FriendShip Fine-Tunes Its Supply Chain to Assist Local Hospitals, Homeless Shelters & More

FREMONT, Ohio — FriendShip Stores is increasing its efforts to support the local communities it serves by fine-tuning its supply chain management process to secure and donate hard-to-find items to hospitals, homeless shelters and other local organizations.

"We recognized early on during this pandemic, that our sole focus is to support our people and our communities. We have great supply chain partners like H.T. Hackney, GFS Foods, Cintas and City Services to name a few, and we have teamed up with them and others to secure critical cleaning and safety supplies for our stores and our communities," said Dean Beck, co-owner and senior vice president of Beck Branded Fuels. "We have been able to secure additional supplies such as gloves and even toilet paper, and have been reaching out to community agencies and hospitals and donating these hard to get items."

Fourth generation family member Chelsea Carvalho was tasked with leading supply chain management for emergency supplies and quickly turned chaos into a fine-tuned machine, according to the convenience store retailer.

"Having to supply critical materials to support hundreds of employees at our stores as well as to our transport, propane, facilities and corporate divisions was daunting," said Carvalho. "But through teamwork and communication, we have turned a challenge into a strength."

FriendShip is the retail division of Fremont-based Beck Suppliers Inc., a family-owned and -operated retail and wholesale petroleum marketer. Today, FriendShip operates 26 FriendShip and FriendShip Kitchen locations.