Friend of the Industry: Peter Whittall

By the miracle of distribution and good management, the foods we use in our restaurants always seem to arrive at the back door when we need them. In 1967, at the age of nineteen, Peter Whittall joined a small start-up company supplying tugboats. Called Neptune Food Suppliers, it operated out of a butcher shop on Lower Lonsdale in North Vancouver. The company grew and expanded Neptune's service by taking the one stop shop concept to restaurants and other institutional accounts. Peter became president in 1978 and led the company through five building expansions until 1995 when the business was sold to Serca. Peter remained president until retiring in 1998. Since Neptune's acquisition by Gordon in 2002, Peter has come back in an advisory role and is currently chairman emeritus of Neptune Food Service. For all of us, he's the guy who has filled the pipe and helped us succeed. Accepting for Peter Whittall is his son Sean.