100 Years Strong: Hobart

Brian Guerrant, part of the Hobart service organization, and the Advansys CL44er warewasher. Over a century of service, quality, and innovation has established Hobart in the food equipment industry.

ACQUIRING THE BEST INDUSTRY-LEADING BRANDS

ITW's legendary acquisition strategy is diverse and disciplined. We acquire small companies in emerging markets, as well as established companies like Hobart, which have their own long history of innovation and acquisition.

In the early 1900s, representatives from the new Hobart Electric Manufacturing Company began meeting with merchants, demonstrating how Hobart's motors could be belted to coffee grinders for a novel effect: automated grinding. It was just the innovation coffee retailing needed to take a big step forward.

This is also an early example of how Hobart grew alongside—and helped define—the modern food and hospitality industry. The industry remained underdeveloped throughout the early 20th century, and preparation and cleaning were laborious, manual tasks. But Hobart's innovative equipment—warewashers, as well as faster choppers, mixers, slicers and peelers—helped move the industry forward. And Hobart continuously improved on its designs as the sophistication of the industry evolved. By 1920, Hobart surpassed $1 million in revenues and opened sales offices overseas. During World War II, it designed precision instruments for the war effort. Hobart also responded to new sanitation standards with safer, "easy clean" designs.

"We consider ourselves serial innovators," says Christopher O'Herlihy, executive vice president with responsibility for ITW's Food Equipment Group. "Hobart's highly robust, quality products have certainly underpinned our success and longevity. But we're also constantly changing to meet customer needs."

Hobart became one of the first to enter new markets for automatic weighing and labeling machines—equipment that supported the rise of restaurant chains and supermarkets. By the time ITW acquired Hobart in 1999, it had a long, rich history of iconic, award-winning innovations. Hobart is the brand of choice for the White House, royal weddings, film sets and international culinary competitions, as well as thousands of commercial kitchens around the world. Businesses like Hobart exemplify ITW's ability to acquire established companies that fuel profitable growth.

Today's customers demand service, sustainability, and energy efficiency. Again, Hobart leads the industry as the only food equipment company that offers advanced, global customer service in North America, Europe and emerging markets such as China and Brazil. Hobart has also prioritized sustainability through materials reduction and recycling and invested in innovations like the Opti-Rinse system, which reduces water use by up to 50 percent over industry-standard warewashers. Hobart was the first food equipment manufacturer to join the U.S. Green Building Council, and it also created the Hobart Center for Foodservice Sustainability to provide industry counsel and grants.

In 2011, Hobart Germany was recognized as a national leader in sustainability, receiving the Environmental Technology Prize from the Ministry of the Environment, Climate Protection and Energy Sector. Domestically, ITW's Food Equipment Group is proud to be the industry's only recipient of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ENERGY STAR Sustained Excellence Award.