call our customer care and pick up, or they can come here and visually see items. Because sometimes, especially like the candy category, you have Gobstoppers and Mike and Ike's and there's all sorts of different candies.

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Ana
And sometimes they really like to come here and see for themselves what we have and what’s in stock, versus going on our website and looking at the available– availability. That may take a little bit more time. So, they do have that option to come shop.

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Keith
That's awesome. So, I mean, businesses like yours are really like the backbone of our local business ecosystems because you're supporting the businesses our residents interact with on a day-to-day basis. I mean, everybody goes to the gas station. Everybody has an opportunity to go inside and purchase goods. So, your business is basically fueling the access to those items on a day-to-day basis.

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Ana

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Ana
It really goes a little bit even beyond that, which is the things that people just really don't see, the amount of work that has to go into getting these products to our warehouse. You know, we– Every week we consistently negotiate the cost of goods, ‘cause at the end of the day, the consumer has certain threshold in pricing. So, we need to make sure there's enough margin for ourselves plus the retailer.

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Ana
So, the negotiations are constant on those costs of goods. But then not only that, when you look at the makeup of the actual retailers, you have the WaWas of the world that are more national chains that have a lot of clout because they have a lot of cash, a lot of capital. They don't have to manage their cash flow versus and independent, let's say a store owner that just owns one store here in Tallahassee,

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Ana
or maybe they own several stores, but they need to really be careful with their cash management. So, we do have instances where, you know, if they're trying to buy from a national distributor — so, we are regional — but, a national distributor such as, let's say, McLane. You know, McLane is a $60 billion, I believe, right now, $60 billion distributor in the United States.

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Ana
So they have very strict rules for their customers. So they may say, “Listen, your minimum order quantity is $1,000 or $1,500 and you have to pay up front,” or, you know, or “We have to draft you.” So, we have a very special relationship with our local business owners that maybe, you know, we've been in business with them for 15 years and they need a week to pay.

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Ana
So, we support them in that way, which is very unique and very rare that we have that relationship with these retailers. So, maybe they say, “You know what, I can't get a contract with this, this entity, or this other entity, and it's easier to do business with my regional retailer, and I don't have to have this massive contract with them.”

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Ana
We don't have any order minimums. Let's say they just need one box of candy, they can come here and order it. And we don't have minimums in our deliveries because we have already– we have such a wide range of profit already spread out through that route that we're able to support our local community. And within Leon County, we're the only distributor that goes to Leon County Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

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Ana
So, sometimes if they skip a delivery, if something happens. The other distributors usually just go once in a week, or once every other week. So, we're there four days on the route in Leon County, and we're the only distributor on Monday that they can actually get same-day delivery. And we really– This kind of originated when, you know, FSU there's events during the weekend with all these, you know, our population goes to these convenience stores. And...

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Keith
Right.

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Ana
...and then on Monday morning,

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Ana
it's you know, “Oh wow, we're out of this.”

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Keith
*laughs* Yeah.

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Ana
“We don't have time to get a delivery.” So, if they get their order in by 8 a.m. — from 7 to 8 — they can call in our customer care and they'll get it on delivery for them. And they can have it that same day.

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Keith

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Keith
That’s amazing. I mean, and I never knew that aspect of it, but that's very helpful. The fact that you're basically extending credit terms to these small businesses, which allows them to stock their shelves, to sell their products, and then pay you later. That's that– I'm sure that makes a difference for a lot of our local small businesses.

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Ana
Like I said, we have these relationships. The business, when I bought it in 2016, it was already 18 years old. So, we're going to have our 28 year anniversary of the name A&E. But, as an owner for myself, it will be our ten year anniversary, which is massive. And it's through these relationships that really builds the bonds with the local companies that may need some help.

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Ana
So, you know, I have an open door policy. Even if my door is closed, it's open. You know, customers come in sometimes and say, you know, “I really need to talk to Ana,” and they can come in and sometimes they– Which is, really, an even *other* bucket of value here, which is pretty unique, is sometimes they actually want to sell products.

