As a child growing up in Germany, Markus Glueck, like many other young soccer players, had his eye on a position on the soccer pitch with his beloved Bayern Munich squad. Although that vision didn’t materialize, his competitive spirit and dedication to excellence have served him well in his business career.
Last year with the dynamic Glueck at the helm, RATIONAL North America reached championship heights. Its North American Distribution Center successfully shipped more than 10,000 combi ovens in 2018. It was a record-breaking year for RATIONAL.
Before working in foodservice equipment, Glueck brought his passion for detail to a highly successful career in the automotive business. He then leveraged his auto industry experience at a pair of European coffee manufacturers looking to grow in the US with successful stints at Schaerer and WMF before taking the helm at RATIONAL.
Once again in 2019, Glueck has his team ready for new heights of success and competitor brands are taking note.
In addition to its record-setting 2018, the RATIONAL North America installed base now exceeds 60,000 units, which makes it the largest in this part of the world. Under Glueck’s watch, RATIONAL’s combi oven market share has increased to an estimated 45 percent in the United States and 65 percent in Canada, which makes it the most widely distributed combi oven brand in the market.
RATIONAL’s recipe for success includes uncompromising quality in the production of each unit. “Each oven goes through four different employee checks before shipment,” Glueck explained. “Our success really begins with the commitment from our shareholders who understand that we need to reinvest into the internal structure of the organization.”
“We doubled our sales force in the last five years and we are able to handle the increased sales volume because of investments and upgrades to operating systems, and the addition of terrific people across all aspects of our operation,” Glueck noted.
With combi ovens becoming increasingly popular in North America’s commercial kitchens, it has led to additional competition for RATIONAL. “This is a very complicated technology and the amount of time that we’ve spent in the marketplace has given us a unique advantage that we have never taken for granted,” Glueck continued. “That’s why when you attend a show like NAFEM or NRA, you see that nobody works harder to listen to the needs of our customers than we do.”
In 2018 alone, the company introduced its award winning technology to some 30K plus chefs in North America. Many chefs are simply amazed at how a RATIONAL SelfCookingCenter® can enable them to do more with less space, waste, labor and stress. And they are further amazed at RATIONAL’s customer commitment.
“We understand that our customers are paying $10K to $20K for our units, so we take a different approach to what happens after the sale,” said Glueck. “We love our dealers, but we make sure that a RATIONAL person is there to perform a unit introduction and we offer a free four-hour chef-to-chef training session to help each customer understand the unit’s capabilities.”
“RATIONAL has an in-house corporate chef team and an extensive network of RATIONAL certified chefs to support customers. A popular benefit is the RATIONAL ChefLine®, a 24/7 hotline for application inquiries that is always answered by one of our highly experienced corporate chefs,” Glueck explained.
RATIONAL is revolutionizing the way America cooks one commercial kitchen at a time. Markus Glueck’s visionary leadership and his remarkable initiatives have played a great role in enabling the company to accomplish success after success and he is determined to drive double-digit growth for RATIONAL again in 2019.
To learn more about RATIONAL North America, visit their website.
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