There is no doubt that the pandemic years impacted commercial foodservice, but meals prepared away from home and dining out remains ingrained in our society. The foodservice industry is one of the largest industries in the country. Fortunately, the industry is well on its way to recovery but there are lingering challenges. Most of the time the solutions are found in focusing on the fundamentals of ease of doing business and lowering costs. One company is endeavoring to provide those solutions.

Major challenges currently facing foodservice operators are labor, food costs, rising fuel and energy, and the availability of supplies, equipment, and replacement parts. Given these challenges, “Equipment Uptime” is a most critical initiative for both existing and new equipment technologies.

Certainly, the industry must evolve with all recent and leading trends at a more rapid pace than it has historically. There has been an advent of multi-concept kitchens, increased mobile delivery, and expanded drive-thru concepts. Operators have had to accept increased costs including those induced by the basic economic laws of supply and demand when demand exceeds supply.

Added costs, perhaps notably but hardly not limited to (overnight) freight, have become the norm for operators, albeit difficult to pass those costs on to customers given the economic uncertainty. Both operators and vendors work to mitigate the impact of these rising costs with new technologies and systems. We are fortunate to have an abundance of great equipment manufacturers and service providers supporting excellent foodservice operators during challenging times.

As manufacturers continue to recover from supply chain woes there is pressure on current in place equipment as operators make do with what is in their kitchens. Parts availability for new equipment production has been problematic which tightens the availability for replacement parts for service companies to maintain existing equipment. Even as new equipment is being introduced to perform multiple functions and lessen the dependency on labor, parts availability and service will always be critical.

We are now seeing robotics enter the kitchens, automated salad dispensers, induction burners, speed ovens and advanced combi ovens. On the cold side new refrigerants are being placed into the market to support the environment and efficiency.  For service companies, no matter if there is existing equipment or new technologies the measure of success remains, same day and first-time fix rates.

The Marcone Commercial Kitchen Group, a division of the leading appliance parts distributor entered the commercial foodservice equipment space recently with a team of industry professionals charting its’ strategy of “Pairing Local Market Density with a National Presence” providing OEM parts to service providers with local inventories and flat rate shipping costs nationally.

Marcone has 14 regional distribution facilities and 160 branch locations servicing over 93% of the country with next day ground delivery rates. In addition, service providers can pick up parts the same day with no freight charges. Parts orders entered by 5:00 PM in multiple time zones are shipped that day or available for pick up within hours.

As times change some fundamentals remain the same. Marcone’s mission is to “Optimize Equipment Uptime” in local markets through OEM parts availability while minimizing freight costs making doing business efficient and easy at the lowest possible costs.