About Larry
Larry Etter, is a professional foodservice executive with extensive experience in the entertainment industry. Beginning his career in hotel food and beverage management he opened the Hyatt Regency Memphis, and The Peabody Hotel. He extended his career path by entering the recreational foodservice arena, and renovated amusement parks and stadiums while serving to build other facilities such as Memphis Motorsports Park.
Larry Etter has been instrumental in the theater industry since 1997 when he was employed by Malco Theatres, Inc. in Memphis, Tennessee. He has entertained many responsibilities overlapping each segment of the theater business. He was originally employed in the role as Director of Concession Services, however his expertise has progressed in such a fashion that he has taken a more responsible role in operations and leadership within the organization. As a Senior Executive with Malco he has had the opportunity to build a business through significant negotiations, including sizeable soft drink agreements, negotiated Onscreen Advertisement contracts and construction build outs.
As an employee of Malco, he has enjoyed the added roles in supervision, as the Administrator of Training, Auditor, Principal of Purchasing, and Operations. The company has experienced considerable growth from 212 screens to over 323 screens in this time frame with the increase in attendance from 4 million patrons to an excess of 8 million patrons. He has been responsible for the construction or acquisition of 17 new theaters in his tenure.
In addition to his responsibilities as Senior Vice President at Malco, Larry has served as Chairman of the Board for the National Association of Concessionaires; he has served on its Board of Directors since 1993. He has recently been appointed Director of Education for NAC. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Tri State Independent Theater Owners Association where he also served as President from 2001 through 2003. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Theaters Owners.
He has served as a consultant to many other theater operators as well as Compass Group, Eurest Dining Services and Chartwell’s. He assisted in the strategic planning of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta with Creative Concession Concepts and McDonalds. His consulting services reach into the university level as he worked with Baylor University, The University of Mississippi, and Auburn University.
Larry Etter has engaged in the development of concession curriculum in universities and online. He worked with Dr. Susan Hubbard at Auburn to create a 3hr accredited class in recreational foodservice management supporting a degree in Human Sciences. He assisted in building online programs for Food Safety, Alcohol Awareness and Sexual Harassment Certification within the NAC portfolio. In addition, Larry worked with Experia and NSF in developing the recreational foodservice food safety exam specifically for concessionaires and contributed to writing of the nationally certified manual for food safety by NSF.
In addition to his consulting services, Larry has been invited to guest lecture at Auburn University. He frequently speaks to theater operators across the country, such as ShoWest, Cinema Con, Rocky Mountain Theater Owners, Tri State Independent Theater Owners, National Association of Concessionaires, Gold Medal Products, Inc. C. Cretors and Company, Vistar, Continental Concession Supply Inc. and Cine Show, the South Central NATO organization. He has international experience with in depth knowledge of the Russian Cinema market and has led seminars in Istanbul, Turkey. He has spoken before Kino Expo and Conferences in Saint Petersburg, Russia and Business Russia in Moscow. Larry appeared in Hong Kong at Cine Asia in training Asian exhibition operators. He currently teaches a 1 day accreditation class for the recreational food service managers to those in the concession field as well a 3 day Concession Managers Certification class for NAC and the ACS certification for suppliers and sales professionals.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Larry Etter has received the Bert Nathan Memorial Award at Showest, 2003; the Outstanding Leadership Award from Tri State Theater Owners, 2001; The Honorary Doctorate of Foodservice from the North American Foodservice Equipment Association, 2005; and The Gold Medal Achievement from Tyson Foods, 1990. Larry was inducted by the Tri State Independent Theater Owners into its Hall of Fame in 2003. He was presented The Mickey Warner Award by NAC (its highest recognition) in 2012 for his continuous contributions to the recreational foodservice industry.