As a female leader in the commercial food service industry, Jennifer Ward, the current Chief Revenue Officer at the equipment and supply manufacturing giant Atosa, has decades of experience and wisdom under her belt.
As the company sets its sights on a billion-dollar valuation with massive growth and kitchen automation and robotics development, Ward reflects on her career, Atosa’s line of kitchen automation, robotics, and the future of the company.
Ward’s decades of experience began at Cleveland Range, a food service equipment manufacturer 33 years ago.
Although she was with Cleveland Range briefly, it was there that she discovered her love for the industry, thanks in large part to supportive mentorship from colleagues there.
She left to pursue opportunities with E&S rep groups to gain an intimate understanding of both front of the house cooking and back of the house refrigeration, the latter being her true passion.
Ward soon thereafter joined refrigeration brand Beverage-Air, where she thrived for more than a decade.
But her departure from “Bev-Air” would set her up to join Atosa which would become the brand she is most passionate about, cementing her foundation for her future career and the company’s success.
Ward’s career has consistently revolved around championing the nation’s vast network of multi-generational Food Service equipment and supply dealers, who have long served end-user restaurants and foodservice operators.
Her unwavering commitment to supporting brick-and-mortar dealers led her to Atosa, as the company shared her core beliefs.
“I couldn’t turn my back on the incredible brick-and-mortar dealers who have supported me throughout my entire career,” Ward explained.
Ward has tirelessly given back to the industry and mentorship is a career tenet that has stuck with her since the beginning. At last year’s National Restaurant Association Show (NRA), Ward founded Women Industry Leaders (WIL) along with several other amazing women for their inaugural meeting.
WIL currently is a free organization that looks to support young women and women in general. “It’s about empowering, mentoring, and educating women in the food service industry, but it’s also about educating everyone,” she concluded.
Her goal is to help introduce more young women to the industry and help them take advantage of fantastic career opportunities, and to give them the resources necessary to be successful long-term, including networking, mentorship, and education.
“When I started, I was one of only a few women in the industry – I’m a strong woman in general, but it was still very intimidating and scary… it wasn’t easy,” Ward reflected.
Her tenure at Atosa, the refrigeration leader who has an expansive product offering including cooking equipment, ice machines, kitchen automation and much more began six years ago, and with the company’s vision, has extensively expanded the breadth of offering.
Ward explained, Atosa’s factories are a manufacturing powerhouse: “Most do not know that Atosa’s factories produce a significant amount of smallware equipment and metal pans in the industry still to this day and Atosa products have been in the US market since the early 2000’s through OEM and private labels. In 2013 Michael Shao, CEO and President of Atosa USA, Inc. brought the Atosa brand of products to the U.S. market.”
As Atosa continues to raise the bar, Ward finds herself at the forefront of a fundamental change in the foodservice industry.
The Atosa team is on the cutting edge of kitchen automation and robotic solutions where they’ve won 2 Kitchen Innovation Awards (KI Awards) from NRA with their Intelligent french fry robotic solution and their auto seasoning and auto packaging solution, which is only the beginning as they are developing prep robotics to chop and slice vegetables, a convenience store auto-replenishing robot to restock walk-in fridges, pizza robotics, and all with the goal of providing solutions for a completely automated kitchen.
For Atosa, the experience with automation and robotics began in its own factories. It has perfected automated manufacturing to produce most of its products.
“Nearly 85% of the manufacturing process is performed by automation and robotics,” Ward noted, “As a result, we can mass produce large quantities which gives us the efficiency in production to produce large volumes of equipment, produce a consistent product, reduce labor costs, and eliminate human error.” Despite the significant role automation and robotics play in the company’s day-to-day operations, Atosa still employs several thousand people globally, with over 200 employees in the USA.
Moreover, Atosa strategically operates through a network of 12 distribution points across North America. This strategic positioning allows them to consistently stock an average of 70-90 million dollars’ worth of inventory, ensuring a comprehensive range of products.
With such an extensive inventory nationally, the company can offer prompt service, with an average nationwide delivery time of two days.
Ward’s career set her apart as a champion in the workplace, both in terms of the success of Atosa, but also in her quest to support multi-generational brick-and-mortar dealers and the careers of young women in the food service industry.
For more information regarding Atosa and its line of equipment and supply solutions and automation, visit Atosa‘s website.
