S3 Ep18: Safe Kitchens with Mechline Developments

Speaker A: Hello, welcome back to Kitchen Curiosity, a podcast that delves into the heart of food service, equipment and hospitality sector. I'm your host, Radford Chancellor. Today we're in Canary Wharf and it is a warm one, but my guests have made it here. They're looking a lot cooler than I am. And I'm sitting down with a market leading company in the food service equipment manufacturer Mechline development of Milton Keynes. And I'm joined with Gary Thakur, Market development director, and Nick Falco, Product and technical director. And between them they've got 55 years experience in the sector. I actually know these gentlemen from old go back quite a long way back from the Dawson days and bki. So we know each other all quite well. Anyway, let's get on with the show. Gary, welcome to Kitchen Curiosity. How are you?

Speaker B: I'm fine, thank you. Thank you for inviting us.

Speaker A: You made it. It was a bit of a traumatic journey.

Speaker B: Always is, always is. Getting to London is never, never easy. But, uh, hey, we've come down on a beautiful day.

Speaker A: So you've made it and you're here and it's, you know, it's what, 30 odd degrees outside. So, uh, just for the listeners. What, what? I mean, I know but like, well, I think I know, but what, you know, how did you get into this sector? What was sort of like being, you know, when you're young, being brought up, getting into career. And what did you do outside of work?

Speaker B: Well, I think I fell into this sector, let's be honest. I came.

Speaker A: Plus.

Speaker B: Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Um, I came from a background of, um, motors and gearboxes within industrial manufacturing. Dealing in the medical industry, dealing in the, ah, camera, cctv. When that first came out and I was looking for something different, manufacturing, the uk, um, started slowing down, started moving abroad. I could see the writing on the wall, or I believed I could see the writing on the wall and I decided I wanted to do something different. And um, I was then approached by a company called BKI at the. Were, um, uh, they were then bought or they were owned by Standex and um, it was in rotisserie chicken ovens. That's what they were mainly known for.

Speaker A: Right, okay.

Speaker B: Dealing mainly in the, uh, in the retail industry.

Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's where we met. I was doing training for BKI back then.

Speaker B: Absolutely.

Speaker A: Which is how many years ago?

Speaker B: Oh, well, it's, it's over 25 years ago.

Speaker A: Jesus Christ.

Speaker B: That's nearly half our lifetime, half our life.

Speaker A: Don't feel old.

Speaker B: No, I think we looked a lot younger and A lot thinner those days. I certainly have more hair.

Speaker A: Anyway, don't go down the weight road of m me.

Speaker B: And, uh, I remember sitting at the interview and they explained what the job role was and I turned around and said, well, what else am m I going to do?

Speaker A: Oh, seriously? Yeah.

Speaker B: And they went, oh, you'll be busy. And, uh, they brought me in because they wanted somebody instead of having a culinary background, they wanted somebody who was going to have more of an engineering background to engineer the solutions. Um, and I thought, well, that ticks my box. Let's, uh, let's give it a go. And, you know, up until last year, I remained within that industry. So I did literally 25 years, nearly 26 years within the meeting M cost to Frajado.

Speaker A: Yeah, I did sort of almost a seamless move, really.

Speaker B: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Speaker A: I was going for its transition or sale.

Speaker B: Very much so. Very much so. And, yeah. And, you know, and I'm. I, I love this industry. I, um, I never thought that I would be in it 25 years later. I thought, well, get into working with retailers and maybe you could then move into fast moving goods and, you know, be more of a relationship manager. But, um, no, I'm still here.

Speaker A: Moves you forward now to Mechline, which is what, a year or so?

Speaker B: Yeah, getting close to a year. So it'll be September 1st, it will be a year at Mechline, which, um, which is fun. It's been fun. It really has been fun. And the company is fantastic. The role is fantastic. Um, and the people in it are amazingly passionate about the product. And, you know, it was kind of like, oh, it's a bit of a dirty industry. It's grease management. It's boring industry. That's. That was all the banter I got.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: What are you going to do? Selling taps. Selling grease management. And it's a bit like, hey, we all like a challenge. So, uh, yeah, get into that. And, uh, yeah, it's a journey. You know, we. We're certainly on a journey, a journey of transition and, you know, who knows where Mechlon could go next. It's kind of. Watch this space.

Speaker A: Yeah, there's a lot more than just taps and grease, isn't there? But we're going to get onto that.

Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Speaker C: Absolutely.

Speaker A: And outside of work, I know you're a bit of a fitness fanatic. You like to do a bit of walking. Yeah, I sometimes see you traveling all over the place.

Speaker B: I do, uh, I do back and

Speaker A: forth to Holland a lot.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, no, I, I absolutely do. I My, I'm a sportsman. I, I love sport. I, I played rugby from a young age and I, and I really, really enjoyed the game of rugby and it is probably my first love. But you know, some things happened in my life when, when my kids were slightly younger and, and it kind of woke me up and said, do you know what? Life's worth living? Give it a go. You know, you know, you've got boxes you want to tick, challenges you want to do. And uh, so I got my head into it and, and I got into endurance running, uh, which was great. You can, you could just see the countryside day in, day out. The transition of the UK countryside. You know, going up to 50, 100 miles in, you know, one day stints, uh, running that. Brilliant. Loved it. And then I'd done that, so I thought, oh, why don't I have another challenge? Why don't I have a crack at Iron Man?

Speaker A: Wow.

Speaker B: And uh, yeah, did Iron man back in 2018. And you know, I've kind of then had problems because the body starts to, starts to crumble as you get older. Um, and when it's carrying the weight that my body is carrying, it becomes more of a challenge. So now, you know, do a lot more, um, hiking. Yeah, do via Varatas. Um, I don't know whether if you know what that is, I've got no idea. No, it's a combination between climbing and, um, and hiking basically via Varata is the Wire cave. Uh, yeah, you might not enjoy it. You might not enjoy it, but it's just a great way of kind of going around the world, you know, just doing these different, uh, routes and enjoying it and you know, love it, Absolutely love it.

