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10 Dealer Focus CFE - Commercial Food Equipment Commercial Food Equipment in sunny Queensland commenced trading formally on the 1st of July in 1970, under ownership of Barry & Gina Cook. Troy Brown joined the company in 1995 and later became a Director/Sales Manager. Stacey Brown joined the company around 1998. Barry Cook was a man who lived by his beliefs. He had great loyalty to friends, family and his staff, and believed that people were more important than profit. His wife Gina and daughters, Narelle and Stacey were central to his life and always his first priority. Both personal and business friends knew that he was always willing to provide any help or advice they required. Commercial Food Equipment was established to sell catering equipment, but Barry was always conscious that it wasn’t just a piece of equipment that he was selling. He prided himself on providing the customer with the correct solution and advice, while ensuring that those employed at Commercial Food Equipment did the same. Fifteen years after his passing, Commercial Food Equipment is still dedicated to meeting and trying to surpass his high standards of customer service. Gina Cook comments, How it all started... Barry was involved in a refrigeration company, prior to opening CFE. At that stage, there were no companies selling used refrigeration in Brisbane. He decided that it would be a good opportunity for a new business. One of the first purchases was the equipment from a corner store that was closing down. The owner wanted to sell all of the items together, so Barry purchased everything including refrigeration, cooking equipment and countertop items. He thought there was little value in the cooking equipment, but surprisingly he sold this well before the refrigeration items. It was at this stage that we thought about selling used catering equipment. We rented a small property at Annie Street in Rocklea, but we quickly outgrew this and moved into an old Queenslander at our current location. It was more an organised version of Steptoe & Son, with the used equipment in one area, while we had a workroom and nursery for our kids in another room. As the Council quickly decided that we could not place any signage out the front of a residential property, the building transformed into the current workshop and showroom. What Is your greatest Life Achievement? My family. The business has been through good times and bad, with the loss of Barry being the most devastating, both personally and professionally. With support from my family, we keep moving forward. Two generations working together could be quite difficult, but we achieve it due to a strong bond outside of work. Tell us about an amusing moment... Not long after opening, we were going through some very tough times financially. We had a gentleman walk in and pay us $900 for some used equipment. After he left, we jumped for joy and behaved like children, as that meant we could afford to buy groceries that week. Our fortunes may have improved since, but you never forget things like that.
How have YOUR customer’s needs changed over the years? I am not sure if our customers needs have changed, so much as their attitudes. We find that there is much more of a “supermarket” mentality in the industry, where customers expect to go online to shop, or purchase from your catalogue. While we are about to launch a new website, we still prefer the face-to-face interaction with our customers. If you could change one area of the industry, What would it be? The industry lacks some of the personal comradeship that once existed. As the industry grows, your competitors simply become new business names, rather than individuals. It was not long ago that everyone in competition knew each other by name and had a very friendly rivalry. While we competed ferociously for sales, once away from the customer everyone was very sociable. Troy Brown comments, How do you drive customer retention and loyalty? One of the things I realised when I joined this business was indeed Barry’s reputable name in the industry. Barry had an amazing reputation personally and professionally, and I aspired to work very hard in following in his footsteps. He was an incredibly honest person and his ethics have been the guiding light of this business since its inception. It is no coincidence that most of our sales are from repeat customers or referrals. This is an indication of our team’s effort to ensure we deliver reliable service to our customers. While we like to work on the relationships with our customers, ultimately what matters is service delivery and honesty. Customers remember that, long after they have forgotten a free lunch. How does your business find and retain quality staff? Finding staff is one of the most challenging aspects of any business. We are rather fortunate, as our staff turnover is exceptionally low. We attribute this mainly to the fact that we are a family run company and retain a good relationship with our staff. Some decisions can only be made by management, but we try to involve our staff in any major decisions before they are made. If your team is not involved in these processes, they don’t really feel like part of your family. Like all families, we have our highs and lows, but we stay together if we all embrace the same values. How do you face the challenges of unhappy customers? Unfortunately, regardless of how hard you work to ensure service levels are maintained, you still get faced with an upset customer occasionally. Sometimes it is your error, an error in interpretation or the customer has made a mistake. Regardless of the cause, the solution needs to be swift and fair. If you take too long to deal with a problem, it can become insurmountable. Sometimes mistakes can be expensive to rectify, but that is usually a lower cost than losing your client or reputation. Of course, if our customer has made an error, we try to minimise the impact by assisting them with a simple solution. What equipment sold through your business do you value the most? You need to be very careful about placing more importance on any piece of equipment in your business. While we all enjoy the sale of the more exciting products (who would not like selling a Rational oven!), you need to be enthusiastic about all of your sales. The customer that buys a countertop item today could be walking through your door for a full refit at some stage, so you need to ensure you give them the same quality of advice. For some people, the countertop fryer they purchased for their cafe will be as important as a combi oven in a cook-chill kitchen. If asked what my most valued piece of equipment is... I would have say - the one that I am selling to my next customer! Comcater Solutions – how long have you partnered with Comcater? And how has this relationship contributed to the growth of your business? We have been dealing with Comcater since 1998, The relationship has grown exponentially over the past five years, as Comcater’s equipment range has become paramount to our ever changing customer needs. Much of the growth has been driven simply by an increased awareness of the products themselves, as well as a closer working relationship with Comcater’s local branch. Improved training and communication enables our staff to better identify solutions for our customers, leading to a happier customer and a healthier sales growth. Identify your day to day business challenges... I think maintaining motivation (both personally and as a team) is the hardest task. We all face the same market cycles, as evident with the impact of the GFC. When you are in the lower end of the cycle, you need to maintain your enthusiasm to make the best of a poor situation. When times are prosperous, you need to ensure you work hard to maintain your service levels and not take any of your customers for granted, as they will be the first to go elsewhere when times are tough.
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Page 3 and 4: Contents News & Editorial Page 4 -
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Page 7 and 8: left to right: David Church, David
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