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Ana
So, sometimes they say, “Oh, you know, I started this business or my cousin started this business and we really want to see if we can sell something.” And so it's really unique. Usually, with large — even a regional distributer — they– you need scale in order to make a profit. And it's very much a “No” answer. But with us, if I have space, we will say, “Okay, you know, we can hold it here, if we make some space for you.

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Ana
We can try to sell it to our customers, and if you want to try and go and sell it.” So, we've supported customers before that want to sell *us* products. So, that's very unique.

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Keith
Yeah, that's awesome. Awesome. So, I'm going to ask you a question. So, in an industry like this traditionally — and correct me if I'm wrong — but traditionally, these these types of industry operators are male operators. It's a dominated industry by men. What's that experience been like for you?

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Ana
Well, I– This is one of those subjects I could talk about probably for days and days.

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Keith
*laughs*

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Ana
A lot of my friends say, “Wow, you have lived so many lifetimes.” I was originally born in Mexico City, and when I was seven, we moved to Columbus, Ohio, and I was raised by very strong men that treated me like a human. So, I know. I really

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Ana
owe a lot of my patience, if you will, and my understanding and high-level viewpoints. My mother's dad was the Director for Transportation for the entire country of Mexico. And, you know, he was the one that taught me about break-even analysis. And he brought Mercedes trucking to the country of Mexico. And he is always...

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Keith
Hmm.

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Ana
...one of my mentors. And my father's father,

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Ana
he was incredible. He worked for Hines and invented one of their industrial ovens. So, he's always up there in Pittsburgh from Mexico City, going up to Pittsburgh. And then he ended up being a consultant for IBM, so learned other things from him. And then, you know, I worked for my dad at a very young age. So, my background really is in financial analysis.

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Ana
And I opened an office for him in Mexico City when I graduated from Ohio State. And that was really interesting because a lot of these gender roles and biases continue on. And, you know, it is, it– of course, it is difficult. But, I think the confidence that people in my life — and my mother has her experience — that they have taught me really didn't restrain me from going into distribution.

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Ana
And that is a pretty unique story in and of itself. But, basically through my mentors and through... I've always basically been in male-dominated environments. I really actually love challenges. I love solving puzzles. I love feeling uncomfortable when, you know, there's a stressful situation and they think I can't do something, but I come with a very creative solution *because* of my unique talents and tools I bring to the table.

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Ana
So for me, it's been, you know, obviously trials and tribulations. But, there's always a very interesting silver lining that I try to be positive and also teach forward to my mentees.

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Keith
Yeah, that's excellent. And one of the things– I mean that that that is incredibly valuable. And I think, I hope that our listeners will kind of take heed to some of your words, because it just seems like you have been immersed in business for a very long time. And having to navigate that has only made you stronger, and smarter, and more resilient.

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Keith
So, I mean, I think that's a very strong competitive advantage. And so, kudos to you—that's amazing! So tell us a little bit about what your typical day looks like at A&E Wholesale.

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Ana
Okay. This is the fun part because it always changes. And this is why I really kind of gravitated to wholesale distribution. I never in my life thought I was going to do distribution. It was actually because they needed someone to interview. So, I ended up getting my MBA at Ohio State, and the lady in the Career Services Office said, “No one signed up to interview with this wholesaler.” So, I ended up interviewing and I *loved* it.

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Ana
Like I said, I love puzzles, I love everything to do with engineering, I race supercars, I love design. So, you know, a day in my life, I plan it– Distribution is, especially because it's a privately-held company and it's not this massive national chain. So, it's a very different... a CEO that has a lot of cash and capital investment can focus on strategy.