Speaker A: So I mean, we're in the food service equipment world. That's kind of what we're doing. That's what we know, 25 odd years. Do you cook yourself or.

Speaker B: Oh, that's a bit of a stretch.

Speaker A: That's a bit of a stretch.

Speaker B: I. Noodles. No, no, no, I'm not as bad as that. Thank you. I'd like to think that I would give it a go.

Speaker A: Right, okay.

Speaker B: But, um, no, I am not, I'm not culinary trained.

Speaker A: Right, okay. Um, you don't enjoy cooking?

Speaker B: No, I do enjoy cooking, but I'm not very good at it. I haven't got the patience. Yeah, I haven't got the patience. I think, well, if I just throw a bit of herb and a bit of spice, it'll make it work. It used to. But yeah, I, I think, I think it's the big Thing that, you know, we all say in life, wish I had more time.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: I think, I think if I had more time and, or made more time is probably the, the statement, maybe I would enjoy it more, but undo it more. But hey, you know, I give it a go. I give it a go. After 25 years in the industry, it did motivate me, it has motivated me to do more cooking. But yeah, it's, it's not, it's not my sit there going, oh, what ingredients do I need to make this tonight? No, that's not me.

Speaker A: It's a means to an end. Okay.

Speaker B: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Speaker A: So now you're the market development director for Mechline, you know, and your remit spans, uh, global growth. I mean, you've been traveling around. I see. Um, tell me a bit about Mechline today. I mean, what, what is Mechline for people that don't know, because maybe from the base up.

Speaker B: Yeah, I think the best way to describe Mechline is we are still a UK manufacturer. We design and we develop and we manufacture our own products.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker B: We are 35 years as of, uh, next month in July. And you know, and we still have the ethos of a British manufacturer. And you know what, that, that really does have some credibility. And when we talk about credibility, we talk about certification, we talk about accreditation. We are very much a process driven company and we have policies upon policies, so we know what we're doing when we're doing it. And it's all about then the quality of the product. And that's without being too rude to other people, uh, brands that are imported. It hasn't got the certification, it hasn't got the accreditation. And it's to give the customer confidence of who we are and what they're buying from us. And that's what Mechline is about. But it's also identifying opportunities within the food service industry that others haven't thought about or got into and, you know, making the kitchen a safe place to work. And we mean that from a hygienic point of view. We mean that, you know, bacteria is an evil thing. Look at Covid. Look up, you know, what happened there. So, yeah, it's a great company. And, you know, as I said earlier, uh, we're on a journey. We're looking at what, what comes next.

Speaker A: So you're manufacturing still in the uk?

Speaker B: Yeah, we are. We're designing, uh, with Nick's team. They design the products. We come up with the concepts that are either market driven or technology driven. And you know, we, we just come up with new ideas and some, some of them are very uh, out there.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker B: And they take a little while to come to market for people to recognize the worth of the product. Yeah, you can be ahead of your innovation curve sometimes.

Speaker A: What are the core, core products? I mean, what the big sellers for you if you like?

Speaker B: Yeah, you know the big sellers is our grease management. So it's our bioceptor and grease pack system.

Speaker A: Okay. Um, I mean that's the thing that probably everyone knows metcline for is a grease pack.

Speaker B: I think so. Yeah.

Speaker A: In a kitchen they club everywhere.

Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker A: Everyone's got one.

Speaker B: Absolutely. You know, bacterial dosing, you know, it is a point of difference. Uh, there are other systems out there but you know, we are uh, environmentally friendly and doing the bacterial dosing within the grease management, you know, pre rinses with, you know, you look in most or a lot of food service kitchens around the uk they are either our pre rinses or our ah, cater tap range. You know we've got two ranges of um, pre rinses in aquatechnics, which is our most recent one. And you know, it's all about what can we do and can we do different, you know, hand wash basins, you know, and it's an important part of the kitchen. Yeah, it's, it's not the trendy part of the kitchen. No, it's not. No it's not.

Speaker A: But it's the one the M and E consultant always wants to know about. What's the flow rates, how much water we're going to save.

Speaker B: Absolutely.

Speaker A: Do we reach our brie?

Speaker B: Um, absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker A: You know.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: And I think Metline does tick the box on that.

Speaker B: Oh, well, we say we do and um, we do what we say. So. So yeah, we absolutely do. And you know, in everything we do, it's what can we do and how can we do it better.

Speaker C: Okay.

Speaker B: So you know, you get to a point where you, you know, technology can't take you any further and then you have to look at another product. You know, energy saving is, is a massive thing now as well. So we've got our fly killers that are uh, the most energy saving fly killers out there on the market with um, LED technology in there. Uh, you know, we have the hygienics range which is an air and surface sanitizer. Yeah, it's, it's all, as I say, it's not fashionable, it's not, they're not trendy products. But actually you have to have them. You need to Have a legislation.

Speaker A: We were an exhibition last year. You told me about that, the air hygiene, the hygienics.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was in Italy.

Speaker A: Wasn't curve for me. It was at host Milan, actually.

Speaker B: It was, yeah, it was.

Speaker A: That was a learning curve for me because genuinely I didn't even know existed.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker A: And we're now specifying that, uh, um, on projects because obviously there's a benefit, isn't there? Killing the bacteria in the environment, waste rooms, whatever.

Speaker B: Exactly. And you know, you're killing bacteria. Uh, that is obviously bacteria is within foods and in your surroundings, but you're also killing the smells.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: You want restaurants, you want people, you want your customers to be comfortable in their environment. And what you don't want is all the food smells to be going through. You want the nice, smooth food smells. But obviously not every food smells nice.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: So you want. Want that. And. And that's where hygienics really comes to us, comes to its own by killing the bacteria in the smells. By killing the bacteria that's in the air that creates illnesses. So, yeah, so it, it's very diverse and it's where we go next. We. There are other areas of, um, other market segments that we can go with some of our products and, you know, that's what we're, you know, hoping to look at, investigating more. And that's, I think, as Brand M director, that's what you're looking at. Yeah, that's where I need to go next. Yeah, very much so.

