When John Welch Turned Up The Heat For The Restaurant Industry

It was cold. Zero degrees outside and under national fuel shortage hungover from World War I, Jack Welch and dozens of other restaurateurs met in the unheated ballroom of Coates House in Kansas City, MO on December 1^st, 1919-wearing their overcoats.

That day is now known as “Heatless Monday”.

The National Restaurant Association…A Cast Of Characters

In attendance at that first meeting of The National Restaurant Association is a cast of characters; restaurant operators and hospitality entrepreneurs. These gentlemen, and one woman, looked at the days challenges and its opportunity and proceeded to set the foundation that transformed the hospitality industry into what it is today.

To put this into some perspective, they were on the heels of World War I with food and energy shortages still effecting the lives of everyone. And just a few months before this our government passed a law which C.A. Patterson, called “One of the strangest pieces of of legislation in American History”.  The August 1919 Volstead Act ended the legitimate sale of alcohol in the United States- the “Prohibition” had started.

The Restaurant Industry Outlasts Many A Tough Time

Talk about tough economic times? These restaurateurs were used to making 80-90% of their profits on the sale of alcohol.  This could have spelled doom to the industry. Any restaurant operator who had the desire to stick it out knew that survival would depend on working together and sharing their knowledge and experience.

And that is what they did.

Many of these operators had success working together as a regional group, the Kansas City Restaurant Association.

One of their successes included avoiding a strike from their workers. With this experience they saw the power they had when working together. They were now ready to create a National Restaurant Association to meet the even bigger challenges of the day.

This year, 94 years later, The National Restaurant Association comes to Chicago.  Crazy spring weather here aside, it will be much warmer than that first fate filled meeting of the National Restaurant Association back in 1919.

Welcome Back To Chicago Foodservice Suppliers

We welcome you all back to Chicago and hope to see you around the show. I will be around most of Saturday and I have some cool things to show you.  For instance, the Internet didn’t exist back in 1919 and it certainly isn’t even the media vehicle we knew even 5 years ago.  It has vastly grown and we’re bringing some timely reports regarding the online advertising data we now track. It’s pretty amazing. If you want to take a quickly look let me know, I’ll make sure to stop by or we can plan to meet up at a special time.

Got any historical antidotes or hot info about National Restaurant Association today? Write A Comment here.  

Hoshizaki is #1 in Magazine Ads Among Ice Makers/Dispensers Manufacturers

With a 28% Share Of Voice,16 ad pages in 10 foodservice magazines during the first 3 quarters 2012, Hoshizaki was only slightly ahead of the other 3 players in this category; Follet, Manitowoc, & Scotsman.

But that’s not the whole story because in the fourth quarter the sale of Scotsman Industries to Ali Group was finalized.

The Ali Group is a multi-line foodservice equipment manufacturer with almost 7,000 employees in 24 countries around the world.

Scotsman Industries has 800 employees, 10 major sales offices and 1000 plus distributors around the world.

By adding Scotsman to their portfolio, Ali get’s even bigger.

“Scotsman is the largest Commercial Ice Machine company in the world,”  according to Scotsman’s own website,

What’s interesting though is that even with the bold statement, “Largest”, Scotsman had the least amount print ads of the big Ice Machine companies.

Scotsman only had 13 ad pages through the first 3 quarters in foodservice magazines.

Perhaps this is a result of the structuring going on in preparation for the sale.

In the report we saw these four major players very close in their Share Of Voice positions in print advertising.

It’s not unusual for a company in ownership change to experience a smaller share of voice.

In fact Scotsman has had a few owners over the past few years.  As you probably know Scotsman was most recently owned by Warburg Pincus, a private equity firm who purchased Scotsman from Manitowoc in 2009.

But its now 2013.  Scotsman has new owners again.  A serious foodservice company in fact.

What will their ad schedule look like next year?  Will the marketing landscape continue to change in the foodservice market?

It’s a different ball game in Foodservice advertising today.

So different in fact that even though Scotsman was at the bottom in the print share of voice they were on top in the digital media we track.  

In the Foodservice Market we observed Scotsman with 63 ads in this digital media.  That’s more than twice that of Ice-O-Matic who we observed in only 30 digital ads.  The next company down was Manitowoc with 19 ads then Follet with 12.

We found Scotsman in 63 ad observations in with a 51% Share of Voice overall in digital advertising.

Did you notice something missing here?  

Hoshizaki was missing altogether in digital advertising during the first 3 quarters of 2012.

Will Hoshizaki show up online this year? Will they maintain their print advertising leadership in this market?

Who can say? With all the changes in media, the economy, the companies, and the markets, what will this advertising picture look as the economy pulls out of its crazy slump.

According to an executive study available at ReportLink.com, the commercial refrigeration market will see a 4.4% growth per year through 2016. Of course China and India are sighted to be the fastest growing markets but US will remain the largest, accounting for about 25% of the sales growth.

“Gains will result from an improved macroeconomic outlook, as rising consumer spending encourages food industry participants to expand the number of retail outlets and restaurants.”

That is according to ReportLink.com’s World Commercial Refrigeration Equipment Market Report summary.

No doubt the next few years are going to be interesting in advertising and media usage of our foodservice advertisers.  If tracking this activity matters to you, stick around here-we’ll be watching and sharing what we find.  

If you are interested in seeing the details of this advertising activity, you may be interested in getting this 3 Media Competitive Ad Tracking Report for Foodservice for your category, Click on that link and you’ll see a detailed description.

Have any insight to what the advertising media mix looks like next year? Leave a comment.