Twisted Eggroll with Nikkita Randle feature #33 of Together Talks

"Together Talks" feature # 33: Twisted Eggroll presented by KLS, freight company

Some Background on Twisted Eggroll

Today's edition of "Together Talks" campaign, KLS had the opportunity to interview Nikkita Randle, Founder, of Twisted Eggroll. Twisted Eggroll was established in January 2015 from a love for food, a passion for cooking, and a hope to touch the lives of many!

Twisted Eggroll is a frozen packaged product that approaches the traditional egg roll with an infused spin. Their current packaged product flavors include Buffalo Chicken, Veggie Southwestern, and Cheesesteak. They currently also offer a fresh made to order catering service in the Chicago area that delivers their extended menu featuring additional flavors: chicken fajita, pizza, mac and cheese, and dessert cheesecake and sweet potato eggrolls.

FRESH despite frozen

The Woman-Owned company takes pride in the fact that despite the product being frozen, the quality will shock you. Nikkita credits this to the clean ingredients. Not using any preservatives allows Twisted Eggroll to stand behind the fact that their product is healthier than the alternative. Being a fresher, healthier eggroll is one half of the equation. The other...not being an appetizer.

In our talk with Nikkita, "Eggrolls are notoriously considered an appetizer or a filler food. But not our product. It is a full handheld meal. A full meal that provides quality, clean ingredients that are fresh, and a convenient meal." That was one demand Nikkita aimed to achieve, working parents who need a quick meal, but didn't want to sacrifice health. Being able to make frozen items quickly without compromising quality or ingredients sets Twisted Eggroll above the competition.

The frozen products are currently found regionally in Chicago at select Foxtrot, Green Grocer, and Dom's Kitchen & Market. Also, the company recently signed a deal with Kehe and will be available in select locations there as well. In addition to the frozen retail space, the company still has their catering business in Chicago as well.

Partner with KLS

KLS offers LTL and FTL for both dry and reefer transportation.

Our nationwide coverage provides companies a reliable, consistent, and dependable logistics partner to handle your trucking needs.

For more information on how we can help call our office today 708-980-0920 or reach us via our email quote request here!

Purpose

Being a Black-Owned company and creating this company was a passion project for Nikkita. Cooking was something she learned from her mother and it started by cooking pancakes when they she was 5. Her father instilled the entrepreneurial spirit in her or as she told us, "the entrepreneurial bug in my spirit." When he passed a few years back, she wanted to honor him while also challenging her desire to test entrepreneurship. The inspiration from family continued with her current company. When describing the culture she told us it has a "family like feel with a focus on community". She wants the entire company to feel like a family within the company while operating the business. As she told us, "Wherever we are producing or selling our product, we want to be a part of that community. Within that our people we don't just want to invest in them, but be connected to us. Whoever joins us on our journey, we want to celebrate. Our wins are our team's wins, are our customer's wins too. We lead by example." Being the owner she makes it an effort to try to not have the employees work the weekends. Work/life balance is an extremely important value at Twisted Eggroll.

Being a foodie at heart, Nikkita's words, enabled her to not lose sight of her goals as Covid struck a few years ago. The company was shut down for 18 months as a result. With businesses closed, the catering came to a screeching halt. As a result, Nikkita took the situation and turned it into an opportunity to focus on the expansion of the brand into the retail space. She revamped the business in order to grow it to new heights.

Future

This is how it started, this is the journey of Nikkita and Twisted Eggroll..

Going forward Nikkita has big goals for the brand. In the remainder of 2023, she is looking to build on retail relationships along with a larger reach outside of the regional Chicago scene. In 2024, she is hoping to open her own hybrid of manufacturing to produce in-house, while maintaining the fresh options for direct-to-order catering side of the business. Having a more refined supply chain will allow the company to continue to grow its partnerships strategically as well.

