Quality, Performance, Value and Service Spell Success

Globe Food Equipment
Written by Nate Hendley

Globe Food Equipment Company of Dayton, Ohio offers top-of-the line products for the commercial kitchen sector and has a strong devotion to customer-service. Boasting a brand that dates back almost a century, Globe Food Equipment designs, manufactures, and distributes a wide array of kitchen equipment. The company constantly releases new products, including an award-winning line of premium slicers introduced last year.
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“Mixing and slicing are our core product lines and then cooking, with the sub-categories of electric and gas. Then what we have are weighing systems and other food prep equipment including meat choppers and patty presses,” says Kevin Woods, vice president of sales and marketing. “Our slicers are our largest product line revenue-wise; mixers follow and then our cooking line, which is newer and our fastest growing product line.”

Globe has the widest selection of mixers and slicers on the market today and is “the number-one company in both mixer and slicer unit sales in the United States,” adds Woods. “From a nine-inch economy slicer to a thirteen-inch frozen automatic, we have a slicer for any application. The same goes for mixers, from a 5-quart countertop mixer to a 175-pound spiral dough mixer, Globe offers mixer solutions for just about any operation.”

Foodservice – as in restaurants – and food retail – as in grocery stores and delicatessens – are the main markets to which Globe sells its products. “Foodservice is broadly defined as anywhere someone would go buy food and eat it and food retail as anywhere someone would go buy food and take it away to prepare it,” says Woods. “Although that line is becoming grayer with more supermarkets providing more foodservice. Whole Foods is a great example.”

“There are tons of growth opportunities in food service and food retail,” he says. “Two of the biggest segments we focus on are pizza and sandwich… the pizza segment where they’re mixing dough on-site and the sandwich segment where they’re slicing meats and cheese on-site are two segments we focus on continually.”

Innovation is a constant theme, and the company typically introduces around four new products a year. In 2017, for example, Globe released its S-Series premium slicers.

The S-Series was inspired by feedback from customers and “was designed from the ground up for easier cleanability and ease of use. These slicers offer greater precision and consistency and slice quality and also a lower total cost of ownership,” explains Woods. “We are continuing to add options and features to our premium slicers. We just introduced a removable blade option which allows operators to easily remove the blade for more access under the knife, which speeds up the cleaning process.”

Other new products include the GG60TG 60-inch thermostatic gas griddle, the 100,000 BTU GSP18G gas stock pot range and the FS14 hand-operated flywheel slicer for cutting artisan meats such as prosciutto and charcuterie.

Globe can trace its brand to 1920 and a firm called the Globe Slicing Machine Company. This enterprise “was the company that invented and patented the first gravity-feed slicer. However, the company that we are today really started in 1991,” explains Woods.

From the early 1990s on, Globe Food Equipment increased its product line and market reach, which led to significant organic growth. The company also expanded by making some strategic acquisitions, including a mixer line in 2003 and a cooking equipment company in 2010.

In late 2017, Globe Food Equipment itself was acquired by the Middleby Corporation of Illinois. It is now “wholly owned by Middleby Corporation. They are our parent company, but we still operate fairly independently,” explains Woods.

Globe Food Equipment’s head office and main operations are located in Dayton. “We design and manufacture our products here in Dayton, but we also have some products manufactured worldwide,” he says. “Our dealer network is primarily based in North America. Middleby has a worldwide sales organization, however,” says Woods. While Globe already does some international business, company officials are working with Middleby to enhance the firm’s global presence.

Making great products is merely one aspect of what this company does. Getting these products to customers and then keeping those customers satisfied are equally vital. “We invest heavily in finished goods and parts inventory so we can provide our products and service parts quickly to not only our dealer partners but to end-users. Over ninety-six percent of all orders ship within twenty-four hours,” states Woods.

At present, the firm has sixty-five employees, roughly the same number as last year at this time. Globe Food Equipment likes to bring in new hires who understand and appreciate the company’s vision and core beliefs. Safety protocols and training procedures are carefully adhered to in manufacturing operations, with workers required to wear steel-toed shoes and safety glasses.

“Our mission is to be a highly-respected company in the commercial food equipment industry by providing quality products and services to our end-users. Our core beliefs are we exist for our customers, support teamwork and value our employees. Teamwork is the key to success. [We want employees] who will be engaged and will value others on their team as well,” he says.

Globe stands out from its peers through attributes such as “quality, performance, value, and service,” he continues. “With quality, it’s about offering best-in-class products… [in terms of performance], we outperform our competition every day. The fastest growing pizza chains in the U.S. are using Globe mixers over our competition because we have a gear-driven transmission that can really produce torque under a heavy dough load.”

As for value, the company’s products boast “a lower total cost of ownership. That includes acquisition price but also total lifecycle costs and lower parts pricing. We have a longer warranty than our competition. Our premium slicers have a two-year parts and labor warranty; our mixers and Globe branded gas cooking have a two-year parts and labor warranty,” he continues. Globe’s longer warranties “speaks to the quality of the products,” adds Woods.

Earlier this year, the Manufacturers Agents Association for the Foodservice Industry (MAFSI) held its 2018 awards event to honor “individuals who have performed in an exemplary fashion and serve as recognition to ensure the future success and professionalism of the association, and the industry,” as a MAFSI press release put it. Among the award recipients was Ryan Feasel, a regional sales manager at Globe Food Equipment.

Service-wise, the company makes a big effort to offer comprehensive customer support and a vast inventory of spare parts. “We sell parts through our authorized service agents, dealer networks and parts distributors,” he explains. The company does not sell directly to consumers but has several distribution sites that supply its dealer network. Globe also offers “internal technical support from eight in the morning until eight PM Eastern time, seven days a week, for our customers,” he continues.

Globe’s website also provides detailed information about products, parts and ordering, as well as a video gallery showing clips of Globe products in action and a document library containing part catalogues, owner’s manuals, and wiring diagrams.Globe also takes full advantage of social media. “We have a Facebook account and we’re active on Twitter and LinkedIn. We have a Globe Food Equipment channel on YouTube, were we post product spotlight or instructional videos. We use social media to keep the brand out there. Facebook and Twitter allow us to have conversations with our product users.” He notes that a restaurateur from Florida recently took the time to post a photograph of a new Globe mixer his business had purchased on Globe Food Equipment’s Facebook page.

The company routinely takes part in industry trade shows, including events such as the National Restaurant Association Show, the School Nutrition Association and the International Pizza Expo.

The company is quite involved on the charitable front. “We’re pretty proud of the work we’re doing locally to support The Ronald McDonald House in Dayton. We have an outreach committee that is very active. We do a lot of activity internally and out in the community to support Ronald McDonald House. We’ve also done other things. We raised money to buy Kevlar vests for two police dogs at Dayton International Airport,” he states.

Asked to name the biggest challenge facing Globe, Woods cites several issues. “Number one: we are growing, and with that, you have growing pains, such as hiring good employees or bringing new products to market. In addition to our mission of being a highly respected food service equipment manufacturer, we want to be a leader in food prep. We see a lot of growth that can come in the food prep category, but we also know there is growth outside of food prep. Introducing new products and supporting that growth is a challenge,” says Woods.

It is a safe prediction, however, that Globe Food Equipment Company will easily meet these challenges and continue its growth into the future while continuing to introduce industry-leading products for commercial kitchens and providing award winning customer service.

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