Mark Cullen: And then you guys inflation moderated in 4Q. Do you think it’s bottomed out at this point? And just how do you see it shaping up in ’24 at this point?
Chris Pappas: I would say we don’t really predict inflation, but what we expect right now and what we see is, in aggregate, I mean, we have 70,000 products going through our distribution centers. Some are inflationary, some are deflationary, but in aggregate, what we’ve seen so far in the beginning of the year is kind of a continuation of what we saw in the fourth quarter, which was moderate kind of low to mid-single digit type of sequential and year-over-year inflation with a little bit of a mix on certain products. Right now, you have things that are cocoa based like chocolate, you have olive oil affected by droughts. You have a couple of daily dairy products that are inflationary. But overall, you’re kind of seeing moderate inflation so far this year and we kind of expect that to continue.
Operator: Our next question comes from Kelly Bania of BMO Capital Markets.
Kelly Bania: Just wanted to talk about some of the acquisitions. Obviously, several have been flowing in for the last couple of quarters. But maybe can you just talk a little bit more in detail about how they’re performing? It seems like, there might be some top line upside coming in from one or more, but correct me if I’m wrong. And maybe just help us understand how you’re finding those acquisitions getting integrated to the broader Chefs’ Warehouse network?
Chris Pappas: I think things are going very well, Kelly. I think the team has their arms around the acquisitions from the past 2 years, and you could see from our growth, we call it hybrid growth. I call it right now. As companies become comfortable as part of with The Chefs’ Warehouse a family of companies. We sought to share best practices in many of the acquisitions we’ve already put them on our computer systems. They could start to see other warehouses and what products are available and the sales team starts to meld together. I think that’s really what’s been the driving force behind our continued growth for the past many years. We are not at anywhere near the finish line of what our expectations are, but every day we get better and I think that shows in the numbers.
We continue to cross sell each other’s customers and that’s really the focus, right? We built these new warehouses and continue to build the warehouses and markets that we have three, four independent businesses. We are here in Florida today and this is one of our newest facilities, where we are able to sell proteins and dairy and some produce and all our specialty and dry goods and combine them on the same trucks and we’ll continue to get the synergies and that’s what’s going to drive the bottom line over the next many years.
Kelly Bania: Just wanted to follow-up on a couple more questions. You mentioned the sales force and growth there. It seems as though some of the big broadliners are maybe also increasing sales force headcount more than in recent years. I guess the question is, are you seeing that same dynamic across many of the private and specialty competitors that you compete more directly with on a day-to-day basis? And maybe just remind us of the size of your sales force and the growth in headcount this year and in coming years that you expect?
Chris Pappas: From the street perspective, I think we always see some new people. What we hear from all our leaders is, again, everything is so expensive today. When you hire people, the benefits are really expensive that’s if you put them on the road, car expenses are very expensive. I think our view as you know continue to use technology to free our team up. I think that it’s going more and more into what I call a team sell. I think I’ve been saying this for the past five, seven years that my vision is there’s over 1,000 people in the sales department with all our companies. It’s quite a big people in sales, but it’s really leveraging them and having them do more calls on new customers, more calls to their existing customers, introducing new products, as we continue to integrate in all the regions that we have Chefs’ Warehouse protein businesses now with our other businesses and now produce.
So it’s really doing more with less. I think that’s the key and I think every company is facing that and is trying to do the same thing whether you’re one of the giant $70 billion public companies or you’re a small independent in the marketplace, you’re going to have to get leverage because everything is more expensive. Everything is inflated especially the last five years. It’s so important to get more efficient and larger drops to get the leverage on your overhead.
Kelly Bania: And just maybe last one. Doesn’t sound like there’s any issues here, but maybe just talk about your ability and cost in getting some of the products that you import over from Europe, in today’s market conditions and just remind us what percent of your products are coming from there?
Jim Leddy: So there I mean, there hasn’t been really impact from what’s happening in the Red Sea to our U.S. or North American businesses. So logistics prices have obviously come way down since the crazy COVID prices, and kind of settled in a range that are a little bit higher than before but not insane. So, we haven’t really had much difficulty coming from Europe. We don’t really disclose the percentage that comes from Europe. We have had a little bit of some bumps with our Chef’s Middle East business with some of the product that comes via the Red Sea, but they’ve done a great job of mitigating that, and it seems that the price impacts are being felt really by the entire market there and being passed on and customers and restaurants are adapting their menus and adjusting just like they would during any kind of supply chain disruption.
