Introduction
Calveta was founded by the Italian immigrant Antonio Calveta in 1966. What originally started as a neighborhood restaurant in Brooklyn offering traditional Italian dishes led to the opening of two more restaurants and finally, in 1972, to the beginning of meal deliverance services to nursing homes. The market was a very promising one: A big part of the 18.000 nursing homes in the United States chose to outsource their dining services as it allows them to profit from the culinary expertise as well as from the lower costs that professional food delivery services offered. Calveta proved to be especially successful in the business: by 2008, Calveta Dining Services Inc. was the fourth-largest food delivery service in the U.S., covering 10% of the market and growing at a much faster rate than the industry average. In contrast to its main competitors, Calveta’s single business is the meal delivery service to nursing homes which it extended to cover all dining occasions in nursing homes, including planning, preparation, service and the planning of special events. What started as a family business now is a privately held firm worth $2 billion with 15000 employees, 500 of them working in the company’s headquarter in Brooklyn.
Concept
Calveta’s success is mainly built on three pillars: its high quality food and personalized service offered by motivated employees and its effective cost control structure. Calveta was one of the first companies to use only fresh ingredients for their dishes and cater according to the eating preferences of their customers. Furthermore, Calveta offeres highly personalized service. Not only is it Calveta’s value to treat the end customers in a particularly respectful way, but also does the highly regional company structure of Calveta allow the adaption to specific regions. This structure also enables the adaption of Calveta’s services to the needs and desires of every single