Nikkita was able to explain to us the most enjoyable aspect of her company and business, "When someone says how good the food was, they do the 'happy food dance' or they stare at me bewildered. That moment of gratitude is so rewarding. Started this company so people knew what they were consuming and could feel good about it, WHILE ENJOYING IT. The customer reviews, repeat customers, and overall feedback is so important and validation. Food is a huge part of our daily loves, and I love that Twisted Eggroll is able to be a part of that story."

Interested in being featured with "Together Talks"?

KLS is booking our upcoming schedule now!

Contact us as we would love to learn your story and share it amongst our audience.

Weekly we provide 2 companies our platform to expand their reach courtesy of our campaign. Let's collaborate!!!

In Closing

KLS wants to thank Nikkita for sharing the story of Twisted Eggroll for today's "Together Talks". The company has recently been featured in Black Enterprise, N'DIGO, Book Club Chicago. You can find Nikkita on her LinkedIn, here. Also follow along to their story on Facebook, here. And stay up to date with all of the tweets from Twisted Eggroll, here.

Klimson Logistics Solutions - Twisted Eggroll with Nikkita Randle feature # 33 of Together Talks

*Klimson Logistics Solutions is an Industry Leading Customer Service 3PL. Our focus and commitment to our clients has us striving to be the BEST customer service 3PL for LTL, FTL, Reefer, and Drayage in the country. KLS, freight company, is a 3PL providing nationwide logistics solutions. KLS shipping services include: LTL freight, FTL freight, Reefer LTL freight, Reefer FTL freight, and Drayage. Klimson Logistics Solutions thanks you for viewing our marketing campaign "Together Talks" if you have any interest in being featured or questions regarding your freight operations please contact us today!

Why KLS?

Our precise and reliable effort.

We handle every shipment with the exact same process. It does not matter if you move one shipment a year or ten per day, you will receive the same level of customer service from us. When we started this company, we had one goal in mind, treat every shipment like it was our own. With our vast knowledge of the industry, we understood what a customer would want from a communication standpoint. We applied that process to be the standard here at KLS. Our reliability and being able to depend on our consistency is why we have such long-standing relationships with our clients.

Our Process?

Every shipment in our industry starts with a quote. We are firm believers that time is money, thus we strive to have quotes back in a 5-10 minute reply time for LTL and FTL, any FCL quotes are at the mercy of the carriers getting back to us. For LTL we have the flexibility to quote both off of NMFC and also Density depending on the carrier. Utilizing our services, you’re allowing us to use our expertise to class your freight accordingly to ensure we are providing the best rate we possibly can.

Once a quote has been submitted and a client chooses to proceed with KLS handling the arrangement of the shipment our full process begins. We create the BOL that will be used for the shipment. If it is a new location for our system, we will obtain all the important/special details (reference numbers, contact details, shipping hours, closed for lunch, dock/doors, etc.). We meticulously build every detail into our software for all future shipments involving that location. After we have both locations built and necessary reference numbers have been applied we will tender the shipment to the carrier. We use this method because it provides us a real time pickup number from the carrier to obtain updates prior to pickup. Our staff will either email the BOL directly to you or to the shipper (at your request) the minute after the tender has been accepted by the carrier. LTL carriers require a 2 hour window prior to close time in order to schedule it for a same-day pickup attempt.

The following morning you’ll receive an email from us. It will either provide the reason the pickup was missed (driver’s trailer filled up, driver missed the close time, truck broke down, shipper said no freight, etc.) or if the pickup was successful you will receive the PRO (tracking) number from us, along with the eta for delivery. Our staff will track it throughout the duration of transit and advise if anything happens that will alter the estimated delivery date. The day the shipment delivers we will email you with confirmation and the POD (Proof of Delivery), should you require it.

Your shipment has been quoted, scheduled, picked up, and delivered. The next step is waiting for the carrier to invoice us and make sure the rate matches up. If it does, we close out the invoice from the carrier in our system and automatically your invoice is created and sent to the requested party at your company. In the event the carrier has an additional charge on their invoice “Variance”, we will never send you an invoice with an additional charge without first identifying you of the charge.