Speaker A: Okay. Well, Gary, good to see you again. It's been a long time. Well, it hasn't because we saw each other in Milan, but it's good to see you chat properly. I'm going to ask you to nip for a coffee, take a little break.

Speaker B: Thank you.

Speaker A: And Nick's going to join me in the studio. Thank you.

Speaker C: Thank you.

Speaker A: Welcome back. I'm now joined by Nick Falco, who's the product and technical director at Mechline Developments. Nick, welcome to Kitchen Kosti.

Speaker C: How are you? Very well, thank you. Good to see you.

Speaker A: Long time no see.

Speaker C: Absolutely.

Speaker A: I think it's been, God, it's got to have been two decades. It has been many moons, hasn't it? You're looking well for it anyhow.

Speaker B: Thank you.

Speaker A: And thank you for joining us in the studio on this rather warm day. So tell us a little bit about, like, you and, you know, where you brought up and how you got into this industry of ours. Watch boys met line.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker C: Yep. So Peterborough is my home city. Uh, Moved down of there probably early 90s actually out to a village on the Lincolnshire Cambridgeshire border. So probably about half an hour north of Peterborough. Me and my wife have continued to live there. We've been there over 30 years now and we've got a 26 year old daughter that's just about to leave the village to disappear off to America.

Speaker A: Wow. You look old enough. Amazing. No, trust me, I feel old enough,

Speaker C: uh, from a working perspective. Left school as soon as I could. Couldn't stand school if I'm brutally honest. Didn't really apply myself. Well to school. Work did appeal um, to me though I have to say. So took an apprenticeship in electrical engineering and uh, completed that. But quickly realized actually that I didn't want to work in one place all the time. So that's where m, my journey in the food service industry started really.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker C: With service and installation field engineer. So that's where you started out on the road, um, installing product, servicing product, maintaining product. So yeah, that's, that's where it began. It could have been the shortest marriage in life actually because about uh, six months after me and my wife got married, um, I made a bit of a decision to come uh, away from the tools.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker C: Um, and take a look at the sales and product side of the, of the industry. Which I thought I would try. And um, if it all failed miserably I could go back, back to the tools and do, do what I was originally doing. But here we are 36 years later. So.

Speaker A: Okay, what was that first company that you moved?

Speaker C: So the first company I was at was a last year, uh, an industrial frying range company.

Speaker A: Right. Okay.

Speaker C: Um, it's a Dutch company called Florigo. They um, had a UK subsidiary at the time based close to where I live and uh, yeah, so I was installing and servicing frying ranges. They were then purchased by Serviquip.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: Which were uh, a big business back in the day for qsr, Ah, food service. So. And then moved on to sort of all the QSR equipment, KFCs, McDonald's of this world, lots, um, of different pizza places back in the day with fast food products. So uh, yes, coming off the tools, I spent a year with a distributor in Cambridgeshire. Well equipped if anybody remembers them.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: Um, from a manufacturing perspective, my life started at Hobart. Eight years at Hobart regional sales, then technical sales, uh, then product development actually. Um, moving on after that to Myco again sales and um, some senior sales roles there. Then moved to the Alley Group actually. So.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker C: Spent four years with the ALI Group, but I've sort of come full circle. So, um, I've now been at MacLine. This is the ninth year. And, uh. Yeah, time flies, isn't it? Yeah. And that's obviously in the thick of product development and, um, design and development of. Or redesign or redevelopment of existing product, but designing and developing new, uh, innovations as well.

Speaker A: Okay. And you cook at home. Are you a foodie or.

Speaker C: I do. I wouldn't say I'm a foodie foodie, but yes, I do cook at home.

Speaker A: You do cook at home?

Speaker C: Yes, I've got an Italian heritage, so I've.

Speaker A: All right. Okay. Yeah.

Speaker C: So, yeah, uh, luckily I've got the gene, I think. So, yeah, do like to cook. I find it quite relaxing. That is one of my. One of my passions other than work. So, yes, do cook predominantly Italian, but we will. We will dabble with other cuisines.

Speaker A: Okay. And, you know, I mean, you. 32 years or longer in the food service.

Speaker C: 36.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: This year, you know, you started with that technical perspective and you went into commercial side. I know you're kind of still in the commercial side, but now you're back doing more technical stuff. Yeah. What sort of drew you back to technical bit was there, uh, like, you know. Yeah. What was that?

Speaker C: I think, to be fair, from a sales perspective, enjoyed what I did. Certainly my time at Hobart and my coffee, really enjoyed it. But, yeah, I think just drawn back to that technical aspect of how to develop products. What goes wrong with product? What are the needs and wants of customers? Um, how can we improve how things work in a kitchen? The simplest little things, uh, for us that we work on, make a big difference. That is a big driver with our business that we're looking to see. How can we make an installation simpler? How can we make operation of a product more simple? That's what we're all about, really. So that's. That's a big driver when we develop, um, new product or review and refresh existing products.

Speaker A: Okay. So it's got that ease of use and easy install and Absolutely running it, I suppose. So you hold the cfsp, uh, qualification from the Food Service Equipment Association. What Certified Food Service Professional. Think it is, isn't it? I think that's what it's called. What. Why did you do that? I mean, what does it mean? We see a lot of people doing it now. What does it mean to you?

Speaker C: Yeah, I think, um, to me, we were early adopters. So during my time at Maiko. Yeah, it was 2009. Um, so we were fairly early adopters. Uh, we Saw it as a good way to increase the skill set and bring the standard of the team to where it needed to be. So if the team were going to do it, then it stood to reason that I would do it also.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker C: I think it's useful actually for people coming into the industry. I think it's useful to give a really good overview. It is a general overview, to be fair, of a complete kitchen, how a kitchen operates, um, the types of product that you would find within the kitchen environment flows. So, you know, stuff you do all day long, to be fair.

