Whistle While Who Works?

Labor was another huge problem this past year, contributing to shortages of truck drivers, restaurant and hospitality staff, and even equipment dealer employees. “No one goes to school for this,” Farrington says, “so getting qualified people is difficult. Fortunately, we’ve been able to retain and train people.” She attributes the company’s success at retaining staff to an open-door/open-dialogue policy and treating people fairly. That applies to suppliers as well as staff.

“The workforce is by far our biggest challenge looking ahead,” Guerin says. “We’ve had to work smarter and harder. We’ve expanded our employment opportunities to include part-time positions, which has been helpful in meeting our customers’ needs.”

Helping customers solve problems caused by the scarcity of labor has been a bright spot for dealers. “Able-bodied workers choosing not to work has shaken the foodservice industry to the core,” Guerin says. “As restaurants and institutions struggle to find staff, equipment innovations and time-saving kitchen tools have become vital aspects of our service to our customers.”

“We are a very customer-centered business with a unique focus on chain business,” Farrington says, “so we go above and beyond to learn what they need. Right now, that’s more innovative equipment and equipment with more capacity in the same footprint, both of which offer labor savings.”

“We spent this past summer in the test kitchen of our new location showing customers how they can save labor with equipment, from combi ovens to food processors,” says Wartan. “You can see it in their eyes when a solution clicks for them. We spent two years trying to talk a chain customer into buying a food processor for slicing tomatoes. When he saw for himself how much labor it would save, he jokingly asked us why we didn’t tell him sooner.”

What the Future Holds

As for what the coming year has in store… “We don’t know what will happen,” Farrington says. “We usually base projections on numbers from the prior year, but we haven’t been able to do that since before 2020. We don’t know what manufacturers will have in stock, and industry forecasts aren’t helpful, so we just listen to what our customers say.”

If anything, dealers are prepared to provide even more service to customers, not less. Gator Chef has been making changes recently to aid in just that – they moved to a larger location on a busier street for more cash-and-carry sales; they are redesigning their website to be more useful and easier to navigate; they are adding a design department; and they are considering offering storage to customers whose jobs have been delayed.

Five Kids Group has automated its customer portal to keep them instantly up-to-date on where orders are and has added a new three-person service department primarily to handle equipment startups on new installations, with expectations that it will grow.

R.M. Flagg plans to use its expertise and consultation skills to help its customers become more successful, a goal that’s possible, in part, because of the company’s partnership with Excell, according to Guerin. “Our relationship with Excell has helped us adapt to the changes in the foodservice equipment industry through conference speakers and networking opportunities. The personal relationships we have developed with the Excell vendors have truly changed our interactions with these suppliers.”

“Excell wants to see us grow,” Wartan says. “The more we can grow, the more they can add in terms of vendors and programs. We help each other. We’re excited about the new leadership team with some very bright people they recently put in place, and we look forward to new programs we expect they’ll offer.”

Farrington also is looking forward to more collaboration with Excell in the new year, but more than anything, she’s “looking forward to some sort of consistency, even if it’s a ‘new normal.’ We’ve been on a roller coaster, and we’d like it to smooth out.”