HOW PROOF OF THE PUDDING PLANS TO TAKE OVER ONSITE FOODSERVICE, ONE OPPORTUNITY AT A TIME OPERATIONS
THE ATLANTA-BASED CATERING COMPANY AND FOODSERVICE MANAGEMENT FIRM IS HUNTING FOR ACQUISITIONS TO EXPAND ITS REACH.
P roof of the Pudding, the Atlanta-based catering company and foodser- vice management firm, is good at many things. The company’s swift and steady growth is a testament to that. But one area in which the seri- ous company with the slightly silly name especially excels is identify- ing a need or an opportunity and rising to the task. SOME RECENT EXAMPLES: • Flash back to the uncertainty of spring 2020. Catering occasions evaporated overnight. So, Proof of the Pudding became a communi- ty feeding organization, preparing boxed meals for those in need and, eventually, becoming the foodser- vice provider for pop-up COVID hospitals around the country. The company ended up running nine hospitals with the Navajo Nation for almost a year, often taking over ho- tels that were no longer in use. “We would do the foodservice for feed- ing all the doctors, nurses, patients and crew,” Proof of the Pudding CEO Adam Noyes said. “It was a way to find a new line of business, emergency management feeding, that we’re still doing a little bit of today.” • With many people continuing to work from home, even after life BY HEATHER LALLEY
has returned to “normal,” there remains a large amount of unused office space in cities around the country. Proof of the Pudding, see- ing that opportunity, is transform- ing three such spaces in Atlanta into event venues. “There were some real estate opportunities that could be taken advantage of to get really good deals on premium real estate and turn those into special event venues,” Noyes said. “So we’ve got three of those that we’re going to be opening between now and Janu- ary.” • Proof of the Pudding has made just one acquisition so far, purchasing the small, Atlanta-based catering organization Southern Crust Cater-
ing Company, in January. But “so far” is the key phrase here. “We’re looking at quite a bit of M&A activ- ity right now around the country,” Noyes said. “We’re first looking at organizations where we can kind of replicate the success we’ve had in the Southeast.” Noyes declined to reveal more details, but said Proof of the Pudding is especially inter- ested in growing through acquisi- tions in Texas and Florida, areas in which the company already pro- vides foodservice for major sport- ing events. A HISTORY OF GROWTH Proof of the Pudding got its start in 1979 as a caterer in Atlanta. In the
PHOTOS COURTESY OF MORRISON HEALTHCARE
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