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Ana
And I can tell you that day-to-day, of my day-to-day today, after ten years of owning it, is very different than my day-to-day when I started. So, when I started. When I first got in, my day-to-day was I was here from 6:30 in the morning. I would leave my apartment at 6 a.m. with a one-year-old,

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Ana
so my mother can help me. But I would be here by 6:30 in the morning, probably around to anywhere from 8 to 11 p.m., because those three main buckets, people, processes, and technology were not defined. I had to invent basically every facet of that. So, probably around the first 3 to 4 years, my schedule was very difficult. Like I said, from anywhere from 6:30 to 8:30 in the morning, all the way to night, and then every weekend.

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Ana
And then when we finally were able to implement the things that I needed, it was around year five that we finally turned the corner. And then I was able to focus more on analytics, really looking to see how these categories were being managed. We did a whole SKU optimization project so that we were more efficient caring for our customers.

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Ana
And now on year ten, my — I'm not out of the woods yet, I have — July is when I’m finished paying my 10-year SBA loan, which is going to be awesome, but there's still a lot of work to do. You know when you have debt and people forget. People forget that business owners usually have a lot of debt and that the debt is good if you know how to manage it. Debt is there for a great reason.

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Ana
So SBA is great, you can open a business, you can finance a business. But, you really have to be careful with managing your accounting. So, now a lot of my day — well, one part of my day-to-day — that has been consistent during these ten years is accounting. And that's what I always advise. Don't be scared of numbers, don’t be scared of accounting. It’s so important, it’s the backbone of your company.

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Ana
If you don't know. People talk so much about revenue, but that means absolutely nothing. You don't know your gross profit, you don’t know all your expense lines, your net income, what the contribution margin is, what your cash position is— there's so many different facets. You don't know that constantly? Then you can get in trouble and things can go south really fast and have to have help. So, I and then, you know. Then there's those days where I can get time and drive the forklift. There's those days where I can back up a truck or, you know, hang out with my– have a little quick meeting with my warehouse staff. I talk to my customer care. Or take my general manager out to lunch, or treat

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Ana
them to a nice dinner or something to be thankful for all that my employees to for me. So, every day is a little different, but on a consistent basis, I would say really it's about numbers. It's about analysis, a lot of accounting and just trying to be, as you know, I hold myself as accountable as I answer that. I can stay in business and be there for the 20 plus families that help.

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Keith
Yeah. So, I mean, your journey and what you've described, it's just so strategic and methodical. I love the way that you, you sort of like, compartmentalize the various phases of the growth of your business. And it seems like now you're shifting more. You're allocating more of your time and attention to the actual growth of the business and where it is going for the next 5 to 10 years. And using a lot of data and analytical tools to make sure that you're on the right track.

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Ana
Yes, I had this discussion with my father, who is still in business and has some pretty cool companies. He was just here in Tallahassee and — I had this discussion with him a couple weeks ago — and I said, “This is unbelievable.” When, I– So, I used to work at a Fortune 500. It's that one distributor that I interviewed with and I.

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Ana
So after my MBA, I moved to Chicago and I worked for a $6 billion distributor. Out of the $6 billion, I managed around $350 million. So my P&L is $350 million when I was around 20 years old. And so,

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Keith
*laughs* Yeah.

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Ana
I would have to go to IT (information technology) on the first floor and get these massive dumps of data so that I could do analytics and do all these, run these numbers on my Excel to see how I could actually manage my SKUs and my categories. And, like I said, do the SKU rationalization and it's not stagnant. You have to keep re-analyzing things because the market shifts, your consumer preference shifts, your competition shifts.

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Ana
And, you know, now we took my SKUs and we put them into AI (artificial intelligence) and the work that used to take me probably 4 to 6 hours took two minutes. So, for me, I'm just *so* excited to see the advancements in technology. And to see that I can, y’know human plus machine, I can really tailor. And, you know, the initial round of analysis,

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Ana
there were things that were incorrect — right? Because I said, “No, you know, these products, they actually are not available anymore, they're just SKUs.” So, the human will always be so important. But really is, how do you manage that symbiotic relationship with the human and the machine of the AI? I think it's really exciting, and people forget that AI and expert systems have been around for so long.

