As with so many segments of the restaurant and hospitality industry, focus has moved from relationships to technology. For one visionary company and its leader the future of the restaurant and food service equipment and supply business is still crafted with a combination of the relationship between buyer and seller and with State of the Industry technology.
With that in mind, Fred Singer, President and CEO of Singer Equipment, last month announced the acquisition of the business of Kittredge Equipment Company. Headquartered in Agawam, Massachusetts, with locations throughout the greater New England region, Kittredge is one of the largest foodservice equipment and supplies dealers in the Northeast United States. The new division will operate under the name Singer Kittredge.
“My family and I have had the privilege of growing Kittredge Equipment Company for over 100 years to become one of the leading foodservice equipment dealers in the New England market,” noted Kittredge’s Wendy Webber. “We have selected Singer to steward the business in its next phase of growth. I am delighted by the tremendous opportunities that lie ahead by joining the strengths of these two family businesses.”
“I am excited to build on the foundation built by the Webber family, Jeff Mackey and the entire Kittredge organization,” Fred Singer explained. “Kittredge is a recognized leader in the industry. Together we will bring new opportunities to our customers and co-workers alike. We look forward to supporting the growth of Singer Kittredge and expanding our company into the New England and upstate New York markets. By welcoming Kittredge to our family of companies, we now provide our customers with operations servicing the entire East Coast.”
Jeff Mackey, the current COO of Kittredge, has been promoted to President of Singer Kittredge, reporting directly to Fred Singer. “I am delighted to be joining the Singer team,” Mackey said. “Our companies are both family businesses that care deeply about our customers and team members. I look forward to a future that brings valuable new resources and services to our customers and associates.”
“Singer Equipment Company continues to look for strategic acquisitions that strengthen our position of providing comprehensive foodservice solutions,” noted CFO of Singer, Seth Feldman. “Kittredge has a track record of success and is well-positioned for growth. We look forward to welcoming the entire Kittredge organization to Singer.”
For Fred Singer, the move marks a return to New England, where he attended Yale University. “As part of our growth, we are building a company with a common culture and a common approach to handling our customers. We look for companies that fit our service driven culture, with a high skill bias and established professionals who can offer resources and knowledge for our customers. Kittredge was an exceptional fit on both accounts – having been a family-owned company for over 100 years and having a seasoned and experienced team that was exceptionally well regarded in its marketplace for quality work and a highly ethical and relationship focused way of doing business.”
Fred Singer envisions the Kittredge purchase as the next step in the plan to create a national entity. “We continue to look at all markets that bring value to our customers and vendors,” he said. “Moving into an adjacent territory is the highest value we can bring. We have had an office in Florida with a highly skilled team for more than a decade and that office has grown alongside the market. We are extremely bullish on Florida and continue to invest in resources to support the market. Our stated growth plan is to continue our development as a high-quality national kitchen equipment contractor and an East Coast solution for smallwares distribution. This acquisition pushes us forward with both objectives. New England is a vibrant market with proximity to business linked to our core customer base. We’ll continue to invest in resources alongside the Singer Kittredge team as we expand South and West.”
The Singer | Kittredge addition is supported by the company’s ongoing investment in technology to make the procurement experience more efficient and automated for its customers. This includes a highly customized B2B site with live inventory, transparent pricing, extensive reporting, and integration into their customers procurement systems. These are the type of features that customers are looking for.
“Our sales team brings advice, insight, and solutions that our customers need to profitably grow their business,” Singer said. “We have a tremendous team of talented professionals and are working hard to develop the next generation of experts. Adding great people to our team through acquisition rapidly expands our ability to serve our customers. In simple terms, I believe deeply that the company with the best people will win.”
Singer has also seen tremendous growth on the construction side of the business. “It represents over 60% of total revenue, with customers looking for exceptionally talented project managers and highly organized and disciplined procurement and sourcing teams to execute complex projects with aggressive schedules,” Singer added. “We are leveraging our relationships and scale for preferred product availability and lead times. The conversation has shifted from VE to AE. Pre pandemic our customers needed us to value engineer jobs (VE). Today, our focus is on availability engineering. If you would like your project to deliver on time, you need to partner with a strong company like Singer.”
Singer has used the last two years to prove its agility in responding to the changing needs of a marketplace. “The last two years have been exceedingly difficult, especially in our key urban markets of Philadelphia, New York City, and Washington DC,” Fred Singer said. “All our customers have needed to understand and source PPE, they have needed to modify their interior spaces, create outdoor experiential dining, adapt to an explosion in takeout and delivery and they have had tremendous challenges in sourcing sufficient labor to keep their operations going. Singer was aggressive in entering the PPE market early to provide solutions for our customers and it became an important segment for our company.”
Supply chain issues are affecting the restaurant and food service professionals’ ability to expand and redevelop their facilities to meet their goals for growth. “Today, availability is everything and as one of the largest dealers in the United States, with deep factory and rep relationships, large warehousing capabilities, and sophisticated processes, we are in a great position,” Singer noted. “We have aggressively invested in inventory to have some of the largest stock positions in America, with a very healthy balance sheet.
Singer’s vision is that the “New Normal” will continue to bring change that will require the company to have the flexibility to once again pivot. “We expect the market to be highly dynamic in the next few years as foodservice rebounds in the Northeast,” Fred Singer concluded. “We expect big changes in corporate dining. The expectations of how that segment will work will be forever changed and we will continue to help our customers adapt to new customer demands, redesigning, and reimagining spaces alongside our partners.”
Singer Equipment Company, the fifth largest foodservice equipment and supply dealer in the United States, remains privately owned and operated in its third generation of family leadership. Headquartered in Elverson, Pennsylvania, Singer maintains offices from Vermont to Florida. CEO and President Fred Singer is committed to aggressive organic growth as well as strategic acquisitions that continue to provide our customers with best-in-class service.
