ATL targets expanding fast-food sector with topline brand

Fresh off organisational changes and realignment, Appliance Traders Limited, ATL, through its commercial division is targeting the burgeoning quick service restaurant or QSR market with a Caribbean-wide exclusive dealership for top line brand, Henny Penny.

Commercial Director at ATL, Byran Stephens, says the deal, which has been one year in the making, was formalised earlier this year after Henny Penny representatives, on a visit to Jamaica, when, by chance, ATL came across their radar, according to Stephens.

“They were in a taxi on the way to their hotel and they asked the driver ‘Who is the best company to deal with for commercial type food equipment?’, and the driver immediately said ATL,” said Bryan.

“They called us and the relationship was immediate. We started talking and it has led to this,” Stephens said at a gathering of specially invited QSR industry representatives for a demonstration of Henny Penny equipment.

Headquartered in Ohio, United States, Henny Penny is a 67-year-old company that carries a premium line of commercial cooking equipment including automatic open fryers, pressure fryers and food warmers. It has partnerships with the likes of KFC, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Chick-fil-A in the US market, said Jorge Luis Pinedo, vice-president of Henny Penny’s sales and service agents, Kitcherama Equipment Inc.

Pinedo told the Financial Gleaner that as a representative for Henny Penny, he was often left stumped by questions from persons who had purchased equipment outside regular channels, especially when they had purchased used equipment.

“They’d call me with the serial number and ask for advice or parts and I’d have to tell them ‘Send me a picture’ or otherwise say ‘Sorry, I’m not in Jamaica’,” Pinedo said.

He said Kitcherama had been looking around for a suitable representative for a long time to service a growing market that has legacy customers that he did not name, citing the nature of the exclusive agreement with ATL.

The Henny Penny brand operates at the upper end of the premium commercial food preparation equipment market. The equipment is differentiated by features such as automatic cleaning and oil filtration that can be done in minutes rather than the two to three hours it takes to cool down and clean a deep fryer. Other features such as computerised operation left the QSR industry gathering visibly in awe as they stepped in for a closer look. Stephen says the agreement with Henny Penny is in line with the ATL philosophy of starting out by offering premium products and moving up from there.

“As we do elsewhere, we start out with premium equipment like we’d do with, say, a BMW; then we offer a Henny Penny, which is like offering a Rolls Royce,” Stephens said.

ATL is known to operate at the premium end of the home appliances and commercial equipment market. It sells and services equipment from the likes of Vulcan, Aquatemp, exclusive models of Frigidaire, Whirlpool, LG and Samsung, and is exclusive dealers for kitchen equipment from Cuisinart and Kitchen Aid.

Stephens says ATL Commercial went through a process of reorganisation and realignment about 18 months ago, a process that involved “putting people in the right places and right sizing the divisions, bringing on new products and cutting where necessary,” Stephens said.

The cuts led to a formal end to the relationship with telecoms giant, Apple. Up until April, ATL was the service agent for Apple devices in Jamaica. Stephens says the relationship was terminated by mutual agreement, while noting that the selling or servicing of telecoms equipment was not in line with the core business of Appliance Traders.

At the same time, ATL expanded its staff by adding specialists in marketing and increasing the team in sales.

As to the Henny Penny deal, Stephens said ATL is the exclusive reseller and service agent for Henny Penny in the Caribbean. The company does not have branches in other Caribbean islands, but Stephens said ATL would be leveraging its relationship with sister company, Sandals Resorts International, to supply and service equipment in those islands.

Sandals operates properties in Jamaica and various Caribbean markets.

Regarding the Jamaican market, Stephen said companies such as Mothers, Tastee, KFC, Quick Chick and Bird Shack are projected to grow their outlets, which should result in a 10-15 per cent increase in business for ATL.

“We’re seeing rapid expansion, and we know of other players entering the market but can’t say who. What we want to do is to cover the market completely for fryers at all levels of sophistication,” Stephens said.

neville.graham@gleanerjm.com