Dealers and their employees with questions or concerns about how the Affordable Care Act will affect them and their businesses should head to the Health Care Knowledge Center at this month’s 2013 National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show. Booth #6520 will be staffed by independent, restaurant-focused healthcare consultants and employee-benefit experts who can meet one-on-one…

Some notable appointments were announced this week at TriMark USA, the industry’s largest E&S distributor. Mark Fishman has been promoted to the newly created position of executive v.p.-TriMark USA. Fishman will oversee corporate marketing and IT, as well as spearhead efforts to leverage synergies between TriMark divisions. He’s spent 33 years at Cleveland-based TriMark SS…

It’s been quite a century for Boston Showcase: 100 years of doing business under four generations of one family. The founding family and their employees plan to celebrate the company’s first 100 years next month. In 1913, Russian emigrant Max Starr opened Boston Showcase Co., a small woodworking shop in Roxbury, Mass. During the 1940s,…

Blodgett has named Tim Thaler as its new v.p.-sales and marketing. The 27-year company veteran, most recently director of sales and national accounts, will oversee all sales, marketing and training programs for the Burlington, Vt., company. Blodgett is part of Middleby Corp. Colburn & Guyette has moved to new offices. The consulting and design firm…

Fresh off of its annual convention earlier this month (attended by 344 representatives from E&S dealerships and manufacturing companies), the Foodservice Equipment Distributors Association is prepping for its next webinar: “The SELL Process: Your Offense.” FEDA has tentatively planned the webinar for June 19 at 10 a.m. Based on Don Buttrey’s new book, “The SELL…

The educational programs on tap at the National Restaurant Association Show next month in Chicago are not just targeted at operators and aspiring franchisees and chefs. NRA 2013 is May 18-21 at Chicago’s McCormick Place. A number of sessions, notably four scheduled for May 19, are full of content that should interest dealers, consultants, reps…

Chris Palmer and I will compile the numbers for this year’s FER Top Dealer Report this week. We want to first thank all those who reported and verified, especially those dealers who verified for the first time this year. We had a significant influx of new verifiers. Thanks again. And though I haven’t reviewed all…

We just returned from San Antonio, Texas, and FEDA’s 2013 Annual Convention. From the sight of FEDA and Wasserstrom Co. Pres. Brad Wasserstrom riding into the opening reception on a long-horn steer, to the savory taste of chicken waffles and braised short ribs served at the closing banquet, FEDA members , suppliers and hangers-on such…

It wasn’t quite business as usual as the Foodservice Equipment Distributors Association celebrated its 80th anniversary during the group’s annual convention April 3-7 at the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort in Texas. From FEDA and Wasserstrom Co. Pres. Brad Wasserstrom’s dramatic entrance on a longhorn steer at the opening reception to a heart-felt…

In a management transition announced last week, Manitowoc Co. Chairman/CEO Glen Tellock has taken the reins at the company’s Foodservice segment. He will lead it on an interim basis while the company searches for a successor for Michael Kachmerm who resigned in early April as president of Manitowoc Foodservice and as a company senior v.p.…