Operations and margin
Two owners cut their working week from 55 hours to 25.
A family food distributor ran on its owners’ sign-off. We wrote decision rights and built a weekly rhythm that let them step back.
55 → 25 hrs
owner hours a week on daily operations
Industry
Specialty food distribution
Size
70 people · $14M revenue · family-owned
Service
Operations and margin
Engagement
Roadmap, then a 3-month Partnership
Duration
8 months to result
Before and after
Owner hours on daily operations, per week
Before
55
After
25
Purchases needing owner sign-off
Before
All
After
Over $5,000
Late deliveries
Before
11%
After
4%
The challenge
Siblings Ruth and Daniel Rowe had run Verde & Rowe for 19 years after taking over from their father. Both worked 55-hour weeks because every purchase, price change and customer complaint came to one of them. The planned retirement of the operations manager made that dependence urgent.
What we did
Amit spent two weeks shadowing the owners and managers, logging every decision that reached them. Of 212 decisions in a typical fortnight, about 170 could have been made by managers with the right rules. We wrote decision rights and spending limits, introduced a 45-minute weekly management meeting with a one-page scorecard, and coached two supervisors into team-lead roles over three months.
What changed
Within eight months, the owners’ time on daily operations fell from about 55 hours a week to about 25. Purchases under $5,000 no longer need their sign-off, late deliveries fell from 11% to 4%, and a supervisor now runs operations day to day, in the role the retiring manager left.
In their words
“My brother and I can take a real vacation. Decisions that used to land on us now get made, and written down, by the managers.”
Ruth Rowe
Co-owner, Verde & Rowe
Keep exploring