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Ana
My science fair projects when I was in eighth grade, was with AI and expert systems on a system that my dad was working with in his engineering company.

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Keith
Okay. Yeah. And you mentioned IBM and, you know, they came out with IBM Watson years and years ago.

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Ana
Yes. I actually used to live in Abu Dhabi and my husband did work for Mubadala, you know, all the chip manufacturing. And one of his contacts there ended up working on the Watson project. So, you know, people have been kind of stirring and thinking about what's going to happen. I think, you know, we're I talk a lot about exponential curves.

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Ana
We've been on the linear part of the exponential curve, and I think we're about to really accelerate and turn that curve and say, “Wow, this technology is coming fast.” But, how do we really, how can we be responsible to show that it's ethical, all responsible. But, in the distribution side, I think that there will be a lot of positives and a lot of really great things that we can do for.

00:21:09:00 - 00:21:35:04
Ana
At the end, it's all about the consumer, that end consumer. You know, when you and I go to the convenience store it used to be that quick in-and-out, grabbing that slushie or something like that. But, now these convenience stores need to survive. So, they're realigning to what people want. They want clean bathrooms. They want an experience. You can see what — WaWa — they're doing. They want food ready. Food

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Ana
that is made for order what you want...

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Keith
Right.

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Ana
...how you like it, go on and pick it up. That is all brand new to convenience. And so now these independents that have to kind of step back and say, “Okay, how can *I* contribute, and have a destination if I have to have a food service that my area around me wants?” It's– there's a lot of consolidation also happening on that retail level.

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Ana
So, we're on the wholesale level, trying to prepare to see what the customer needs, how they're shifting, and the other retailers are shifting so that we can provide them the products that they need.

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Keith
And that's a that's a really good segue. You're talking about shifting, right now, as we as we talk, gas prices are at an all-time high. And obviously it has a direct impact on a business like yours that relies on transportation to get products from point A to point B, give us a little insight as to how that's impacting your business, and maybe some strategies that you have implemented to sort of mitigate that, that impact.

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Ana
Well, we're definitely being smarter about our routing, which we use software, but there's a couple assumptions that we’re working to tweak so that our drivers are just a little bit more efficient. There's a couple routes we've been able to consolidate, but the diesel pricing is... went through the roof.

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Ana
We're buying more vans versus the trucks and the vans are more agile. Just, you know, in and out versus trying to park a big truck at a store. So we're shifting a little bit of our approach on how we're delivering to the convenience stores. There's, you know, at the end of the day, sometimes there you can only do so much. So our accounting like I said, accounting is very important. We review every expense line.

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Ana
Is there anything else that we really don't need that is just a nice to have for now. Just be realistic. And I really tell that to my mentees as well. So how can you be realistic as possible with what you actually. And sometimes you're like, “oh, but my customers really want this”, but sometimes they don't see those things.

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Ana
So, you know, at the end of the day, we have to be careful with expenses and or we don't have semis. So, the semis are coming in to in to deliver to us. So the 18 wheelers come here to our warehouse and deliver all the pallets, anywhere from 2 to 21 pallets almost every day. And then we have to unload everything. Like I said, we at least don't deliver with trucks, because I know

00:24:26:08 - 00:24:41:13
Ana
they're struggling. So, when we are getting deliveries now, we have to negotiate the delivery fee. For some of our vendors, tie in or spread it out across the units that we order so they don't have a delivery fee, but some do and their delivery fees are doubling.

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Keith
Yeah.

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Ana
So, before we order, we really have to check on the delivery because that can completely change the margin that we have.

00:24:52:04 - 00:24:56:03
Ana
So, it's just a different—navigating a different landscape.

