Electrolux March 2017 Newsletter

In March, Electrolux announced that it had acquired Grindmaster-Cecilware, a leading U.S. based manufacturer of hot, cold and frozen beverage dispensing equipment, including coffee machines. The acquisition broadens Electrolux offering in its food service business and will accelerate the growth of the Professional products business area.

Grindmaster-Cecilware had net sales in excess of USD 65 million in 2016 and approximately 200 employees. The cash consideration in the transaction is USD 108 million. The company is based in Louisville, Kentucky and has manufacturing facilities in Louisville and in Rayong, Thailand. Grindmaster-Cecilware sells products under the market leading brands Grindmaster, Cecilware, Crathco, and American Metal Ware.

“We are very pleased to complement our portfolio with such an attractive range of beverage products, as the combination better meets customer needs, especially among food service chains. This move will also reinforce our presence in North America, one of the largest global markets for professional appliances,” said Alberto Zanata, Head of Electrolux business area Professional Products.

Grindmaster-Cecilware, majority owned by BNY Mezzanine Partners L.P., was created in 2009 through the combination of Grindmaster Corporation and Cecilware Corporation, two companies with a more than 100-year heritage.

Click here to learn more about Grindmaster-Cecilware.

Electrolux Professional has announced the renewal of its partnership with Worldchefs, extending the number of countries that will benefit from a global program of activity throughout 2017.

The “Art & Science Come Together” partnership aims to combine the culinary creativity of professional chefs with the specialized knowledge and technology within the leading manufacturer’s commercial cooking solutions – helping kitchens across the globe to develop more streamlined and sustainable cooking processes.

As part of the agreement, Electrolux Professional will be holding a series of chef2chef seminars at its worldwide Centers of Excellence in the UAE-Dubai, Turkey, Sweden, Singapore, the US, South Africa and Japan. Focused around the manufacturer’s unique cook & chill solution, these seminars will demonstrate how chefs can use the integrated system to reduce waste, ensure food safety and optimize working processes to reduce stress within the kitchen environment.

This follows Electrolux Professional’s most recent Taste the Stress campaign, a thought-provoking piece of research suggesting that whilst stress in a professional kitchen is a norm, customers are increasingly willing to buy from a partner that is committed to ecological, economical and social sustainability to make their work-lives easier and more profitable. A social experiment conducted by Electrolux Professional demonstrated that great food can be created through a leaner, healthier and more sustainable and more profitable work-life in the kitchen, with new technologies able to help streamline kitchen processes, reduce stress, and create more sustainable environments and businesses.

In addition to its chef2chef expert seminars, Electrolux Professional will also be holding a program of local collaborations and networking sessions throughout China, Australia, Belgium and the Balkans – with a view to further widening the partnership’s activity in 2018.

Thomas Gugler, newly-elected President of Worldchefs, commented: “We are very pleased to continue and build on this partnership between Electrolux Professional and Worldchefs, which has helped us to share and expand culinary technology knowledge to our Worldchefs members. The positive feedback from all sides has been very encouraging, and continuing this partnership will further create a win-win situation.”

Alberto Zanata, President of Electrolux Professional added: “We all know that a certain amount of stress is part of working in a professional kitchen, but manufacturers are working all the time to take as much strain as they can away from chefs. Our partnership with Worldchefs gives us the perfect platform to do just that – showing how chefs can marry their creativity with leading technology to make their lives easier and more profitable through leaner, more efficient kitchen processes.”

The new Apple headquarters complex in Cupertino, CA nicknamed the “spaceship” is finalizing its construction. Inside, the large commercial kitchen for the estimated 13,000 Apple workers just recently finished its install of Electrolux Professional foodservice equipment. Installed equipment includes 3 air-o-steam Touchline full size 20 pan combi ovens, 3 thermaline tilting kettles, 2 thermaline fryers, a thermaline cantilever island suite with 8 open gas burner ranges on one side and 2 eco tops and side by side charbroilers on the opposite side. In addition, 2 LVA vegetable washer/dryers were also put in the kitchen design.

Electrolux Professional Executive Chef Corey Siegel travelled to Apple to provide the certified chef training to the Apple culinary staff. Siegel commented, “This was a very exciting install to be able to provide solutions to such a high profile customer like Apple.”

The 9th Annual Chef to Chef Conference was held March 5-7 at the Loews Atlanta Hotel. More than 200 chefs were in attendance for the multi-day conference and breakout sessions. Electrolux Professional Executive Chef Corey Siegel and Director of Sales Mark Ortiz presented the cook & chill solutions during the breakout sessions on Monday, March 6th and Tuesday, March 7th.

Director of Marketing, Angelo Grillas, and Corey Siegel presented Electrolux Professional’s education seminar on Sunday March 5th, pre-conference to 20 chefs about “High Speed Cooking Solutions”. This included Electrolux commercial food service solutions ranging from using combi oven technology, pressure cooking and the new SpeeDelight which is able to quickly produce hot and crisp sandwiches, pizzas, wraps and more.

SEFA, Supply & Equipment Foodservice Alliance, LLC, is a nationwide network of leading supply and equipment dealers and manufacturers. Electrolux Professional is a member of SEFA. Richard Bocian, Regional Category Manager for Food Preparation Equipment, and Mark Ortiz, Director of Sales, attended the SEFA National Sales Conference held in St. Louis, MO on March 8-11.

Bocian and Ortiz showcased Electrolux Professional dynamic food prep equipment to the dealers including the TRK combination vegetable cutter and food processor, Bermixer Pro immersion blender and new VP2 Greens Machine vegetable dryer.

Electrolux Professional Country Manager for Canada, Pedro Martins, and Director of Sales for USA, Mark Ortiz, attended the ESI Sell-A-Rama event on February 19-22 at The Westin Kierland Resort & Spa in Scottsdale, AZ. ESI Sell-A-Rama is the most influential buying show in the Canadian Foodservice Equipment Industry. This event focuses on Canadian food equipment dealers and introduces them to manufacturers and their latest products. The beautiful southwestern resort provided a warm retreat from the colder Canadian weather. 50 dealers attended the event allowing a rotation of focused one-on-one meetings with manufacturers.

Martins and Ortiz reintroduced the Canadian dealers to the Electrolux Professional brand as a complete food equipment provider able to completely outfit commercial kitchens. Successes in the USA were discussed to translate into future successes in Canada. The complete food equipment product line was showcased and special attention was given to the new SpeeDelight that is able to quickly and easily deliver hot and crisp sandwiches, pizzas, wraps and more.

Click here to learn more about SpeeDelight.

Portion out the balls into about 10 pieces and begin to roll them out into rounds.

Place the griddle tray on the flat side in the air-o-convect combi oven while it preheats to 530°F.

Add the rolled out dough to the tray in the air-o-convect combi oven with 30% humidity and cook for 4 minutes.

Did you know?
Electrolux air-o-chill blast chillers provide the ability to safely and rapidly chill and store food at controlled temperatures within HACCP guidelines.

Did you know?
The Electrolux Chef Academy will assist any customer in successfully implementing an Electrolux Cook & Chill system into their operation’s processes.

Did you know?
Implementing a Cook & Chill process as part of your operation can add quality back into your food product, maintain yield thus increasing your profitability and keep nutritional value inside the food product thus making it taste better and look better.

Did you know?
Chewing gum while cutting onions will help prevent you from crying.