Speaker A: So you recently did a video series called Busting the Myths with mech liners.

Speaker C: We did myth busting, yes.

Speaker A: Um, what was that about? Tell me what that, what is that about?

Speaker C: I was trying to get the message across to, um, try and uh, gently educate the industry so they could understand facts behind the myths, if you like. Um, there's a lot of information that you hear within the industry not quite factually correct. So it's just a fun way of us trying to get across a message that things like certification, accreditation, um, do they matter? Yeah, absolutely they matter. For us as a business, they're an absolute must. They are a differentiator, we feel. And that gives us the ability to, um, go to market knowing that we've got the most certified or accredited product we could possibly have. Regardless of what the product is, whether it be gas product, whether it be a water product, environmental product, hygiene product, the process is no different for us.

Speaker A: Okay. And there is quite a lot of quotations out there, isn't it? You know, BBA and. Yeah, I mean, yeah, there are many.

Speaker C: Yeah, it depends on the type of product. Obviously if it's a water related product, years ago it would have been RAS as the, as the known standard. That's moved now to an NSF or a, uh, KIWA standard, which is Regulation four. Um, it always was that to be fair with ras, but people just assumed it was a RAS certification. Ras were the certified body, so it wasn't actually the certification.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker C: Regulation 4.

Speaker A: So the standard now is that keyword.

Speaker C: You said the standard is Regulation four, but, um, the market has been opened up that you can actually have your products tested by ras still should you wish, or you can have it by Kiwa or nsf. So you can choose now the, um, certified body that tests your product for you.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker C: I think for us it was really important when we changed, so part of the decision was time. For those that are familiar with RAS approvals, they take forever just to get, to get through and to get to the point where you're accredited, they do run out every five years as well. So you've got to recertify every five years. With Kiwa, it was a very painless process. And I actually got the products that we've put through so far, which are all of our pre rinses and um, water products. They're not just material tested, they're actually tested as a finished product as well. So they're endurance tested. So it's actually brought more testing of your products.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Okay. And so, you know, you're in charge of um, product and development, I think is fair say. So what does the average day look like for you? I mean, you know, are you in the office, you're on the road. I mean today in a podcast studio.

Speaker C: Yeah, predominantly factory, um, base in Milton Keynes. Okay. So most days spent there, to be fair. Occasionally I'll be out in the field. So it could be a field trial that we're doing. So we use lots of local sites that are local to us at the factory to um, proof products.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker C: Um, it could be supplier visits. We've got a very diverse supply chain and um, it's important to us that the long standing relationship is maintained. So yeah, it's a, it's a varied, varied bag to be fair.

Speaker A: Okay. And you involved in solutions like is it hygienics? Is that, am I saying that right? Yeah. Air surface sanitizer.

Speaker C: That's correct. Champagne.

Speaker A: What drove that? I mean did that come around Covid or was that.

Speaker C: No, it's actually before COVID Yeah. So, um, we launched that product in 2018 and it was originally designed to take malodor from kitchens.

Speaker A: So remove, I was explaining badly.

Speaker C: Yep. Yes. We designed it originally to, to remove smell from a kitchen environment. Now whether that be waste, so whether it be uh, a, uh, bin store, whether that be the kitchen environment itself, that's what we originally designed it for. But then Covid did come along and that was quite an interesting timeline for us in that we went from um, being extremely busy to not being particularly busy at all for the first two or three days when lockdown hit.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker C: A couple of weird things happened actually in the NHS then decided that they wanted Nightingale hospitals and we received a phone call to say, how many thousands of ham wash basins could you produce in the next two weeks? So yeah, that started things along quite nicely. And whilst in. So we worked, there was a core team at the factory working to assist with that. Yeah, we got curious about what hygienics could do for virus, um, as well as odour and bacteria. So, yeah, it was quite an interesting process that we went through.

Speaker A: And it kills most bacteria.

Speaker C: Yeah, we, um, we actually found a test facility in the uk completely independent. They'd got actually a, um, surrogate for the virus, so SARS CoV2 surrogate. So they were able to test to see whether it would work or not with enveloped viruses. So flu Covid. And yeah, the results were phenomenal, I have to say. It absolutely works. Yeah. So, uh, yeah, it's a 99.99% kill rate for Saskov2 within three hours of turning the thing on.

Speaker A: Come on.

Speaker C: No brainer.

Speaker A: Why wouldn't you have it?

Speaker C: Yeah. Um, and weirdly, as you would imagine, as soon as our certification and approvals came through, business went through the roof. These things were going out, um, in pallet loads all over the place as well. So, yeah, we supplied a lot to mainland Europe, um, obviously a lot into the uk, which is our domestic market. But, um, yeah, they've gone as far afield as Saudi Arabia. Lots in the Middle east, actually Africa. Yeah, they've. They've literally. They've got.

Speaker A: It's a fantastic story, isn't it, for. It is for British manufacturing, which sometimes M is maligned down, um, slightly. So it's a really positive story.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're really fired up. So, you know, the process of developing that product is no different to any other product we do. We develop. It is quite a strict process. I think Gary mentioned earlier that we're very disciplined in our approach. It is market driven. So the market analysis has to be there. Obviously there doesn't need to be a return on investment. That helps. Uh, we do like to get paid for what we do. So, uh, we're no different to any other business. Yeah. Um, it's looking for those niches really, where people have either ignored it or, or they've just missed an opportunity. And that's where a lot of our products, although I think Gary said they weren't particularly sexy. That's like calling my babies ugly, to be fair. But, uh, I'll take him to task about that afterwards. Yeah, we'll have a little conversation about that one. But, um, yeah, it's important that, uh, we stick to process. You find it a lot with certification, accreditation that without the process you won't get that. You won't get that certification. So it's.

Speaker A: I think I'll defend him. It wasn't him, it was me, wasn't it? He says. I think he Said trendy, same difference. So just, just quickly that journey between kind of you identify a problem and what a finished product looks like. Yep. How does that journey go?