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Keith
Yeah. And sounds like you're making the pivots to, again, to try to mitigate that. The impact that the that inflation and gas prices have caused throughout the world. So, let me ask you a question. You said something to peak my interest earlier. You said, casually, that you race supercars. *laughs*

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Ana
*laughs* My family, ever since I was I would say probably around 7/8 years old. My mom's brother was best friends, well, very close to Adrián Fernández. So, since we were very young, we all loved — and I love design, so I loved cars. I had Barbies and I had cars. *Keith laughs* My parents never stopped me, I actually had little trucks too.

00:25:49:12 - 00:26:19:12
Ana
I love semi trucks. Those semi trucks are my jam. *both laugh* You know, my parents both are very, very open. And let me have whatever, you know, different toys. And I was always very fascinated by the mechanics of vehicles and trucks. And so when we started going to the races, Adrián would get us pit passes. And so we sit in the pit with the engineers. And I was a little girl.

00:26:19:12 - 00:26:42:00
Ana
They would plop me down on a stack of tires. *Keith laughs* I would literally chill with the tire engi– you know, the engineers. And they would talk to me and tell me and I would ask them questions. And I used to do go kart racing, so I would race those little go carts. And that's, I think, what really kind of sparked my need for speed. *both laugh*

00:26:42:01 - 00:27:11:08
Ana
I really enjoy the physics of it and, you know, the kind of demands and how something that is engineered continued so beautifully and work with a human or not, because I can tell. So my favorite– When I lived in Abu Dhabi, we would go to Dubai and I raced in the Dubai Autodrome and so that was the best. That was an awesome experience because it was with my best instructor.

00:27:11:08 - 00:27:21:07
Ana
He was from Australia, so I learned a lot from him about racing and those were R8s. So we would warm up the track with Audi TTs and then go on there

00:27:21:07 - 00:27:21:14
Keith
Yeah.

00:27:21:15 - 00:27:37:07
Ana
with our R8s. And the R8s, man, it– those are, they... I can't... I can try to put in words but, it's almost like you know the car really works with you. The tires hug the ground, the gravel.

00:27:37:08 - 00:27:50:07
Ana
Even when you're going almost 200 miles an hour, you feel like the car is working. But, I raced Ferraris and that is complete– the Ferrari owns you and

00:27:50:08 - 00:27:50:12
Keith
Right. Yeah.

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Ana
it’s a very cold.... it's a cold experience versus how an Audi feels. And so I, I steer away from, you know. Ferraris are beautiful they’re gorgeous. But, for driving, I really– I love you know, the Audi, the R8 V10 Lambo engine. It's just the sounds everything is

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Keith
*laughs* It's a beautiful vehicle, too.

00:28:15:01 - 00:28:34:11
Ana
It's awesome. I love it. So, I've always been. And I come from a long line of engineers and my father and my brother works — he's in motorsports. So, he was with a massive team and he won his in the racing rings. And now he's working for General Motors and Cadillac because General Motors bought Cadillac. So,

00:28:34:11 - 00:28:34:13
Keith
Right.

00:28:34:13 - 00:28:39:06
Ana
now Cadillac kind of like has that Formula 1 car coming this season.

00:28:39:06 - 00:28:48:14
Ana
And so you know, now with the Netflix series Formula 1 is pretty popular. But we've been going to Formula 1 for a while. And it's exciting to see people really get into it.

00:28:48:15 - 00:29:05:14
Keith
Yeah. Well, that's a little known fact about Ana Melendez! So. *laughs* Well, as we start to wrap up, talk to us about what's next. What do you see on the horizon for A&E Wholesale?

00:29:05:15 - 00:29:33:05
Ana
Well, there's two buckets here, two main facets, that I really want to work on. Like I said, in July, I'm done paying my 10-year SBA loan. So, having any extra cash on hand I can now– My dream is — I love strategy — my dream is really looking at strategy, you know, doing some competitive analysis and game theory and, “What can happen here?”

00:29:33:05 - 00:29:49:08
Ana
And, “What if I did this?” and “What if I do that? The other guy could do this or that!” Or so, you know, I think it's going to be a really interesting time for me to now that I have, you know, we have uh DRP (Distribution Requirements Planning) Oracle, DRP system.

