TEMPLE, Texas — On Veterans Day, McLane Co. Inc., announced several military-friendly initiatives in honor of veterans. The company's objectives are to support veterans who want to build strong and stable careers with an industry-leading supply chain solutions provider, it said.
Recently, McLane earned the 2022 Military Friendly Employer designation. Owned by Viqtory, Inc., a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business, it recognizes the company's investment in substantive programs to recruit, retain and advance the veterans and service members within the organization.
At McLane, such programs include the McLane GI Bill Apprenticeship initiative. This national program makes a monthly housing allowance available to veterans who meet the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) eligibility criteria. Military spouses and dependents may also be eligible to receive a monthly housing allowance under the VA's eligibility criteria. Additionally, during military deployment, the company offers the option to continue health benefits for family members.
“Veterans gain valuable knowledge, skills, and experiences to defend our nation. They adapt these competencies to benefit our company,” said McLane President and CEO Tony Frankenberger, a military veteran who joined the company more than 35 years ago after serving in the U.S. Air Force as a sergeant and law enforcement officer. “Throughout our 127-year history, veterans seeking career opportunities harnessed their military acumen to help McLane Co. evolve from a small retail grocer into one of the largest supply chain services companies in the United States that delivers more than 15 billion pounds of merchandise to customers each year.”
McLane's partnership with the Department of Army at Fort Hood, Texas, offers transitioning service members a nine-week training experience where they learn the fundamentals of warehouse operations. Concurrently, the company launched a Registered Driver Apprenticeship Program featuring a veteran initiative, Warriors to Wheels. Both programs are open to anyone, not just veterans; however, military veterans in the driver apprenticeship program who are eligible for GI Bill benefits can receive their GI Bill housing allowance while earning a wage at the same time.
“Approximately 10% of our more than 24,000 teammates self-identify as veterans. And roughly 83% of our military veteran-teammates are drivers and warehouse teammates, and the remaining 17% reflect teammates contributing in a variety of other exempt and non-exempt roles,” said Jennifer Rojas Clouse, diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) manager. “Our proactive engagement with the Department of Labor's Registered Apprenticeship Programs helps us recruit and develop a highly skilled workforce. Registered apprenticeships are industry-driven and offer flexible training solutions that help to reduce turnover, costs and increase employee retention.”
McLane is a leading food distributor for military families through delivery service to military exchanges and restaurants located on military bases.
Click here to view McLane's video tribute to veterans.
Temple, Texas-based McLane is one of the largest supply chain services companies in the United States, providing grocery and foodservice solutions for convenience stores, mass merchants, drugstores and chain restaurants. Through McLane Grocery and McLane Foodservice, it operates more than 80 distribution centers and one of the nation’s largest private fleets. The company buys, sells and delivers more than 50,000 consumer products to nearly 110,000 locations nationwide. Additionally, McLane provides alcoholic beverage distribution through its subsidiary, Empire Distributors Inc. McLane is a wholly owned Berkshire Hathaway Inc, Omaha.
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