Moscone Center, San Francisco, will now be a Premier account.
The launch of Premier Food Services, headquartered in San Diego, is about West Coast attitude, local service and corporate headquarters that are in close proximity to the clients.
Premier was originally founded by George Karetas 30 years ago. He sold it to SMG last year and it appeared to be destined to melt into SMG’s existing food service, Savor. Instead, SMG opted to staff and rebrand Premier, boost its existing client base with West Coast accounts already in the Savor camp and operate it as a standalone company.
Paul Tazar
Paul Tazar has been named managing director of Premier. Tazar has spent his career in food service, starting with Ogden Entertainment in a convention center and growing with that company until, in 1999, it was sold to Aramark. He stayed with Aramark until last year, ending up in the business development post and based in Michigan. He and his wife relocated to San Diego to open the new Premier offices.
Premier’s expanded portfolio is composed of 31 clients at this point, many of which have renewed and extended business with the company since Premier took over Savor accounts. The territory ranges from Alaska to California to Oklahoma.
Included among its clients will be the Del Mar Fairgrounds in San Diego; Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco; Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Calif.; Long Beach Convention Center; Chesapeake Energy Center in Oklahoma City; and BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla.
Tazar said Premier moved into its new offices on Aero Drive north of downtown San Diego a few months ago, occupying 3,000 sq. ft., which includes a kitchen for demonstration purposes.
The office staff numbers six. Richard Valerio is area executive chef; Linda Youngblood, controller; Mark Anderson, GM and VP at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Racetrack and Del Mar Fairgrounds; and Tom Ananyo, GM at the University of California-San Diego.
“We have other corporate resources as well,” Tazar noted, including Tom Marchetto, SVP, Strategic Marketing, who heads up organic growth initiatives and business development planning for Premier as well as Savor.
Shaun Beard remains as SVP, Savor, overseeing accounts in the eastern U.S. and Canada.
“It’s about the brand and West Coast attitude,” Beard said. “We’ve just tried to align the portion of our West Coast business with the Premier brand. We modernized the Premier logo and put some of the Savor energy behind it as well as new West Coast feel and flavor, from colors to fresh modern food and beverage, to give it a separate identity.”
Having a headquarters in Southern California, where that business is, “makes you more in touch with your business,” Beard said. “We want to be as close to the customer as we possibly can – that’s the future of this business, how close can you get to the end user.”
Tazar added that it makes it easier to do business with West Coast farms and fisheries. “We roll that taste profile into the business out here.”
In existing Savor clients venues, the Premier brand will be transitioned in. Tazar said he won’t be replacing Savor-logoed product until it’s gone.
“True to our nature, we did not make wholesale changes with staff,” Tazar added. “We successfully assimilated the group, we have extended several of our agreements, and now it’s time to position Premier to grow from the West Coast.”
Interviewed for this story: Paul Tazar, (858) 926-2880; Shaun Beard, (610) 729-7916