San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
After a lifetime in vending, he’s a snack machine
Allan Pundt started working part time as a teenager at San Antonio vending company Tom’s Snacks. He loaded chips, candy and other treats onto trucks for delivery to offices and convenience stores.
After graduating from high school in 1966, Pundt joined the company full time in its warehouse and went on to hold just about every job in the place. He drove a route delivering snacks for two years, moved up to warehouse manager and, after about 20 years, became office manager before buying the business in 2001.
Since taking the reins, Pundt says the company — now known as San Antonio Snacks & Vending LP and located near the AT&T Center — has become a distributor of all major lines of snacks and drinks. He’s one of the few independent distributors in the U.S., he says. The company has a roughly 100-mile service area that’s centered in San Antonio.
Pundt, 71, recently discussed his career and how the coronavirus pandemic has affected operations. Here’s an edited transcript of the interview.
Q: Did Tom’s Snacks start in San Antonio?
A: It started in Columbus, Ga. That’s where the plant was that made all the product. The building actually said “Tom’s Toasted Peanuts” on the top of it. It employed thousands of people.
Q: Was it locally owned when you started in 1965?
A: It was locally owned. This was an independent distributor. My father worked here as the general manager at that time. I was just out of high school and needed a job. So I started helping him on Saturday mornings.
I (later) needed a full-time job, (so I) started working in the warehouse, advanced into taking care of the books and ordering. Kind of ran the office. Then my daddy retired, I guess, in ’85. I was still working for an independent owner at that time. He decided to retire about 20 years ago. I bought the business from him.
Q: How were you able to buy the business?
A: Broadway Bank made me a loan based on my years of experience and the profitability of the company.
Q: What did you acquire when you bought the business?
A: The distribution service, the trucks, the vending machines, everything that was part of the company at that time. A lot of it
was purchasing the goodwill.
Q: How big is the business today?
A: Twenty-five to 30 employees. About half of our business is convenience store racks and half of it is vending. Some of these employees are supervisors, administrative assistants, warehouse people.
Q: How many vending machines do you stock?
A: That’d probably be proprietary. Wouldn’t want to say.
Q: What would you say you like best about the business?
A: Interaction with people.
Q: Is there anything you dislike about it?
A: (Laughs) Hard to find good people. Hiring good people has always been an issue. That’s why you see “now hiring” (signs) in every building you go into.
Q: What’s been the biggest change in your industry since you’ve been in it?
A: Cost of goods. Prices that manufacturers charge. Obviously, we’re in business to make a profit, and the increase in the cost of products over the last 20 years — that was the first thing that came to mind. Machines (that accept) credit cards, that’s been a big deal.
Q: What’s your favorite vending machine snack?
A: I’m a pretty good snacker. Peanuts.
Q: How has your business changed since the pandemic? A: I guess the sanitation, the masks, the gloves, the increased awareness of the transmitted
coronavirus.
Q: Have you seen a drop in business because of offices closing and people working from home? A: Oh, yes, quite a bit.
Q: How are you adapting? Have you laid off or furloughed workers?
A: We haven’t furloughed anybody. I’ve had to raise compensation to help my employees get through this.
Q: How are you able to do that if sales are down?
A: Out of my pocket.
Q: You’re absorbing the sales drop?
A: The company is.
Q: So there’s not a whole lot you can do if people aren’t eating snacks because they’re working from home?
A: Right. Just pray.
Q: Did you seek a Paycheck Protection Program loan?
A: I’d rather not say.
(The Small Business Administration released the names of many loan recipients on Monday. San Antonio Snacks & Vending received a loan in the range of $150,000 to $350,000.)
Q: Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re 71. How long do you want to continue in the business?
A: I wouldn’t take it the wrong way. My wife passed away seven years ago. This job is my passion, and I don’t have any plans.
Q: So you’re just going to hold on as long as you can?
A: (Laughs) Well, it keeps me busy. It keeps me out of trouble.
pdanner@express-news.net