00:29:49:08 - 00:29:49:15
Keith
Hm.

00:29:49:15 - 00:29:58:10
Ana
Which is fantastic, it's NetSuite. So, now that I've done all the work with technology, we have the technology that — well, in the future that will change.

00:29:58:10 - 00:30:26:15
Ana
But y’know in the meantime we have a great ERP system. We have great processes, the people are awesome and have amazing employees that work, are great with teamwork. So, really right now I want to look at, “Do I expand east, do I expand west?” or “How much more can I support our local counties?” as there– “Are there gaps in our local counties that I didn't have that cash on hand to support?”

00:30:26:15 - 00:31:00:03
Ana
So, right now we're in the middle of our strategic planning. But there's a lot of great opportunities. And you know, Florida is an amazing state to be in. It's a very great state. So, we're working on that. But really my main purpose and the reason why I really wanted to buy A&E was I've always wanted to buy a business and, have this experience, and, and scale it and grow it, make it profitable — even more profitable. But really have always wanted to have a charitable arm.

00:31:00:03 - 00:31:28:11
Ana
So, I want to start another entity that's kind of tied in where I can take part of my net income and donate it to children's medical debt. So, y’know when, when I moved to Tallahassee and Addison, — you know, my husband travels Monday through Friday, but — I was all alone, Addison was a little baby, you know, a one-year-old. And there's an emergency. I was so blessed to be able to go to the emergency room

00:31:28:12 - 00:31:58:10
Ana
here, have insurance, and get the bill, and I could afford it. But nowadays, these medical bills, you know. And what if your child breaks their arm? Who has the extra? Even with insurance, it's really, really difficult to have extra expenses. So, if I and I talk to someone at the hospital because usually they write off at the end of their fiscal year, they write off their debt and they sell it to collections agencies for pennies on the dollar.

00:31:58:10 - 00:31:58:14
Keith
Right.

00:31:59:00 - 00:32:21:08
Ana
So, then it goes into collections. So instead of going into collections, I can tell the hospital, “Can you please give me the debt from one-day-old to ten-years-old,” something like that. And then say, Instead of selling it to the collections agency, why don't I take it and I can pay it?” My accountant can then give a letter to the parents saying the child's y’know medical expense has been paid.

00:32:21:10 - 00:32:44:10
Ana
So, that's the eventual goal, is to have a charity arm that helps with medical expenses for children. But, you know, and we will always have fun with our strategy. There always will be different things that we can do. And, you know, we have built an amazing base here that we will continue. But, it would be awesome to have that charity part too.

00:32:44:12 - 00:32:52:15
Keith
Well, that is an awesome goal and so admirable of you to be that generous and caring. So,

00:32:53:00 - 00:32:54:07
Ana
Well, the world has given me–

00:32:54:08 - 00:32:55:14
Keith
I applaud you.

00:32:55:14 - 00:33:06:07
Ana
The world has given me *so, so* much. I am *so, so* grateful. So, it is, it is something that, y’know, is so wonderful to have.

00:33:06:08 - 00:33:36:05
Keith
Yeah. Well, Ana, thank you for joining us today. And thank you for the work that you're doing to support businesses across our region. Businesses like yours, they may operate behind the scenes, but they're essential to the strength and resilience of our local economy. And to our listeners, thank you for tuning in. Ana, you're doing so, so much with your company, and I just can't wait to see the next chapter.

00:33:36:05 - 00:33:36:15
Ana
Thank you, Keith.

00:33:36:15 - 00:33:39:15
Keith
But, thank you again. Thank you for joining us!

00:33:40:00 - 00:33:40:14
Ana
Thank you for having me!

00:33:40:14 - 00:33:44:13
Keith
All right. And to our listeners, we'll see you next time!

00:33:44:13 - 00:33:45:05
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