LORDSTOWN, Ohio – When planning the Anderson-DuBose Co. distribution center before it was constructed in Lordstown more than a decade ago, Warren Anderson, CEO and owner, had something different in mind. 

The features he wanted included lighter, different colors that weren’t typical for older warehouses, he recalls.

“I wanted a warehouse that when you walked in you didn’t feel that it was a warehouse, and that it would be a place that my associates and employees would want to come to,” he remarks. “We really wanted to brighten it up so that people felt good about walking in.” 

The Lordstown distribution center, which consolidated existing facilities elsewhere and serves as the company headquarters, is one of three – soon to be four – such centers that Anderson-DuBose operates, and employs roughly 250 of the company’s nearly 1,000 employees. The company supplies some 800 McDonald’s and Chipotle restaurants, providing them with everything from the ingredients for Big Macs and Quarter Pounders to french fries and Happy Meal toys.  

Before co-founding Anderson-Dubose, Anderson worked in media and journalism until getting fired from a job, he recalls. At that point, he decided he no longer wanted to be in the media business, “primarily because I realized I wasn’t that good, I guess,” he reflects.  

“I didn’t want to be in retail. I didn’t want to handle cash. I’m not technically oriented, so I didn’t want to be in manufacturing, but I knew that I wanted to be in business and attempt to own a business,” he says.

After doing research, he determined that middle-market businesses in fields such as processing, packaging and distribution were companies where he could add value. “So I just felt it would be a good fit for me,” he says. 

Of the industry contacts he had made while working in media sales at a television station in Hartford, Conn., those with McDonald’s were among the most promising. In 1991, he led a leveraged buyout for the Cleveland area distributor that supplied McDonald’s restaurants in northeastern Ohio, the start of what became Anderson-DuBose.

This June, the company will open a distribution center in Knoxville, Tenn., that will join the  Lordstown headquarters, and plants in Rochester, N.Y., and Jacksonville, Fla. He also operated distribution centers in Africa for about a decade and several years ago acquired a beer distributorship in Oklahoma City. 

Role Models

Anderson’s leadership role models include his father, some of his teachers in grade school and one of his college professors, Edward Stasheff, who was “pretty impactful,” he says. 

“He could set the toughest goals and be the most encouraging leader in helping you achieve those tough goals,” he says.

Others influences were his boss at a group of TV stations where he worked who “wasn’t as empathetic in his approach” as Stasheff but “had a way of conveying caring” while having high expectations, and the late “60 Minutes” journalists Ed Bradley and Mike Wallace.  

Anderson says his approach to leadership is to set “high, achievable goals” for his team. 

“I provide a vision and I’m pretty demanding in terms of executing on the vision,” he says.

A lot of employers talk about putting people first, but Anderson lives that, says Paul Hammond, senior vice president of operations and people. 

“We understand it’s a job, but we want people to want to come to work, and if they want to come to work, we know they’re going to be productive and take care of our customers, so we try to take care of them in every way possible,” he continues. 

“Warren is famous for saying, ‘What can we do better for our people? How can we make this a better environment?’” he says. “He challenges us, if not daily, to do what we can do differently tomorrow that will make it better for our people, which in turn, will make it better for our customers.”

Collaborative Approach

Anderson describes taking a collaborative approach to developing future leaders within the company.    

“I try to get my team to help set the goals that we jointly execute as opposed to leadership from the top down,” he says. “It’s more of a collaboration and team effort.” 

It’s an approach to which he also attributes the company’s success. Of the 34 distribution centers in the McDonald’s system, two operated by Anderson-DuBose regularly are ranked one and two in performance. In 2021, the company was named as Supplier of the Year by McDonald’s and also has been recognized by Chipotle. The beer distribution arm also has earned awards. 

“That’s all done by having my management in this with me together,” he says. “We’re a heck of a team.”

According to Hammond, Anderson is always talking about succession planning, and is focused on how the company can do better and what can be done to help employees be better. The CEO is “a great listener” and “great motivator” to employees.

“It’s not just about attaining a number. It’s about watching people grow personally and professionally as well,” he says. “He does a very good job of challenging you to really look at yourself and say, ‘What do I need to become better? What do I need to do to help the business become better, and in turn, help the people around me become better?’”

Facing Challenges

As with many businesses, Anderson-DuBose faces hiring and retention challenges, Anderson concedes. 

“It’s tough hiring good people and being able to retain them. It’s gotten more and more difficult over the last several years, that’s for sure, he acknowledges.

That said, his company has “a better shot at hiring people” than many other companies because of its image, he says.  

One of the things the company did during the Covid-19 pandemic which at the start caused sales to drop 50% – was to not lay people off. Employees who wanted to take time off were permitted to do so, with their benefits maintained, while tasks were found for people who wanted to remain working.  

Word got out that Anderson DuBose was a company that stuck with its employees, which led to “good feedback and loyalty,” he remarks 

One of the biggest challenges for a growing company is “keeping that family feeling,” Hammond says. 

“As we started growing rapidly, we started looking at what works in other companies, what can we make work here?,” he says. That input was instituted and finetuned to fit Anderson-DuBose. 

“We’re like an old-time company. We do fun stuff for our folks,” Anderson says. He touts generous time off – three weeks the first year – and “great benefits” for employees. 

Employees also are treated with respect – from the janitor to top management, he says. He likes being able to provide good wages and benefits that permit people to support families, and if asked, he hopes employees would say Anderson-DuBose feels like a place where they feel comfortable coming to work.  

“That motivates me to come to work, and I love that,” he says. “I absolutely feel blessed to have my business.”

Pictured at top: Warren Anderson says the design of Anderson-DuBose’s Lordstown headquarters reflects the company’s focus on creating a positive environment for employees.