Exciting Times for Centerplate

Chris Verros, purchase of Centerplate by Sodexo was the perfect matchup, not just
because of the powerful potential of being part of a $22¬billion company but also because of what it means to Centerplate employees.
“I’ve always been a people person. I like to get to know the people who work in the field because that’s where I came from – I was a dishwasher, a waiter, bartender and server. I’ve done all those things. I have a real appreciation for the people who work in this organization because we’re a team,” said Verros, who is cur¬rently CEO of Centerplate and tapped to be president when the acquisition is complete.
In late November, Sodexo agreed to pur¬chase Centerplate for $675 million from cur¬rent owner Olympus Partners. Verros’ role in that deal and in the combined companies’ futures qualified him for a 2017 Venues Today Hall of Headlines Award for News, though the November announcement and award came after the original subscribers’ vote.
Verros has spent his whole life in the restaurant/food and beverage business. “It’s in my blood, my father was a restaurateur. Sunday mornings as a kid, I used to go down with my father to the restaurant to sweep the floor. I couldn’t wait to get there. I couldn’t believe peo¬ple dropped so much money – probably $1.25 a day in nickels, pennies and sometimes a quarter. When I was a little older, I realized my dad was going around ahead of me and dropping coins.”

His father’s strategy worked. Verros con¬sidered no other career and, during his illustri¬ous rise, he has been directly involved in four food company acquisitions, this last one at the forefront. It started when Fanfare, a start up company owned by Jerry Moses which he helped start, was sold to Fine Host Corp. Verros was president of the Fine Host Recreation and Leisure Division.
“Then we sold to Aramark,” he said. It was 2002, and Verros did not go as the compa¬ny went. He was tempted to join Aramark, but he also wanted to stay in Boston so he called Joe O’Donnell, his other partner at Fanfare who also owned Boston Culinary Group (Boston Concessions at the time) and asked for a job.
“I was thinking that eventually Joe would want to sell, but I knew Joe from the mid¬80s and knew how important that company was to him,” Verros recalled.
He found the right opportunity in Centerplate, which bought Boston Culinary Group and kept most of the team. Verros became president and O’Donnell chairman of the board.
Centerplate originally was owned by pri¬vate equity firm Kohlberg. Two or three years after Verros arrived, they sold to Olympus Partners.
Truth in business is that private equity has goals, usually three to five years out. “We were not for sale; however, we were approached by a banker representing Sodexo who said we have a company that’s very inter¬ested in purchasing you, would you be interest¬ed in having those conversations? It was a number of months, lots of meetings, lots of diligence. The process has been very thought¬ful and very detail oriented; there’s been a lot of work behind the scenes,” Verros said.
Verros believes Sodexo and Centerplate match up culturally almost perfectly. “Our mantra is ‘We make it better to be there through memorable experiences’ and Sodexo’s is quality of life via services ‘creating memo¬rable sports and leisure services for the client and consumers.’” Neither company is about one person; both care about employees.
Sodexo is also trying to build their foot-print in North America and “we’re the perfect company to help them do that,” Verros said.
Centerplate’s relationship with clients doesn’t have a secret sauce. It’s about “making sure the customer feels good about us as a provider, making sure you do all the things you say you’ll do. We don’t over promise but always try to over deliver,” Verros said. “We try to do the little things. It always comes back to people, the right people in the right places with the support services behind them.”
Peter Luukko, Oak View Group, who also oversees one of Centerplate’s biggest arena clients, BB&T Center, Sunrise, Fla., can attest to that.
“Chris has the uncanny ability to listen to the needs of the client and find solutions that give everybody the ability to succeed,” Luukko said. “I always appreciate that Chris and Joe remember my Massachusetts roots and have a Lobster Roll served at every meeting we have. Chris has worked his way up from the entry level of the business, and it shows when deal¬ing with the detailed needs of his clients.”
Consolidation in the concessions business is a constant, dating back to Verros’ first expe¬rience working for Ogden Food Services, which was acquired by Aramark; just the mul¬tiples have changed.
And the goals remain the same. “It’s still about the deliverable and service in the end. Certainly the expectations are higher and the service standards are higher and offerings are a little more extravagant. But it still comes down to delivering on those expectations,” Verros said. “At the end of the day, you have to put a really great meal in front of folks and deliver it with a friendly face and a good, clean environment.”
This sale is targeted to close by the end of the year, though there is no specific date. How will the sale impact Centerplate?
“It will be Centerplate supercharged,” Verros said.
“That’s why it’s exciting for me person¬ally. We were not a small company, we gen-erate $1 billion, but now you go to a company that generates $22 billion and has services all over the world. Just think of the opportuni¬ties it opens up for the people who work within our organization at every level. To me that’s a huge, huge win for people in our organization and that’s what I’m looking for¬ward to most.”