Berner International LLC., New Castle, Pennsylvania, a leading U.S. manufacturer and innovator of air curtains, honored foodservice manufacturer’s representative Swanson Girard Associates, Pineville, North Carolina, with its Presidential Gold Award for Outstanding Sales Achievement—2016 at the North American Food Equipment Manufacturers (NAFEM) Show 2017.
Other honored award winners were:
Presidential Silver: Sesco, Independence, Ohio–William L. Wickert, CFSP, president
Presidential Bronze: Preferred Marketing Group, Chatsworth, Calif.–Jeff Couch, president; Tony Valvo, vice president & general manager; and Lance Corralez, culinary development chef.
The Berner air curtain product line contributed significantly to Swanson Girard’s consecutive overall sales records in both 2015 and 2016, according to Principals Sean Girard and Paul Swanson. Major projects included the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center with dozens of air curtains installed on shipping doors and back-of-house doorways; and the East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina.
Swanson Girard also increased back-of-house sales to major chains through foodservice equipment distributor, Trimark Foodcraft, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, throughout its territory of South and North Carolina.
Swanson attributes the back-to-back annual record sales to the opening of the 15-year-old firm’s new 13,000-square-foot headquarters in 2015. The building’s 2,000-square-foot test kitchen anchors the company’s commitment to training and features stadium seating, state-of-the-art audio/video and will soon include working air curtain demos in the entrance. “They continually exploit the deficiencies of the competition, because their staff has studied our air curtain product lines’ many advantages for foodservice applications,” says Joe Banas, national sales manager, Berner International.
Sesco’s Wickert attributed the 22-year-old foodservice equipment rep’s resounding 2016 success to reaching more chain and independent restaurant brands through internet catalog dealers that helped promote Berne’s growing specialty product lines such as the Drive-Thru Window and Walk-In Cooler Kit air curtains. Sesco’s territory encompasses Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Michigan and Western Pennsylvania.
Preferred Marketing Group, which covers California and Nevada, saw Berner’s Architectural Recessed product line as the fastest growing segment for the company due to customer demands for aesthetics that ceiling-mounted, front-of-house air curtains can offer foodservice applications.