Metro New York's equipment and supply representative community who compete on a daily basis took a break from their daily battles on the street to honor a trio of industry leaders.
Kudos to MAFSI for finding a true gem in Rock Springs Golf to host their annual MAFSI Golf and Awards Dinner.
MAFSI's Metro New York Chapter honored Manhattan's Roger and Sons as its dealer of the year. Gary Jacobs and Bob Doland of Jacobs Doland Beer were honored with the reps' industry Person(s) of the Year. MAFSI'S Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to the legendary Joe Lehr of Glissen Chemical.
“The golf and the dinner were a BIG success,” noted the tournament's co-chair Frank Doyle of TD Marketing. “It was a great opportunity for reps and factories to have a great day of golf and to recognize some of the industry's truly special professionals.
The event marked the culmination of hard work by Doyle and his tournament committee for their considerable time invested to research venues, dates and facility coordination. Doyle's golf committee was co-chaired by Jon Bowerman of Performance and Pecinka Ferri's Ed Pecinka and assisted by Jason Butler of BSE Marketing and Mike Klatman of TD.
The golf awards included a first ever presentation of fishing rods to the foursome with the worst score. MAFSI is a 63 year-old, professional trade association comprised of 270+ independent sales agencies and 220+ manufacturers of commercial foodservice equipment, supplies, tabletop and furniture.
MAFSI represents over 2,000 sales and marketing professionals and manufacturing executives across North America and internationally who are a major force in the 10 billion dollar equipment, supply, tabletop and furniture segment of the foodservice industry.
The organization's primary member is the factory sales’ representative agency whose role is to professionally market foodservice equipment, supplies, tabletop and furniture for their manufacturers, on a wholesale basis, and serve as the local factory branch office for the dealer and operator communities.
Because of the interdependent relationship between manufacturers and representatives, MAFSI is also committed to the 800 manufacturers that serve our industry – 220+ of which are associate members of the association.
Fundamental to manufacturers, of course, is to deliver their product to market in the most efficient and thorough method. More than 80% of the brand names the foodservice industry buys are marketed through MAFSI Reps. The group strongly believes that the independent representative is more closely in touch with market trends affecting dealers, consultants, service agents and end-users than any other segment in our industry’s various distribution channels. They truly are the windows to the marketplace.
MAFSI reps spend their day calling on all facets of the industry with the purpose of lending their specific product knowledge and experience to the foodservice community. They work directly with the local foodservice dealers and distributors, service agencies, and end-user operators as the product specialist and consultative sales agent.
“The MAFSI rep is a specialist that the dealer and consultant rely upon as they execute their work,” added chapter president Rob McKeown. “We support both – we replace neither Representatives who also advocate customer issues with their manufacturers and dealers to ensure that the operator is receiving exactly what they are demanding.”
MAFSI reps typically employ 3 to 4 field representatives, 2 to 3 inside customer service people and often have showrooms and test kitchens to assist customers in project planning. It is not uncommon for MAFSI reps to also have on staff chefs to assist the customers´ culinary team with menu planning and preparation and cooking procedures unique to specialized equipment such as blast chillers and combi ovens.
MAFSI members’ broad range of services are available to customers at no expense. Our members’ field reps, their customer service staff, their facilities and their years of specialized experience are available to customers at no charge because they are paid by the manufacturers. Over 80% of foodservice manufacturers utilize the professional sales and marketing services of independent manufacturers’ representatives. Manufacturers have found that hiring independent, commission based, sales professionals provide better results for themselves and their customers.
