While information security may not be the first area that comes to mind when thinking about food safety, failing to prioritize it can cause devastating harm to a company’s image and bottom line.

Business and industry foodservice operators all have different journeys, priorities, and return-to-office strategies. What is universal: Foodservice as an amenity has a major role to play in every organization.

How automated equipment supports employees and ensures consistency amid the labor shortage.

Adding 15 companies to the Tech24 family in the past two years meant weaving multiple different corporate cultures into one corporate blanket. We realize Tech24 is not alone in this endeavor. The pace of consolidation continues in many of the segments of our industry, from the service side to rep groups to dealers to factories to operators.

When COVID-19 unexpectedly walloped the restaurant industry, operators got a crash course in resiliency. They amped up their technology investments and retooled their business models to maintain their strength — or at least keep the lights on.

Mentor: noun; an experienced and trusted adviser.

My dad worked in the warehouse for the University of Albany and once in a while on weekends, he would take me to the kitchens to drop things off. One day, I walked into the kitchen where one of the cooks was making spaghetti sauce in a 100-gallon kettle. He was throwing in herbs by the handful and immediately I knew I wanted a career in the foodservice industry.

Think of your last five trips through airports. It is likely none of those travel experiences were the same.

Supply chain issues continue to impact every product category; tabletop is no exception.

The foodservice industry has faced many major challenges over the past couple of years. Despite all the struggles, the industry has shown admirable perseverance and we think it’s time to start focusing on opportunities. This one has been hiding in plain sight: It’s time to embrace diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

Restaurant operators now face more challenges than their predecessors.

Hospitality teams in business and industry foodservice remain in a fluid state right now waiting for specific direction from the companies they serve.

When I was in high school, I remember President Bill Clinton saying every American deserves a college degree and to own a home.

Labor is an issue that continues to confound the foodservice industry. Nobody has enough and few know where to go to source new talent. One way to rectify this situation is to change the way you think about attracting employees, specifically entry-level positions. That’s what we have done with our company, and the rewards have been amazing. Allow me to explain.

The past two years have tested the foodservice industry in ways that were previously unimaginable.

I began my career as a professional investor studying hundreds of businesses in many different industries. My biggest takeaway from this experience was that all great companies had at least one thing in common: They were aggressive adopters of technology. Their counterparts — the companies that ignored technology — suffered the consequences regardless of their leadership position.

I had the honor of serving our country for more than 32 years, including 4 years in active duty as a Marine and 28 years in the reserves as a Navy Seabee. During that time, I served multiple tours of duty, including my last one at Camp Fallujah in Iraq, back in 2008, where I turned 50 years old. My military experience definitely developed me into who I am today. It’s been the driving force for my life. It showed me who I was from the inside out. And that experience continues to profoundly influence my role as a foodservice designer and business owner.

Ghost kitchens — foodservice operations that prepare orders for off-premises dining only — and virtual brands were among the few foodservice business models that proved resilient to the pandemic’s negative economic effects.

Like every other business, each facet of ours (healthcare foodservice) underwent radical changes with updated policies and practices as the pandemic stretched across the globe. It would be commonplace for one day’s updated policy to negate everything we put in place the day previous. The next day would also require recalculating and updating, feeding into a practice we called the pandemic pivot.

Energy efficiency and sustainability issues continue to make fast inroads into foodservice. Right now, for many operators, reducing energy consumption and decarbonizing their kitchens is a choice. But that may not be the case for long.

When consumers return to restaurants, they want feelings of comfort, well-being, security and optimism. Eating around a properly curated table and dining room can play a big part in conveying that sense of optimism and security.

As the United States turns the corner on the COVID-19 pandemic and restaurant owners determine their reopening plans or reassess long-term operating strategies, this could be an opportune time to consider other business goals, including reducing operating costs through energy efficiency. Making energy choices that count is good for a restaurant’s bottom line and the climate.

Retiring from TriMark in February of this year has given me the chance to reflect on the industry and my career.

We always say that the commercial foodservice equipment and supplies industry is low-tech/high-touch in terms of how we like to do business. It feels empty when we can’t get together and network as a community. I hope this is a very temporary situation.

In the wake of a year that is commonly — but perhaps understatedly — referred to as “unprecedented,” dining operations of every kind should reevaluate how they’re serving and whether “business as formerly usual” will continue to make sense. Simply put, foodservice operators no longer have the luxury of not thinking about and planning for the unexpected.

Companies don’t become cohesive by accident. Though, in the case of Kittredge Equipment Company, it’s really in our DNA.

Throughout my life, I have always been close to my father. As a kid, if he was building shelves in the basement, I was with him. My father was the best man in my wedding more than 27 years ago. Based on this relationship, when the chance came to join the manufacturers’ representative firm that he and his partner Jack Kappus founded — SESCO — I jumped at it.

The foodservice equipment industry has done a good job of adding technology to specific pieces of equipment. But the industry has not done as good a job of using technology to improve business operations.

There’s no denying that the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted nearly every facet of foodservice. Trends like delivery and ghost kitchens, which were already on the rise, accelerated in response to dining room closures across the country.

This is an era of market consolidation, where small companies can increase their size and value with the goal of being acquired by a larger entity — and large companies can increase sales by branching out into more categories.