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5 Management Companies to Watch: HHS/Culinary and Nutrition Solutions

John Lawn, Mike Buzalka

September 1, 2011

1 Min Read
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John Lawn and Michael Buzalka

You won’t find HHS / Culinary and Nutrition Solutions (CNS) on FM’s “Top 50” list, but if CNS division president Keith O’Neill has his way, it could well be there within a year or two.

O’Neill, a 1992 Healthcare Silver Plate winner whose central production specialty services company was later acquired by Morrison Management Specialists, came out of retirement earlier this year to begin the new initiative. Called Culinary and Nutrition Solutions, it was formed by HHS, an Austin, TX-based hospital services management company that was interested in expanding into foodservices. Up to now, HHS had focused almost on exclusively on housekeeping, transport and related services.

Independently owned, HHS was founded in 1975 and provides services to over 140 hospitals. Most of its accounts are in southern states, especially Texas and Florida, and it counts hospitals owned by both HCA and the Tenet system among its clients. Some of current HHS clients are potential customers for CNS foodservices, O’Neil says, as are small to medium sized acute care hospitals looking for integrated service model contracts. Another target will be “acute care facilities, either contract or self-op, where clients are looking for cost or quality opportunities.”

According to O’Neill, CNS signed its first client in January and has added three accounts since then (two for-profit hospitals and two not-for-profit), the largest of which is the 420-bed Southeast Alabama Medical Center. By next year he hopes to double that base, saying, “We’d like to think we will be north of 50 accounts within five years.”

About the Authors

John Lawn

Editor-in-Chief / Associate Publisher, Food Management

John Lawn has served as editor-in-chief /associate publisher of Food Management since 1996. Prior to that, he was founding and chief editor of The Foodservice Distributor magazine, also a Penton Media publication. A recognized authority on a wide range of foodservice issues, he is a frequent speaker to industry groups and has been active in a broad range of industry associations for over two decades.

Mike Buzalka

Executive Features Editor, Food Management

Mike Buzalka is executive features editor for Food Management and contributing editor to Restaurant Hospitality, Supermarket News and Nation’s Restaurant News. On Food Management, Mike has lead responsibility for compiling the annual Top 50 Contract Management Companies as well as the K-12, College, Hospital and Senior Dining Power Players listings. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English Literature from John Carroll University. Before joining Food Management in 1998, he served as for eight years as assistant editor and then editor of Foodservice Distributor magazine. Mike’s personal interests range from local sports such as the Cleveland Indians and Browns to classic and modern literature, history and politics.

Mike Buzalka’s areas of expertise include operations, innovation and technology topics in onsite foodservice industry markets like K-12 Schools, Higher Education, Healthcare and Business & Industry.

Mike Buzalka’s experience:

Executive Features Editor, Food Management magazine (2010-present)

Contributing Editor, Restaurant Hospitality, Supermarket News and Nation’s Restaurant News (2016-present)

Associate Editor, Food Management magazine (1998-2010)

Editor, Foodservice Distributor magazine (1997-1998)

Assistant Editor, Foodservice Distributor magazine (1989-1997)

 

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