Speaker C: So it could be uh, one of two ways. The uh, the two processes we tend to follow. One would be a, what we call a fast track process. So it could be a product we already develop, but a client's asking for a variation of that. So it could be a shorter product, be a pre rinse or uh, a taller product or a longer product. Uh, could have a different spout on it, could have a different uh, bowl filler or diffuser in there, could have water saving features. And because we've got so many variations of product, it's quite easy for us which is why we call it a fast track to say okay, if it's technically possible and we've got the components to be able to manufacture that, why not, why wouldn't we do it?

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker C: Um, it's a little unusual because a business of our size, you know we, we will. I'm not saying we do one off bespoke products, but we're not far off where the MOQ would be really low for us to be able to, to validate um, a product that, that would be a variation of our standard or core products. Um, the other route is a little bit more involved as you would imagine. Uh, we use um, a stage gate process so it's go, no go. So we check the market, we understand if there is a place for it. We tend to shy away from what we would call me too products. So we're not looking for marketplaces where it's flooded with product already. We're looking to innovate or to pioneer something in a marketplace that is yet to mature. So that's very important. You'll see very few of our products will be designed and developed or launched as a um, alternative to something that's already on the market. There will be a real differentiator uh, um, if it looks similar, our pre rinse range for instance you mentioned, I think with Gary earlier, Briam and lead, um, that was very important to us when we developed our range of Aquatechnics pre rinses. Aqua Jet is still probably the best known pre rinse in the marketplace. You see them everywhere. People are switching to the Aquatechnics because they want, want diffuser that saves water. They want the component to be interchangeable. So um, you know, should you wish to want to change your product, you don't have to buy a new one, you just buy the component to convert it on site. It's very straightforward. It's tested at the factory before it leaves, so it is complete when it leaves. Which means it's a lot easier to install than some others where, you know, there's no blister pack, where you're opening components and then having to install it on site. It is literally ready to go. Strange story, actually, a funny story. We do actually put a label on our products, um, that have been wet tested to tell people they've been wet tested. Because we were getting phone calls to say, um, there's a little bit of dampness in the product. I think it's a secondhand product you sent me. Uh, we don't sell secondhand products. So all of our products that are wet tested now have the label to say the reason it's wet is it's been wet tested. So that proves to us that we've got a robust product and it's gone out the door. Absolutely. As it should have done. So our returns rate from an industry standard is very, very low, I have to say. Yeah, we're not perfect, nobody is. But yeah, we do. We do the best we can to the best of our ability with the team we have and it just works.

Speaker A: Yeah. And I mean, you've just shown that it's so much more than just taps and grease packs, isn't it?

Speaker C: Yeah, it's.

Speaker A: There's a lot goes on, a lot more to it.

Speaker C: There is maybe just aren't aware of. Yeah, it's not a large team and you know, we're very transparent as a manufacturer in the uk. We love people to come and see us. We've got a good meeting room or meeting rooms. We've got a, um, decent sized boardroom, showroom. So anybody in the industry that's in the vicinity of the Milton Keynes area, give us a call and, um, we can arrange that you can use the facilities. Happy. To show people around should they wish. Um, you can see the manufacturing process. So you can see the testing process. Uh, you can see, see guys physically putting products together. Gary's probably right. It's not the most glamorous thing to see, but actually the amount of people that come to us and say, I didn't realize you actually made it. Um, they just thought it was bought in, put on the shelf and then sort of picked and packed and sent out. Come and see us and you'll see that, uh, the product is actually assembled and tested in house. Yeah.

Speaker A: Okay. Well, fascinating insight and thank you, Nick, for joining me. We're going to take a short break um, here about more about Mech Line and then we're going to invite Gary to come back into the studio.

Speaker C: Perfect, thank you.

Speaker B: If you work in commercial food service you already know that the details matter. The drain that backs up the grease tap that fails to perform, the tap that wastes water every single shift. These are the everyday problems that cost operators time, money and compliance headaches. Mechline have been solving exactly these problems since 1991. They're a British manufacturer based in Milton Keynes and they make specialist equipment for commercial kitchens that genuinely works, covering fogs, management, hygiene, water, gas and pest control. Their products are uh, quality certified, fully tested and built around one simple continuously improving food service and hospitality environments. Whether you're a kitchen designer, uh, an operator, uh, or a specifier, Mechline are worth knowing. Find out more@Mechline.com that's M E C-H-L-I-N-E.com.

Speaker A: Right, well welcome back. I'm now joined by Gary Zacher's come back in the studio and Nick's obviously still here with me. We'll start this group uh, discussion. So gentlemen, between the three of us we've got like over 80 years of experience which is scary really. Nick, looking back over the last kind of 30 years, what has been the most significant technological leap in commercial kitchens?

Speaker C: I uh, think for me it's probably the Internet.

Speaker A: True.

Speaker C: You know I remember and I am showing my age now, but I do remember the days of as an engineer out in the field waiting for uh, the office to phone me back at 4:30 in a wet and not very pleasant uh, phone box somewhere in the middle of nowhere to find work for the next day. The introduction of the Internet found its way certainly from a field based perspective just to improve things massively. Um, take a look now though at what it's done for product and connected kitchens. Um, you know it's just come so far. I think AI is now going to be a thing for sure. We've all uh, Gary arranged that actually quite kindly but we've all had um, AI training to understand uh, how to get the best from it and how to protect ourselves as a business as well. Um, IP is a big thing there. So you know it's important that um, if we are going to use new technologies such as that, that um, works for us and it's safe.

Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. Gary, welcome back.

Speaker B: Thank you.

Speaker A: Same question to you really from your perspective, where's the market changed?

