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OCS drives full-line vendor's growth: appealing to a variety of new OCS customers helped this Chicago-area operation grow its business despite economic turbulence. With a true love of the industry, the leadership at Commercial Coffee Service/Food Systems Inc. keeps the company positive and in the black.

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While the workforce, and therefore the customer base, at vending locations shrinks, those operators who offer OCS have the opportunity to expand. In fact, coffee has been quite lucrative for Commercial Coffee Service/Food Systems Inc., Bridgeview, Ill., producing 35 percent growth in the last two years, compared to a relatively small increase in vending business.

Co-owner Tom O'Malley attributes most of the OCS success to finding and winning new accounts in the southern Chicago market. "We're knocking on doors," he said, although some of the OCS business is based on adding the service to previous vending-only locations.

COMPANY GROWN OWNERS

O'Malley and partner Lee Hartnett both started at the company as 18-year-olds, running routes under the original owner, Ray Ornder.

"In 1979, I moved on to become a shop mechanic, then a street mechanic, then into other areas of operations," said Hartnett. O'Malley took over Hartnett's routes until he was promoted to sales.

Almost 20 years later, Ornder was ready to retire. Hartnett and O'Malley were already running most of the day-to-day business, so Ornder offered them the opportunity to buy the company instead of selling it to a competitor.

Long time friends, the pair jumped at the chance and bought the company and the building. Hartnett took over the operations side, equipment and personnel while O'Malley continued in sales, logging hours to find new business. After 30 years, the partners remain passionate about vending. "We still enjoy coming into work," said O'Malley.

"We look forward to coming regardless of the economy," added Hartnett. "We just like doing it."

Since buying the company, O'Malley and Hartnett have focused on aggressive growth and replacing or upgrading equipment. The business grew 30 percent in the first two years under the duo, despite the effect of 9/11, and the OCS business has more than...