In the commercial kitchen industry, designing, installing, and maintaining a ventilation system often involves the coordinating of multiple contractors and manufacturers. With that mixing and matching often comes a big headache for restaurateurs and foodservice operators.
With his renowned line of ventilation systems, Advanced Hood Systems CEO Jeff Seward and his team keep it all under one roof. Promising highest-quality turnkey systems that are designed, installed, and maintained in-house, Advanced Hood Systems has truly become a commercial kitchen game changer.
Founded in 2007 with the goal of manufacturing and installing full turnkey hood and ventilation systems for restaurants, Advanced Hood Systems quickly expanded their business to cover the continental United States and Caribbean. The visionary Seward saw the opportunity to build off his partnership with renowned commercial kitchen ventilation system specialist and manufacturer CaptiveAire to create a true “one-stop” resource for the commercial kitchen industry.
Advanced Hood Systems entered the ventilation installation industry with their own all American-made product line. “We saw that the installation business required a different business model than what CaptiveAire was geared towards,” commented Seward; “they are a manufacturer after all that produce high quality hoods, so from a business perspective it made perfect sense.” Today Advanced Hood Systems counts several household names amongst its clientele, including Denny’s, Five Guys, and The Breakers Palm Beach, and has established itself as the leading providers of full-service, turnkey ventilation system installation and servicing.
Although primarily centered on being a leader in ventilation installation, through a business model that embraced vertical integration, Advanced Hood Systems morphed into a one-stop-shop for all things clean air. “It’s a small industry – there are very few other businesses out there that do what we do,” remarked Seward; “we design, sell, install, service, and perform preventative maintenance under one house on one specialty product. Our commitment to fine craftsmanship and expertise, has become the calling card of our brand. After you start doing a few jobs, word of mouth spreads between developers, engineers, contractors – they know who we are,” Seward explained. Having one preferred vendor for every step of the ventilation process, therefore, saves restaurateurs from another vendor headache.
Despite being a small industry, hood and ventilation system installation is no easy feat, and constitute some of the most difficult aspects of a commercial kitchen buildout. By perfecting every step of the process, from system design to post-installation regular maintenance, Advanced Hood Systems fixes the disconnect between the mechanical and food service industries that can cause unnecessary appliance change orders and poor vetting: “We’ve bridged all of those gaps and offer turnkey systems all done in-house,” Seward said.
Advanced Hood Systems’s reliable products helped bolster the company during the COVID-19 pandemic and opened new doors of product expansion. As restaurateurs looked for ways to increase the safety and cleanliness of their operations – both in the front and back of the shop – in light of the airborne nature of the coronavirus, Advanced Hood Systems took hold of an up-and-coming ventilation advancement: the 100% outside air unit. Seward noted such products, which use outside air to dilute airborne bacteria particles, “became a staple of design spaces in many everyday restaurants” and “really catapulted our Paragon line of outdoor air units forward.”
A recent addition to the Advanced Hood Systems suite of products and a foray into a new market comes in the form of fire suppression systems. They can be designed as part of Advanced’s hoods solutions to assist a pre-existing ventilation systems or function separately. “We also wanted to grow to become a turnkey operator to provide restaurant and foodservice with fire suppression industry,” Seward said of their expansion.
As a manufacturer, there are different kinds of fire suppression systems for different kitchen appliances; Advanced Hood’s goal, Seward added, is to select and design the correct suppression system for the correct application to ensure the best fire-retardant potential. “A lot of restaurants focus on meeting safety code requirements but being up to code and properly protected are two very different things,” the executive explained; “there are plenty of systems on the market, but in the wrong application, they are insufficient and inferior at doing their jobs.”
In terms of technological advancements in the commercial ventilation industry, remarked Seward, the direction seems to be headed towards making better use of manufacturing practices: “Technological advancement has leveled off in hood ventilation,” he commented; “we’ve pushed the envelope already in terms of hood aerodynamics.” Instead, he envisioned, the next big push should come from the already-popular Paragon line of outdoor air units and streamlining the manufacturing process to reduce costs and build products faster. After all, “exhaust hoods are not a complicated component: they require precise engineering, but it’s not rocket science,” quipped the CEO.
With their one-stop-shop ventilation system offerings, Advanced Hood Systems saves restaurateurs countless hours of searching and guarantees craftsmanship, reliability, and excellence all around. Their existing ventilation products, alongside their all-outdoor Paragon line of products and suite of fire suppression systems, ensure that restaurants continent-wide can operate at the pinnacle of safety. Seward and his team’s care speaks for itself: “we treat every job as if it were for a restaurant that our family owned and operated.”
For more information regarding Advanced Hood Systems and their line of products, visit their website.