Speaker B: I think from my point of view where I've seen the biggest change is the number of manufacturers that have actually come into the UK with their own offices over the years. You know, if you look back, if you look back 25, 30 years ago, um, you have main distributors, you know, you have the likes of Serve Equip, as Nick already mentioned, you had the likes of Equip line, um, who were very focused on the QSR market and they brought in some really strong brands. And as those brands grew, the manufacturers come in in their own right, they had their own offices. And I think that has changed quite dramatically. I think the other thing is where we should be proud as British manufacturers is the amount of brands that have been bought by other companies. You know, if you look over the years, the number of British brands foundation is massive. Yeah, huge, Huge, huge. It's a shame to see it go. But that's, that's what happens with success. You know, there are so many brands over the years that were UK manufactured, that were bought by somebody else or manufacturing moved abroad because of the success of the brand. So I think that's where I would probably say we're seeing the biggest change.

Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. Okay. And Mechline, you know, you focus on like unseen bits of the kitchen, drainage, air quality, pest control, you know, uh, oil management. It's kind of, as we said before, the most glamorous parts. But have you noticed how consultants or operators prioritize these back of house environmental systems compared to say 20 years ago or like when you started at Mechline just, uh, just under a decade ago?

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: Has that changed how?

Speaker C: I think it has, yeah. I think the um, certainly the consultant fraternity are very well educated on um, again going back to certification, going back to the accreditation of product. They're looking for something that lasts as well. You know, they're putting it forward to their client and um, they want it to reflect well on what they've done as part of the project. So you know, it's quite interesting when you hear people say, oh, the Mechaline product's not the cheapest you can buy. Absolutely. It isn't. It's not all about the price for us, it's about quality. So um, when somebody buys a gas hose for instance, and they put our safety set on the gas hose, it's got a lifetime guarantee. I bet there's very few people that know that. So if that gets damaged, installed correctly, if it gets damaged, we'll replace it for a charge. It's as simple as that. So they're the types of things that we're probably at, ah, fault for not shouting about, you know, it's. We live and breathe it every day, but we probably don't share it. Share that sort of information very well.

Speaker A: Yeah, because I imagine the claims are probably quite small anyway.

Speaker C: They're minute.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: Uh, if it's installed correctly, it just doesn't go wrong. So. Yeah, uh, not with a safety set on it, with the, with the swivel system. So, um. Yeah.

Speaker A: And I mean, Gary, you know, fog, which people, which is. You can explain what that is really, I suppose better than me and the water industry, you know, why is that important? I mean, what is fog anyway, first of all?

Speaker B: Well, fog is fats, oils and grease. But we actually put an S on the end because we actually, within our system we also deal with starches, uh, within the grease pack. Now, you know, why is it important? Uh, the main reason it's important is we have very old drainage systems. You know, the population continuously grows year on year, but our drainage system doesn't grow. So we've got, you know, very small drains that basically we're putting fogs down on a regular basis and they need to be maintained. You know, we, we've all heard of the lovely word fatbergs. Um, and we all, we all see the pictures of fatbergs, but that comes, that comes from poorly maintained drains. Now, you know, does it come from domestic life? You know, in domestically, have we got legislation around fogs? No, we don't. So of course when we go into commercial where we do have legislation, people look like, well, why does it matter? We don't have it at home.

Speaker C: I think it's an interesting point you've raised actually, Gary, in that, um, Fatbergs, we, uh, didn't actually do this as one of the Mythbusters, but Fatbergs, they do exist, but they actually are developed through wet wipes that um, get caught within the aged sewer systems. And then the fatwa in Greece will follow up and just back up. So it's not the actual cause of a fatberg.

Speaker A: The root cause, baby wipes or whatever.

Speaker C: The root cause, sanitary wipes. Baby wipes, wet wipes. There's obviously work going on to ban wet wipes that don't dissolve, that are not water based, which will be, um, uh, a massive improvement for the, um, uh, water and sewerage companies. Sewers are not maintained in the UK as they used to be either. So, um, that's another reason why, um, you do get blockages. So there are many reasons. But, um, obviously it's good business for us.

Speaker A: And talk about the commercial aspects, Nick, I mean, do you think companies understand their obligations?

Speaker C: It's improving. It's definitely improved. Rad. I think, um, certainly in the last 10 years, the good operators now understand that whilst they've got a choice, actually every operator has got a free choice to put any grease mitigation product in their kitchens or nothing should they wish. There's no legal requirement to actually install product, which is a bit of a shame, but there is a legal requirement not to pollute the sewer. So that's where the, the, uh, education piece needs to come from to say that there are many ways you can stop fatwood grease and starch going into the, the sewer. If you do it and you're not using any equipment, the water sewage companies will, uh, recharge, as they call it. So you'll get a recharge notice to say, we can prove that it was you polluted the drain. We've had to clear it and as a consequence, here's the bill, which could

Speaker A: be a lot of money.

Speaker C: Yes. Uh, on average, £3,500 as a minimum. Um, you can see some horror stories in the catering press, actually, that there were a couple of larger companies that have been find way more than that, um, as repeat offenders. So it's important that the water Industry Act 111, which is the legal requirement not to pollute the sewer, should be taken seriously, actually. But, um, I do think in the last 10 years we've seen an improvement, but there's still work to do for sure.

Speaker A: Yeah. And Gary, from your perspective, when you go and talk to people about Mechline products, is it a hard sell or do people kind of get it now?

Speaker B: I think it's certainly not an opening conversation. Unless they've got a problem. Unless they've really got a problem. Yeah, it's certainly not the opening conversation.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Um, it is still very much a education sale rather than a, oh, we do this and we do that and, you know, it's not a catalog sale. It is and education piece. I think it is getting better. As Nick just said, the people are far more aware of it and they're far more aware of the compliance that they need to, they need to meet within their food service operations. But again, going back to what Nick just said, you know, we see on every consultant's drawings that we tender for now more and more of grease management systems, more and more hygienic type systems, because people get it and people want to provide the best quality, uh, environment for people to work in and for people to eat in. So it's really important. It's really, really important. So I think as long as the consultants are still doing their bit, the education piece will continue.

