Rebuilding Trust. Unlocking a New Hospitality Category.
Guest Supply, a Sysco company, is a leading global distributor of operating supplies, furniture, fixtures and equipment to the hospitality industry. Serving hotel brands, management companies and ownership groups across thousands of properties, Guest Supply operates primarily in the OS&E space, supporting everything a guest sees and interacts with inside a hotel room and throughout the property.
As Guest Supply continues expanding its footprint in hospitality, coffee has remained a critical category. While in-room coffee has long been established, lobby and commercial coffee programs represent a significant growth opportunity.
To unlock that opportunity, Guest Supply needed more than a coffee vendor. They needed a strategic coffee solutions partner.
That partner is Diplomat Coffee.
The Challenge
Guest Supply’s sales consultants manage more than 30,000 SKUs across multiple categories. Their core strengths historically live in textiles, amenities and manufactured goods. While they successfully distribute in-room coffee products, lobby coffee programs are far more complex.
Commercial lobby programs require:
- Equipment selection and installation
- Ongoing service coordination
- Consumable forecasting and replenishment
- Drop-ship capabilities
- Juice and liquid coffee integration
- Category training for sales teams
“Outside of in-room coffee, we hadn’t even really sniffed the lobby category,” said Michael Larkin, Product Marketing Manager at Guest Supply. “It’s a different monster. It involves equipment, service, juice, and liquid coffee. It’s not something we were built to handle internally.”
Guest Supply lacked the warehousing infrastructure to stock perishable beverages such as juice at scale. Nor did their sales force have the bandwidth to become deep experts in commercial coffee systems.
Without the right partner, the category would remain underdeveloped.
A Relationship Rebuilt on Trust
There is history between the two organizations. Like many long-standing supplier relationships, there were both strong periods and difficult ones.
“We’ve had good times and bad times,” Larkin said. “But we’re in a new era now. The current state of Diplomat is awesome. They’re in great hands with amazing people, and that’s what really kicked this off again.”
Diplomat’s leadership team, including Aaron Petersen and Eric Rayfield, took deliberate steps to reestablish trust, streamline communication and clearly separate Diplomat’s strategic direction from past pain points.
“They were willing to come to the table and say, ‘ Look, we know there have been issues in the past. Let’s move forward the right way,” Larkin said. “There’s trust now. It’s a trust-filled relationship.”
For Larkin, the differentiator is not simply the product. It is people.
“I’m a strong believer in relationships, communication and trust,” he said. “I deal with a lot of suppliers. Right now, they’re right at the top. I love dealing with them. I want to grow with them.”
The Turning Point: Making the Complex Programmatic
The breakthrough came when Diplomat restructured the lobby program into a streamlined, programmatic solution.
Rather than asking Guest Supply to manage equipment logistics, installation coordination and consumable sequencing internally, Diplomat built a turnkey process:
- Guest Supply sales consultants present simplified equipment packages.
- The property selects a package.
- Key information is submitted to Diplomat.
- Diplomat coordinates directly with the equipment manufacturer.
- Installation is scheduled within 24 hours.
- The product is staged prior to installation.
- A technician installs the product, loads it, and trains on-site staff.
- The account transitions into repeat consumable orders.
“If we tried to run this in-house, we’d need a team of people just to manage air traffic control,” Larkin said. “They’ve made it seamless for us.”
Diplomat also provided drop-ship capabilities and flexibility around juice and liquid coffee distribution, solving one of Guest Supply’s biggest operational hurdles.
“No other partner was willing or able to do that,” Larkin said. “They jumped right up to the plate and said, ’ Let’s do this.”
Empowering the Sales Force
Guest Supply’s sales consultants are generalists by necessity.
“Our reps are jacks of all trades,” Larkin explained. “They’re creatures of habit. Their head goes first to textiles and amenities. Food service is not always their comfort zone.”
Diplomat stepped in not just as a supplier, but as a category expert.
They provide:
- Training materials and videos
- Sales enablement support
- Direct access to category experts
- On-site assistance when needed
- Equipment expertise that Guest Supply previously lacked
“Now our guys know they can reach out to Eric or Gary and get help closing that sale,” Larkin said. “That’s what a partnership is.”
By removing friction and complexity, Diplomat helped Guest Supply confidently enter a category they previously avoided.
Strategic Alignment with Sysco
As a Sysco company, Guest Supply operates primarily in segments where traditional food service distributors do not focus, particularly in mid-scale, select-service, and economy hotel properties.
“This program is targeted to segments where Sysco does not play,” Larkin said. “It’s a perfect marriage. They do their thing. We do our thing. It’s cohesive.”
This strategic alignment allows Diplomat and Guest Supply to grow lobby coffee programs without internal channel conflict, creating runway in thousands of properties.
With approximately 250 sales consultants across the organization, even modest weekly install rates represent meaningful revenue growth.
“We could easily be looking at five to twenty installs a week,” Larkin noted. “That adds up quickly.”
The Partnership Today
Today, Diplomat supports Guest Supply across:
- In-room coffee
- Lobby coffee programs
- Liquid coffee
- Juice programs
- Commercial equipment packages
- Ongoing consumable replenishment
More importantly, the relationship has evolved beyond transactions.
“They’ve educated me. They’ve been flexible. Their communication is top notch,” Larkin said. “Forget about the past. What they’re doing now is awesome.”
The two organizations are actively planning facility visits, expanded collaboration and new category growth initiatives.
“This is kind of that moment where we show the world we can work together again and be successful,” Larkin said. “The plan is to grow this relationship.”
Looking Ahead: Expanding the Category
Diplomat’s investments in new facilities and direct farm relationships position the partnership for expansion beyond mid-scale hospitality.
“There’s no reason why we wouldn’t grow this,” Larkin said. “Knowing what they offer now and where they’re headed, I’m super pumped.”
Future opportunities include:
- Expanded lobby penetration across brand portfolios
- Premium and differentiated coffee programs
- Select service and focused service brand growth
- Potential crossover into larger hospitality segments
For Guest Supply, coffee is no longer just an in-room consumable. It is a scalable, supported category with long-term revenue potential.
Results at a Glance
- Rebuilt trust between long-standing partners
- Launched a turnkey lobby coffee program
- Solved juice and liquid coffee distribution hurdles
- Removed equipment complexity from sales teams
- Enabled scalable weekly installation growth
- Positioned category for multi-million-dollar expansion
The Takeaway
Diplomat Coffee did not simply step in as another supplier.
They rebuilt a relationship, simplified a complex category and aligned with Guest Supply to actively grow a new opportunity within hospitality.
“It’s been truly great,” Larkin said. “Diplomat is in great hands. The leadership is phenomenal. And I want to grow with them.”
