FEDA News & Views

58 FEDA News & Views cutting out the need to outsource work to outside suppliers. That has allowed it to serve a variety of industries over the years. New Age Industrial has manufactured lad- ders for recreational vehicles, hog confinement crates, horse stalls, grill guards, and sun shades for trucks. A one-time sale of hog equipment to China is what pushed the company into the food handling equipment market, which now makes up the majority of its sales. It's capabilities to do everything in-house effectively enables the manufacturer to offer custom-made equipment at a competitive cost. "To make a Rolls Royce at Chevrolet pricing is our goal," Sharp says. The ability to control the entire manufacturing process and offer custom products has positioned New Age to serve the foodservice market well. Restaurants are always looking for equipment that can fit their specific layout or kitchen needs. Chains, in particular, want to work with manufacturing partners that can provide the same custom- made product to future locations as their growth scales up. "Most chains or foodservice establishments have their own unique needs," Sharp says. New Age can fill that role and it regularly churns out new prod- ucts and designs at its customers' request. After 52 years in business, the company has amassed more than 15,000 model numbers—mostly unique products made for an indi- vidual customer. Those items range from fences for theft reduction to heavy duty pan racks. "We average over 300 new items per year and it's because of the extrusion press," Sharp says. "We find that with customers now, one size doesn't fit all." Today's smaller kitchens have customers searching items that are multifunctional, capable of serving different roles and fitting in com- pact spaces. For example, it's no longer good enough for a rack to be devoted to a single-size pizza pan, it must now be designed to hold pans of all sizes and depths. In some cases, pan racks aren't even just pan racks anymore. In the spirit of flexibility, New Age developed a rack that can double as a food prep table. "[Customers] are trying to consolidate two items into one for space," Sharp notes. Every piece of equipment it designs for its foodservice cus- tomers must conform to the trend to maximize kitchen footprints. Multifunctional equipment is one way to make that happen, but the other is to make use of every square inch available. To do so, New Age has come up with shelving and racks that allow foodservice opera- tors to move equipment and sup- plies off the floor and onto cantilever shelving or wall-mounted racks. The flexibility of New Age Industrial's solutions is a major draw for restaurant operators and other commercial businesses and institutions. Grocery stores with lim- ited stock space, for example, can benefit from foldable U-boat carts while other operations, like schools, need help shifting between different kinds of service. That's a common occurrence in school cafeterias, many of which offer breakfast before classes begin and then must set up for lunch around noontime. Other schools serve breakfast in the class- room and need something easy they can roll around the hallways. To help with breakfast service, New Age designed a school ser- vice cart that can be customized to individual meal programs. The carts can be filled with apples, concessions, and sandwiches, and equipped with a retractable railing for a student card payment system. Some are even reconfigured for use in lunch grab-and-go programs. The flexibility of the carts has made them a big hit with school systems trying to manage meal service for growing student populations. "Every school district has their own version of it, which is good for us because [cus- tom is] our whole deal," Sharp says. How New Age Industrial approaches customization will change in the coming years as more digital technologies enter the kitchen. Although the company does not manufacture anything electronic, its equipment interacts with components such as walk-in freezers, healthcare meal delivery, and distribution center pickers that are becoming more digital and auto- matic. Sharp believes the company must become more high tech to keep pace and deliver the efficiency users expect. "We have to figure out what our place will be in that pro- cess," he says. "As things get auto- mated in the kitchen, how will we best integrate the technology into storage and transportation?" ■ BECAUSE NEW AGE INDUSTRIAL CONTROLS THE ENTIRE MANUFACTURING PROCESS, ITS BUN PAN RACKS AND OTHER PRODUCTS CAN BE CUSTOMIZED TO FIT AN INDIVIDUAL CUSTOMER'S REQUIREMENTS AND SPECIFIC APPLICATION IN THE KITCHEN.

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