Speaker C: I think that goes back to, to the ethos of our product development, though, in that, you know, these are not nice to have these products. They do solve issues. So, you know, we've got many, many, many years of, um, great testimonials where our product has gone in not because people actually thought it was sexy or trendy and wanted it, they needed it because it actually solved the problem they had. And that's, that's what we do with when we develop the product. We take that into account, uh, it. To see what are the issues that. What are the pain points operators have and how can we help resolve that.

Speaker A: Yeah, and you've been expanding kind, uh, of internationally or. And you are international, but maybe even more so with Milan Host. I saw you, Scott. Hot golf. Golf host coming up. You've been to Asia? You come back from Asia?

Speaker B: We've been, yeah, just been to Asia. We're in Asia in, at the FHA show in April.

Speaker A: Racking up there. My.

Speaker B: Uh, yes, very much so.

Speaker A: The conversations you're having international markets, are they. Are they the same as the uk? Are they different?

Speaker B: I, um, think there is slightly more education internationally. Okay. I think they are more aware of the compliance that they need to meet, which, you know, if I go back to fha, which was a great show in Singapore, one of the early questions that we were asked continuously is, is it compliant? You know, is it certified? What accreditation do you have? Because they know the importance of it, because it also brings the longevity. So it becomes an investment for them. You know, they, they also understand that it's, um, they get an ROI on it as well. So going back to what Nick just said a moment ago about we're not the cheapest in the market. No, we're not. But actually that's a capital cost. It's about cost of ownership now. And people are starting to understand, certainly internationally, more about cost of ownership. You know, okay, I might invest a little bit more up front now, but I'm going to get that money back, you know, within my first year, two years, whatever it'll be. So the conversations are very different. Um, and I do, we do feel that they kind of get it a little bit more over there. This could be a bit, you know, this could be a bit wrong, uh, to say, but I, you know, I do think, you know, there's a lot of buzzwords that go around the UK market and people. A bit of hearsay, you know, when we talk about environmentally friendly, when we talk about um, energy saving and things like that.

Speaker C: Greenwash I think they call it.

Speaker B: Yeah, there you go. Um, but, but I think it's, you know, I think it's important that we do actually understand what the benefits are of all of these, especially with water

Speaker A: in this country, which is a. Yeah. Becoming more and more valuable, isn't it?

Speaker B: Oh absolutely, absolutely. And um, it's a bigger issue than energy.

Speaker C: Yeah. And in other parts of the world that, um, as Gary has said, it's more prolific. You know, the resource is that much more limited. So yeah, you've got to do something about it. And um, places like Singapore for instance, you know, the, the discharge rate from a commercial kitchen into a sewer is way lower than it is currently in the uk, believe it or not. And that's because they've got a limited resource. They've got uh, an ecosystem there with a lagoon that they're looking to not pollute. So there's a lot more legal requirements and a lot more legislation around what you can discharge down to drain in Singapore for instance, and in other parts of the world. Um, so we will follow. But it does give us a good lead from an international perspective that, you know, when Gary comes back from his fact finding missions and he's got a requirement for a certain product. Sometimes our UK product can be adapted to meet the needs of international customers. Sometimes it's an international product that stands completely alone from our uh, core product mix because it's a complete requirement for that particular country. You know, national deviations of standards or certification that we don't have in the uk. So it's a bit of a mixture really for us.

Speaker A: How do you like manage that? You know, the different frameworks, different legislations.

Speaker C: Rad. It's really not easy. Um, it takes masses and masses of time and effort and um, the team do a really good job. I've just actually we've expanded slightly in that we've got a regulatory and compliance manager in place now to assist with some of this.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker C: Because it just takes so much time and effort from the R and D team, from the technical team to fully understand it. The, uh, other big driver obviously is cost. I, uh, wouldn't be exaggerating to tell you that our accreditation and certification for our products currently costs us over £100,000 a year to maintain. That's no new accreditations, that's maintaining existing certification. Wow.

Speaker B: But that's important to us.

Speaker A: Yeah. Huge investment.

Speaker C: Yeah, it is, it is a huge investment, but it's also a big differentiator, of course. Product.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I mean, one of the questions, uh, when Nick and I sit down and somebody, you know, we look at a product and go, oh, yeah, we could we do this. The first question, the first question we do actually ask each other is, what's the roi? Because you can, you can always do everything, you can always recertify, you can always change the product. But, but you also have to invest the money in the, the right places. And you know, when you're already and starting off at your R and D budget, 100 grand down a year, it's a big negative to start from. M. But it's important, it's important for us to have that. It is, as Nick said, it is our point of difference and it's something that we really do promote back into, uh, our marketplace.

Speaker C: Weirdly though, from a product development perspective, product never fails. We might park it, time might not be right, market may not be right, technology may not be right. I've probably got a dozen or more projects on hold at the moment for products that we've taken a look at. The market's not ready or technology's not quite there that we will revisit. So it's just an absolute moving feast that I won't say we churn these products out because it's, it's, it's a little bit more, um, complicated than that. But um, it is a continual process.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker A: Okay, well that's been interesting to find all about Mechline. And so when we built this podcast, Gary, you said to me, rad, I want to do something different. I was, oh God, here we go. So I promised, um, but I conceded and I promised that today we turn the tables a little bit and you're going to ask me some questions. Um, whatever you want, basically. So Gary, go. Go for gold.

Speaker B: Okay then. Rad. Obviously, as we've already said, we've known each other for a long time. Uh, with. Between the three of us, we've been in here, this industry a long time. Mechline is also 35 years old this year as well. Discussed. So thought just for a bit of fun, why don't we play the ABC game?

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker B: So from, from a. Yeah. Can. How many companies can we name that are no longer around? Uh, that are either food service equipment manufacturers, uh, they're distributors, consultants even, or food service brands. Because, I mean, it's a little bit of a nostalgia time, isn't it? You know, you kind of go, oh yeah, I remember them. So I thought, well, why didn't we. Why don't we have we turn it on you and let's see how much you can remember.

Speaker A: Well, you gave me heads up on this, so I kind of. But I kind of cheated as well because I went for American brands. So I don't know if that's.

