Foodservice Equipment & Supplies

MAY 2017

Foodservice Equipment & Supplies magazines is an industry resource connecting foodservice operators, equipment and supplies manufacturers and dealers, and facility design consultants.

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34 • FOODSERVICE EQUIPMENT & SUPPLIES • MAY 2017 Associates was selling complete commercial kitchens. "I knew how to sell to the government. We sold everything from sports equipment to barber's chairs. But what we sold the most was commercial kitchen equipment," Jerry recalls. Frugal by nature, Donna and Jerry did not take any money from the business during its first four years of operation. And the company has been profitable since the very beginning. From year five to seven of its existence, Johnson-Lancaster and Associates handled government projects and contract work in the foodservice industry, working in such segments as schools, hospitals and prisons among others. Before long, the company reached $10 million in annual sales. Due to changes in how government entities handled their contracts, though, Johnson- Lancaster and Associates gradually moved away from this type of business. Jerry also followed his entrepreneurial spirit in start- ing other successful businesses, including a fuel company and a health-food store. He even owned some rental properties. Brad Lancaster attended Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla., for both his undergraduate and graduate studies. Upon earning his MBA from Rollins in 1999, Brad Lancaster went to work as a CPA for PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Greenville, S.C. He would join Johnson-Lancaster and Associates in the fall of 2011. "We wanted him to work someplace else before he came back here," says Jerry, who serves as the dealer's CEO. "It was important to see how other places operate. That's invaluable." When Brad Lancaster entered the business, he saw several key opportunities for growing Johnson-Lancaster and Associates. Johnson-Lancaster and Associates' Gina Vitagliano's clients range from in-flight catering companies to chain restaurants to some local customers. A jack of all trades, Vitagliano can handle big jobs or the smallest resupply order. Here she talks induction cooktops with Michael Locker, the executive chef at the Streamsong Resort in Florida. QUIET GIANTS

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