- Eight Point Distributors
- Autosource
- Royal Kitchen
- Alert Alarm Hawaii / National Fire Protection
- Island Topsoil
- Honolulu Eye Clinic
- Local Joe
- The Pig & The Lady
- T&C Surf
- Aloha Personal Training
- Magnum Helicopters
- Goldwings
- AW Dental Group
- GreenPath Technologies, Inc.
- Heaven on Earth
- Honolulu Coffee Co.
- L&L Hawaiian Barbecue
- McKinley Car Wash
- MD Restoration
- Mountain Apple Company
- The Pâtisserie
- Scott Hawaii
- Sig Zane Designs
- The Systemcenter, Inc.
- Town Hospitality Group
About the Entrepreneur
The evolution of Eight Point frozen and refrigerated food distributors over the past 45 years reflects not only their own changing family, but a changing island population who eats and shops much differently than it did decades ago. From its beginnings with just one truck delivering to grocery stores on Oahu, Eight Point Distributors expanded to represent many lines of foods, now with a large truck delivery fleet and 24,000 square-foot freezer facility, serving the islands of Oahu, Maui, Kauai and Hawaii Island.
Michael and Judith Sakamoto founded Eight Point Distributors to expand on Judith’s parents’ determination and hard work growing their Honolulu-based food produce store. Now run by their son Mike Sakamoto Jr., Eight Point is truly a family business. Their success and growth has always been rooted in a desire to help their customers succeed, to exceed expectations, and bring the people of Hawaii the food that feeds their families.
More with Mike
Tell us a little about your business.
When someone goes to do their grocery shopping, they might not really know how the food gets to their store. Eight Point Distributors brings the products you need to the grocery stores. We stock their shelves, we deliver their products. So when you walk into the grocery store to get your favorite ice cream, for example, that's something that we deliver to the stores.
How has your business grown over the years?
Back in the day when we first started, we had one truck to cover basically the whole island. Over time we've added newer trucks and additional trucks–and additional people. We increased our storage square footage from a small warehouse out in Iwilei up to a little larger location out on Kopaka Street. Hawaii National Bank has helped us over the years with any challenges as we grew from our first truck to where we are now.
What about Hawaii National Bank do you like the most?
I think Hawaii National Bank really understands what it takes to run a family business. From their perspective, the individual family members, they don’t have a super huge corporate structure. And they understand that from our side, we're the same in that we’re family members that are in business and making a go of it.
What surprised you about banking with Hawaii National Bank?
Our banker at Hawaii National Bank, is a very personal guy, so he understands our needs. He actually comes out and makes office calls on us for assistance, for services. So from our side, that's pretty surprising that a bank would actually come out to your office and actually do banking services with you personally.
What’s next for Eight Point Distributors?
Our company will continue to evolve. Our society, our generations are changing so much, and we think about keeping up with sustainability, lowering emissions and everything else. It's exciting because things are changing for the environment and for our island. It is very important for us to continue along those lines.
“Our company will continue to evolve. Our society, our generations are changing so much, and we think about keeping up with sustainability, lowering emissions and everything else. It's exciting.”
