Catertrax grows following acquisition

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Village Gate-based Catertrax has been making some major moves following the acquisition of the company by the Volaris Group in November.

Catertrax, originally founded as Hospitality 101 in 2000, develops software specifically for catering services designed to streamline and consolidate operations. These include products for managing take-out orders to the TRAX Platform, which runs all operations from sales to organization for catering businesses. Following the acquisition by the Volaris Group of Mississagua, Ontario, Canada, Catertrax has reformatted their inner-workings to better push for performance and expansion. Jeff Luchetti, who formerly served as chief financial officer, made the move to CEO replacing Rich Rund back in March. Rund continues to serve as leader of the company’s product innovation team. Alongside Luchetti’s appointment, Greg Boike was tapped to serve as vice president of finance. Boike previously served in finance roles at HP and Sutherland.

The Volaris Group is an arm of Constellation Software, Inc., of no relation to Victor beverage giant Constellation Brands.

“It’s pretty exciting for us at Catertrax,” Luchetti said. “We sold the company back in November 2017. The new owner is providing us with a great long-term view, great long-term support to help us grow the business, take us to new heights.”

The 80-person team at Catertrax has deep roots in Rochester, and despite the acquisition and potential for growth, are planning on calling Rochester home for the long-run. A software as a service (SaaS) company, Catertrax represents part of a wave of software companies which have set up shop in Village Gate, such as CloudCheckr. Kim Hoffman, vice president of marketing at Catertrax, sees the location as the perfect spot for a blooming software hub in Rochester.

“I think we’re in a cool, kind of hipster area being in the Neighborhood of the Arts,” Hoffman said. “It’s just a really nice benefit for the employees there. They can walk outside and grab coffee at Starry Nights, juice at Just Juice, a salad at Gatehouse, whatever it may be. It’s a nice balance of work-life.”

Despite a rapidly growing startup environment, Rochester is not known explicitly for its software marketplace. Or, at least, it’s an industry which pales in comparison to the storied optics and manufacturing sectors here. Thus, there is an ever-present fear of the brain drain — the flight of talented, skilled IT professionals graduating from the University of Rochester or RIT and heading for greener pastures. While they’ve only seen a couple employees leave the company to head to another area of the country, it’s a problem Luchetti and Hoffman have both seen from recent grads.

“Certainly, internship programs help, and bringing junior developers on right after school,” Hoffman said. “They think of it as the whole package, what you can offer to keep them. That’s a nice sweet spot for us.”

Part of maintaining Catertrax’s employee base is keeping a good company culture. It’s a point which Luchetti prides himself on, and one he believes sets their company apart from the pack.

“What’s important to us is, obviously, we try to maintain competitive pay, but our company culture is very central to us,” Luchetti said. “We try to keep it fun, we try to keep it family related and we try to keep it interesting for folks. The other thing is providing those paths for people to grow professionally.”

Alongside Luchetti and Boike, Clint Tyler has been tapped to serve as chief operation officer at Catertrax. Luchetti, who has known Tyler for about 20 years, said he was the perfect choice for the job.

“He brings a new level of energy, experience and maturity to the business,” Luchetti said. “So as we grow and continue to mature as we take to our next growth stage, it’s exciting to have him in. The questions he is asking, the approach he takes with people, you see the experience he has.”

It’s a sentiment Hoffman echoed, calling him a “good culture fit.”

“On top of all of the business pieces, I was just saying to him that I feel like he’s been here already,” Hoffman said. “And he hasn’t, he’s only been here a month-and-a-half. He gets it, he understands people are important.”

As far as Catertrax’s future, it’s looking pretty bright. Or, at the very least, has a much larger reach under Constellation than the firm ever could independently. Constellation is a global software company which pulls in about $2.1 billion in revenue annually, and controls dozens of software companies as subsidiaries.

Through that network, the sky is pretty much the limit for Catertrax, a company Hoffman sees as a Rochester business through and through.

“It’s a locally owned business, privately held, that gets big enough to be acquired by an international company, our new COO who has a long history with Rochester and where we’re headed as a business,” Hoffman said. “It’s a great success story.”