Foodservice equipment dealers navigate the complexities of providing exceptional design-build services.
T
hese days everyone likes a one-stop-shopping environment where they not only can get
multiple products and services from a single provider, but where they also have just “one throat to choke” to call for service and support. In return for offering a multitude of services to their clients—who generally wind up saving considerable time and effort in the process—dealers earn more on every sale and maintain control throughout the process.
Offering design services further helps foodservice equipment dealers bridge the gaps between their product catalogs and fi nal, completed projects. This is a strategy that dealers have been using for decades, but it’s gaining in popularity as new competitors emerge and client preferences change. A 2021 study from the Design Build Institute of America forecasts that design-build construction spending will grow by 7.6 percent annually through 2025, when the segment is expected to top $400 billion. Thanks to their long- term investment in expanding design services, foodservice equipment dealers are poised to capture a signifi cant share of that spend. Eric Schmitt, president at Rapids Foodservice Contract and Design, credits the “rise of the internet” with driving more dealers into the design side of the business. “At one point, our industry was made up almost entirely of street sales personnel who possessed the intimate knowledge of equipment options that their clients did not have access to. They were able to open doors due to their unique position when it came to equipment and supplies knowledge,” Schmitt says. “With the growth of e-commerce, that information is now as readily available to end users as it is to dealers, which means that dealers have to differentiate themselves in new ways.” In response, many dealers are now using their expertise and knowledge
to apply the right pieces of equipment to the right solutions for their clients. Schmitt says Rapids “really believes in the value of design-build” and the value that this service adds for its clientele. The company creates multiple value propositions for clients through its expert equipment knowledge; ability to deliver unique and creative designs; and generate construction document sets for design team and construction team partners. “We will have our design
professionals not only create our kitchen plans, but also review plan sets from the trades involved in the project,” says Schmitt, whose design team sometimes spots potential issues that the original designers may have missed. For example, when working on a
“We will have our design professionals not only create our kitchen plans, but also review plan sets from the trades involved in the project.”
— Eric Schmitt President
Rapids Foodservice Contract and Design
Spring 2023 15
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