CEO Fedele Bauccio Wins National Entrepreneur Of The Year Award

Bon Appétit Management Company cofounder was recognized for redefining the food service industry and pioneering environmental and local sourcing policies

Palm Springs, CA (November 15, 2014): Fedele Bauccio, cofounder and CEO of Bon Appétit Management Company, an on-site restaurant company that operates more than 500 highly customized onsite restaurants at corporations, private universities, museums, and sports venues, has been named the EY Entrepreneur Of The YearTM 2014 National Retail and Consumer Products Award winner.

CEO Fedele Bauccio

CEO Fedele Bauccio

The EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Award, a leading business award for entrepreneurs, encourages entrepreneurial activity and recognizes leaders and visionaries who demonstrate innovation, financial success and personal commitment as they create and build world-class businesses.

Fedele was recognized for redefining the food service industry and being a pioneer in environmental and local sourcing policies. Today, Bon Appétit serves over 150 million made-from-scratch meals each year. Fedele received his award at the Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards gala, the culminating event of the EY Strategic Growth Forum® in Palm Springs, Calif. The Forum is the nation’s premier gathering of high-growth, market-leading companies. Awards were given in 10 additional categories. Bon Appétit congratulates Darrell Cavens, president and CEO of zulily, inc. (a Bon Appétit client in Seattle) who was honored with a National Emerging Award.

The EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Award winners were selected by an independent panel of judges and from more than 250 regional award recipients. The other EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Retail and Consumer Products finalists in the US included Dan Mason Schuppan, President, MBS Textbook Exchange, Inc., based in Columbia, Mo.; Ken McBride, Chairman and CEO, Stamps.com, based in El Segundo, Calif.; and David J. Trone, co-owner and President of Total Wine & More, based in Potomac, Md.

“We are pleased to honor Fedele Bauccio with this award and recognize a true entrepreneur,” said Mike Kacsmar, EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Americas Program Director. “Entrepreneurs seek to solve problems and transform industries. With his unwavering commitment to supporting sustainable, local ingredients, Bauccio took a traditional industry and changed the entire model. His commitment to his vision is a testament to his success. ”

From dishwasher to trailblazer

Fedele started his career washing dishes at the University of Portland cafeteria as a freshman, and became manager his junior year. (University of Portland is currently a Bon Appétit client.) He remained another twenty years at the billion dollar food service company, Saga, eventually becoming President of the business food service division. After takeover of Saga by Marriott, Fedele left to pursue his dream of reinventing the food service industry.

The food service industry is competitive, characterized by low margins, and low differentiation. From the beginning, Fedele did things differently with Bon Appétit. When Fedele founded Bon Appétit in 1987, he changed the industry dynamic by replacing food servers with professional chefs, empowered with control over their menu and sourcing of ingredients.

His vision for his company proved to be a highly successful one. Under his leadership, the company has maintained industry-leading margins while remaining price competitive and offering a high-quality product. Revenues and operating income have increased significantly in the last ten years, and Bon Appétit now has a presence in more than 32 states.

Sustainability at its core

“I am so proud of how Bon Appétit has become a trailblazer for sustainability,” said Fedele. “We are the first food service company to commit to sustainable seafood, to fight the use of hormones and non-therapeutic antibiotics in animals, to switch to cage-free eggs, and to strive to reduce our carbon footprint and waste significantly. Since 2013 we have served over a million pounds of humanely raised beef, with ongoing initiatives related to gestation-crate-free pork and improving farmworker rights. We have more to do and I am excited at the impact we have on the food system as we continue to grow.”

Since launching the Farm to Fork program in 1999, Bon Appétit has required our chefs to source at least 20% of their ingredients from small farms within a 150-mile radius of their restaurants, now resulting in more than $50 million in spending annually. Fedele has testified before Congress about antibiotics abuse in the meat industry and personally visited Immokalee, FL, to meet with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, join their Fair Food Campaign, and create a Code of Conduct for Bon Appétit’s tomato growers that has resulted in better wages and working conditions for tomato pickers.

About EY Entrepreneur Of The YearTM

The EY Entrepreneur Of The Year is the world’s most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs. The program makes a difference through the way it encourages entrepreneurial activity among those with potential and recognizes the contribution of people who inspire others with their vision, leadership and achievement. As the first and only truly global awards program of its kind, Entrepreneur Of The Year celebrates those who are building and leading successful, growing and dynamic businesses, recognizing them through regional, national and global awards programs in more than 145 cities in more than 60 countries.

About Bon Appétit Management Company

Bon Appétit Management Company (www.bamco.com) is an on-site restaurant company offering full food-service management to corporations, universities, and specialty venues. Based in Palo Alto, CA, Bon Appétit has more than 500 cafés in 32 states, including at Google, eBay, University of Pennsylvania, and the Getty Center. Bon Appétit food is cooked from scratch, including sauces, stocks, and soups. A pioneer in environmentally sound sourcing policies, Bon Appétit has developed programs addressing local purchasing, the overuse of antibiotics, sustainable seafood, the food and climate change connection, humanely raised meat and eggs, and farmworker rights. It has received numerous awards for its work, from organizations including the International Association of Culinary Professionals, the James Beard Foundation, Natural Resources Defense Council, Seafood Choices Alliance, and The Humane Society of the United States.

Contact: Bonnie Azab Powell, Director of Communications, [email protected] (650) 798-8022