“Connect. Care. Change.” That is the purpose statement printed on the entrance doors at E-Source Miller and it’s the motivation for every move Jeff Griffiths and the E-Source Miller team makes. “If we’re actively connecting with people, caring for them and changing their lives for the better, then growing sales is significantly more natural, right?”

Jeff Griffiths, president, E-Source Miller, Irving, TexasAs with many foodservice professionals, Griffiths “fell” into the industry — in this case, while selling copiers. A Derby, Kan., native and fresh out of Kansas State University, he moved to Dallas in search of a sales job and warm weather. Copier sales was the first job that stuck, and it didn’t go well. “I sold 11 copiers in 11 months,” Griffiths says with a chuckle, “and one was to my parents!” 

A cold call to The Dunne Group, a foodservice rep firm, changed everything. Weeks later, The Dunne Group bought a different copier, but a career-changing relationship was born. John Dunne and Keith Madison saw the same thing Griffiths’ friends, family and colleagues see in him: his friendly personality, relationship-driven approach, and charming demeanor. They mentored Griffiths, introduced him to Bob Gilbert, his first boss in foodservice.

“John and Keith made the introduction to ISI Commercial Refrigeration, where I worked from 1993 to 1998,” Griffiths says. He joined The Dunne Group in January 1998 before eventually going to work at Miller & Associates in 2005. He bought the company in November of 2006 with business partner Bobby Watson, who retired in 2019. In 2021, Griffiths acquired E-Source and E-Source Miller was born. “I have a short resume and never left the industry because I fell in love with the people,” Griffiths says.

Company Values

Today, E-Source Miller employs 46 people across two divisions: a 41-person rep organization and a five-person distribution division, launched in March 2024. The company operates in Texas and Oklahoma. “I am most proud to say the entire E-Source Miller team sells out in commitment to our vision and core values,” Griffiths says. “Every major decision comes from the perspective of always putting people above things, tomorrow before today, and improvement above proving ourselves. We’re not transactional, but instead seek to make investments today that lead to long term trust and mutual success.

Griffiths describes the E-Source Miller team as a “working body of independently talented people striving to achieve a common goal.” That often means looking for people with nontraditional foodservice backgrounds. For example, Tug Toler, the company’s executive chef, has a theater degree. Tucker Meyers, operations manager, has a video production degree. 

Melding these diverse skillsets with other team members that naturally have a background in foodservice operations, allows E-Source Miller to create some interactive opportunities to engage with its customer base. In 2025, the company hosted more than 1,200 guests for E-Source Miller events, produced product training videos and provided customer specific operations videos for new product launches, Griffiths notes.

To this day, the company continues to maintain a strong YouTube channel with videos produced by Toler and the team. The origins of this effort date back to the COVID-19 pandemic and before the merger. Around that time, Toler hosted twice-weekly virtual meetings to “keep everyone connected at a time when we were all really isolated,” Griffiths recalls. Known as ‘Tug Time,” the videos would include an interview with someone from a factory the firm represents a product demo or two. 

E-Source Miller is also a member of Paradigm; a nine rep group collective. Paradigm member companies share best practices and an investment in technology, among other things. “Paradigm allows multiple rep groups to work with customers whose reach extends beyond normal rep territory boundaries,” Griffiths notes. 

For Griffiths, though, the benefit of involvement goes much deeper than that. “Paradigm membership has meant so much to me personally. Our board of directors and leadership team members are daily sounding boards for vetting new ideas, company procedures, and how to balance between work and life.”

Facilities and Business Structure

Today, E-Source Miller operates from two facilities in Irving, Texas. The facilities include 45,000 square feet of warehouse space, 12,500 square feet of office space and a 3,500 square foot culinary center. Through its brand, FIRST Logistics, the company offers third-party warehousing for industry partners. E-Source Miller Distribution provides wholesale redistribution for a handful of companies.

By design, the E-Source Miller culinary center can serve a variety of customer needs. E-Source Miller regularly hosts educational and networking events for dealers, consultants, industry associations and end users. The culinary center features a fully configurable kitchen with a 25-foot hood and space for about 100 guests. “We scorecard the use of our culinary center to at least four days a week,” Griffiths says. “In 2025, we also followed The NAFEM Show with our own event called ‘Beyond the Big Show,’ where we hosted 400 customers over the course of two days. We had 38 factory exhibits, 5 professional service suppliers and 12 continuing education classes. We did our best to bring all we learned at The NAFEM Show back to Texas and Oklahoma.”

And as far as Griffiths is concerned, E-Source Miller has only scratched the surface. “When it comes to meeting customers at their needs, I love to stretch our capabilities by finding ways to say yes,” he says. 

Beyond its standard purposes, E-Source Miller offers its headquarters space for customer team-building competitions and off-site meetings. Some customers have even used the E-Source Miller culinary center for time and motion studies. “Recently, we built full scale, foam equipment models for a Texas-based restaurant chain,” Griffiths notes. “This event allowed the customer’s leadership team to test various layouts and make decisions based on efficiency, safety, and food quality. Each team member had a different color sticky note and would write down what they loved, didn’t love, and what they would change about each workstation. After many tweaks, the team decided on the perfect layout, and now they have implemented this design into their new prototypes.”

Collaborating with customers like this pays dividends down the road, too. “For me and my team, this process helped us grow closer to the customer and their dealer suppliers,” Griffiths says. “We were able to gain trust and momentum that has helped galvanize our relationships and grow sales. The ESM team also came away energized and ready for the next opportunity to say yes.”

Family and Personal Life

From a personal growth standpoint, Griffiths participates in a workshop program called Strategic Coach. This program brings together entrepreneurs on a quarterly basis to learn about time management, delegation, and innate strengths. “The biggest lesson I’m learning — which I’m not great at it — is to only spend my time working in my unique ability,” Griffiths says. “I’m best at connecting with people, establishing long term plans, and working at an urgent pace while staying focused on a significant, long-term vision. I resonate with our core value of putting tomorrow before today, but, in the moment, that doesn’t slow me down. Honestly, for our organization to grow, I need to stay in my lane, focus on what I’m good at and let our people truly excel at their own unique abilities.”

Given that he’s such a people person, it comes as no surprise that Griffiths’ family represents a driving factor in his life. “I am so blessed by my family! My wife Janelle and I have been married 26 years, and I can truly say she has changed my life! When I’m moving full speed, she has the strength to pull the reins, see situations clearly, and guide me to the right decisions.”

He and Janelle have two sons, Braden (25) and Landon (23). Braden lives in Venice Beach, Calif., where he works as a financial planner at AWM Capital. Landon is a client services manager at Paycom in Oklahoma City. “I have an incredible family: My wife is 100% supportive with me being a million miles an hour.” But Griffiths draws inspiration from a wide and deep network of industry connections, too. “So many people in our industry have helped me, it’s hard to name just a few people. I’m so grateful for that.”

Griffiths notes it is difficult to distinguish between his personal life and his work life. “The foodservice industry is full of my very best friends, and I have 30-plus years of amazing memories,” he says. “We have won business together, lost opportunities together, enjoyed meals together, taken trips together, and we finally grew up together.” 

Full of gratitude, he looks back on that cold call to Dunne and Madison and those years learning from Gilbert at ISI fully ready to sprint toward making more memories and achieving more goals.