Let us repeat, NEVER WILL WE JUST BILL OUT AN EXTRA CHARGE WITHOUT YOU BEING NOTIFIED.

You are our customer, we represent you. Should the carrier provide an extra charge on an invoice, “Lift gate, additional weight, reclass, detention, etc.) We notify you of the charge via email first. Second, within that email we identify what is required should you choose to dispute the charge. Again our goal is to honor your request, if you want to dispute, we will dispute. During a dispute we will provide you updates every step along the way. Once a dispute is closed out, whether it is approved or rejected, then we will invoice you as the invoice has been resolved.

For reference, our company only had 6.2% of all shipments go to dispute in 2022 and we successfully won 91% of those disputes on behalf of our customers.

This is our process for every single shipment you move with us. We don’t cut corners, we don’t hide from difficult situations. We believe in being available, honest, and transparent. We don’t ever want to tell you that a shipment is lost, damaged, misrouted, but it is our duty to notify you the second we find out something has gone wrong. We hate to present bad news, but it is part of the job. What you can guarantee is that we will work a shipment all the way through and turn over every stone until we get a resolution for our clients.

Services offered?

Our core business is LTL and FTL. Within these options we have options for both dry and refrigerated/frozen. We also offer FCL/Drayage options. Our company as a 3PL has nationwide options and services clients across the US.

Let’s breakdown our services more in-depth

LTL: Standard and Guaranteed CFS (Imports & Exports) Tradeshows Hazmat Anything that is on a pallet can be moved LTL. Typically LTL is up to 10 pallets, but the sweet spot for a carrier is 6-8 pallets at most for an individual shipment. LTL quotes are good between 5-30 days depending on the carrier. LTL can be quoted either via NMFC or density to determine the class (we do this for you).

Volume: Anything over 10-12’ of space in the truck is the technical rule for a volume shipment. When we run a quote for you we will determine if it qualifies for volume and provide you a rate if available. Volume moves allow you to get a reduced rate for larger shipments. The caveat to volume shipments it the quotes are only valid for 3-7 days and they move on capacity between terminals. If a terminal is backed up they will move their LTL freight first before the volume freight, which can lead to longer transit times for volume moves.

FTL/Dedicated/Expedited: 53’ Dry and Reefer 26’ Box trucks with lift gate Sprinter Van The main difference for FTL vs LTL is space and transit time. For standard pallets you can fit either 26 or 30 pallets in a 53’ dry van. The other main difference is transit time, for FTL each day counts in the transit time, whereas LTL does not count the day of pickup, weekends, or holidays in their transit time.

Reefer/Frozen: LTL and FTL We specialize working in the CPG space with food manufacturers. We regularly deliver to the following locations: Kehe UNFI Core Mark DPI Wegmans Cugini H.T. Hackney Netrition HEB ALDI Chambers and Owens EBY Brown Nassau Candy Harris Teeter Wakefern NU INC Long Distribution

What makes KLS different?

There are thousands for freight brokers and 3PL in our industry. Barrier to entry is rather easy and agents or owners will often hire sales people without any intention of properly training them. It results in high turnover for many freight companies and a forgettable experience for the client. We choose to operate differently through our consistency. We truly care about doing right by our clients and prospects too. While we would love to help provide our services to every company we speak with, that just isn’t realistic. We won’t always be the right fit for every company that moves freight and that is ok. Our authenticity as a shipping company sets us apart from the competition and that is backed up by our testimonials. We also run a marketing campaign bi-weekly called “Together Talks”. We interview, highlight, and promote two businesses every week. Our goal is to grow our network, make new connections, and learn something new with each collaboration. Check it out on our website and if you’re interested in being featured reach out.

Our company also runs a year long charity promotion. Book your first shipment through KLS and we donate to the charity of your choice in your name. Our way of thanking you for giving us an opportunity to show you the KLS way and what makes us one of a kind. This entire package is what we offer to every prospect and every client. Our goal is to help provide answers that customers may have when it comes to shipping. We want to always be available as a resource and will always offer a lending hand whenever we can.