The Catering Insight Awards Supplier of the Year – Service & Support category honours those companies which are investing seriously to support their partners.
From after-sales and warranty support to demonstration kitchens and sales programmes, it recognises the steps that manufacturers are taking to assist distributors.
We are delighted to announce that the 2025 shortlist includes the following companies:
Foster Refrigerator
Foster Refrigerator has provided comprehensive support for its distributor network, offering targeted training, marketing tools, and enhanced after-sales service to ensure dealers can confidently recommend its products and deliver real value to customers. New product lines have been added to its free next-day delivery service, making it possible for dealers to facilitate urgent replacement orders. Active engagement with both customers and non-customers about the challenges facing high-demand catering environments has directly informed Foster’s designs. In the past 12 months, its G3 range has been further refined from a design and technology perspective so that products such as its EP700H cabinet cost less than 20p per day to run.
Maidaid Halcyon
Recognising the ever-evolving needs of service engineers, Maidaid launched a cutting-edge Technical Support Portal featuring a redesigned Engineers Service Guide. Packed with interactive menus and essential support tools featuring a huge breadth of information, the initiative ensures engineers have access to the latest support tools and resources, empowering them to resolve issues efficiently in the field. The portal also includes parts books, operator videos, links to order parts and technical support contact information. Maidaid’s Engineer Appreciation Training, which comprises a mix of classroom training and practical hands-on demonstrations of machine maintenance, has had a record year, with engineers from 80 companies attending.
Merrychef
The Welbilt TotalCare programme is now supported by 30 service vehicles stocked with Merrychef parts, ensuring that dealers recommending its high-speed ovens can promise customers a quick and efficient response nationwide if needed. For dealers with their own engineers and service teams, Merrychef has launched a range of first time fix kits. These kits are designed to streamline repairs and enhance service efficiency by addressing more than 80% of common oven faults across its models. Its compact design allows technicians to efficiently transport and deploy the kit from any vehicle or location. Focusing on critical components has helped to streamline inventory and ensure faster resolutions to product repairs.
Parts Town
Parts Town has launched a string of new digital innovations to enhance the online customer experience including updates to its existing live chat service on its website, a new WhatsApp customer experience channel for instant replies around parts identification, technical manuals and lead times, and an online Parts ID enquiry form built for quicker and more direct responses around parts identification. Fast and effective delivery of spare parts with same-day shipping on all in-stock orders placed before 7pm, which it cites as the latest in the industry. Parts Town’s Cannock HQ has supported the industry by hosting numerous OEM and customer events this year, including a range of training demos, sector-specific days and charity events.
Rational
Rational has significantly enhanced its service and support offering, focusing on enhancing responsiveness, digital capabilities, and partner enablement. The service team has expanded with the appointment of a national service director and three new staff members, while the department’s service hours have been extended to provide support during critical operating hours. It has launched live online tutorials for Rational Service Partners focusing on administrative processes and system navigation, which is designed to build confidence and competence. Rational’s dealer training programme was remodelled to be more concise and impactful, incorporating partner feedback. A key enhancement was hands-on cooking sessions, giving participants practical experience and deeper product understanding. Additionally, it launched a two-day iHexagon training class to strengthen technical proficiency.
Voting for this year’s Catering Insight Awards will open later this month with senior executives receiving a personal email invitation to cast their votes.
The winner will be announced at the 2025 Catering Insight Awards, in association with headline partner Rational, which takes place on Thursday 4 December at the Park Plaza London Riverbank.
To secure tickets to the event email mark.harris@itp.com or click HERE.
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FINALISTS IN THE OTHER SUPPLIER CATEGORIES
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FINALISTS IN THE DISTRIBUTOR CATEGORIES