Speaker C: That's not cheating. Service equipment is food service equipment.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Some of them you might not know, but there was a company called Arabella Group and they were actually an airline catering company operating at the Stanson and Gatwick. And they got sold off to Sky Chefs in the early 2000s and then since then they've been sold again. But. So that's the A Benji's. Um, there was low cost sandwich shop. I don't remember Carluccio's.

Speaker B: Oh yes, yeah, good one, good one.

Speaker A: They. They were.

Speaker B: Was that the um, was it the

Speaker A: COVID that um, that 1999, just before,

Speaker B: just before COVID was. Yeah, right, right.

Speaker A: But heavily suffered during COVID the collapsed administration in 2020.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker A: D is Dawson food service equipment.

Speaker B: I think we all would have had that.

Speaker A: Which didn't actually liquidate. They, they dissolved that, didn't they? They broke the brands up. Was probably a strategic thing for the Ali Group. Made sense at the time. Eat.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker A: Um, I kind of see them brown again still, but they are.

Speaker B: I think it's kind of a dissolve brand into. Into what some of the others. But yeah, to be fair, I, I had it as well. Yeah.

Speaker A: Uh, Fatty Arbuckles Garner's food service equipment.

Speaker C: Yes, yes.

Speaker A: Hallmark Kitchens. Really good company. We obviously cease trading in 24.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: Really sad to see them go out genuinely. Yeah, yeah, really strongly. Uh, consultant.

Speaker B: We're really good for our business, for our industry.

Speaker A: Definitely.

Speaker C: Good.

Speaker A: Definitely. Um, uh, I haven't got an eye really.

Speaker B: Nicholas, Nicholas. You know you've got the extended years. Nick, come on.

Speaker C: Thank you for that, Gary. Yes, I do have an eye. Um, so there was a manufacturer called Imperial way back that would make.

Speaker A: Oh yeah.

Speaker C: Um, large, um, horizontal ranges holding equipment. And um, they're no longer.

Speaker B: So did they not get swallowed up by one of the big boys?

Speaker C: It's possible. Um, but as a brand.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker C: Cease being around a long time ago.

Speaker B: Oh, well, see, always have. Always fun to have somebody.

Speaker A: Jekyll and Hyde Club, which is actually a famous restaurant in New York.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker A: Where they would entertain, uh, tourists with uh, like live actors and. And it was really like full on.

Speaker B: I thought you were gonna go James. Uh, Jamie's Italian.

Speaker A: No, I could have.

Speaker B: Yeah. Because obviously.

Speaker A: Yeah. But anyway, K. I've struggled with Nick.

Speaker C: Might be helping back to equipment again. A, uh, brand called Cuppers Bush.

Speaker B: Oh, yes.

Speaker C: Very prolific back in the day. Still make domestic equipment now, but no commercial, unfortunately.

Speaker B: No, no, I remember we're doing some work with.

Speaker A: See, I've done a lot of restaurants and things, but. L was Little Chef. I mean, who doesn't love, uh.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker B: Or Little Thief, as we used to call breakfast. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Speaker A: That was it. M. Morewood. Vulcan.

Speaker C: Oh, yes.

Speaker B: Oh, gosh. Yeah.

Speaker A: And I struggled with it, to be honest.

Speaker B: I had NRC refrigeration.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: Now, I know they closed and they restarted, didn't they?

Speaker B: No, no, it just closed completely. It then created another brands came out of it, actually.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker B: But, uh, yeah, NRC Refrigeration, which was huge, um, back in the day.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: Um, for the retailers for their refrigeration systems.

Speaker A: Oh, I've got Old Country Buffet, which is really random.

Speaker B: Wow.

Speaker A: It's a buffet chain in the US and they went into bankruptcy during COVID

Speaker C: Anybody remember the product brand? Oliver Toms?

Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Speaker B: No.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker C: I'm rapidly becoming the equipment historian here, aren't I?

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Well, maybe P. Is there a P? I've not got a P or Q.

Speaker B: Oh, P. I've got Pizza Land.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker B: Pizza Land. And obviously now we can. We could probably. Is it Pizza Hut? That's Pizza Hut. Completely.

Speaker C: No, close some stores.

Speaker B: Q. I've got Quiznos.

Speaker A: Who?

Speaker B: Quiznos.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker B: They were a competitive brand to Subway. Oh. They had a. They had a number of stores in the UK and, uh, competing against Subway, but never quite made it.

Speaker A: Oh,

Speaker B: I've got Red Hot Buffet.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker B: I don't know if you remember.

Speaker A: No, no.

Speaker B: It was as much as you like. Brand of the mixture of M. Chinese, um, Italian, um, Mexican. Yeah. They had a number of outlets in and around the Midlands area, if I remember correctly. Yeah.

Speaker A: S. I've got shine.

Speaker C: Yeah, of course.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Unfortunately, another good, uh, company that went.

Speaker B: I serve.

Speaker A: Equip server quip.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Onto the older generation of our industry. STS of Oldham.

Speaker B: That was.

Speaker A: Jackie said.

Speaker B: No, Jackie was. Equip line.

Speaker A: Equip line. Okay, fine. Sorry, tootsies. I've got. I think they've restarted them. I don't know.

Speaker B: Oh, I don't know that one, but

Speaker C: no, I don't know that one, actually.

Speaker A: American Burger.

Speaker B: Oh, okay.

Speaker C: Okay.

Speaker A: Yeah, okay.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker A: Unate Food Service and Dairies of British Food Manufacturing. Dairy supplier.

Speaker B: Oh, okay.

Speaker A: Close. Yeah.

Speaker C: V

Speaker A: Anybody?

Speaker C: Uh, and I've got Viscount Catering.

Speaker B: Oh yes, yeah, you must remember them.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. W. I got Wimpy because Wimpy kind of went and they came and they're back again. But anyway, yeah, that's.

Speaker B: I was done with Wimpy got well,

Speaker C: well stood for equipment they used to make gas fired actually servery counters and, and um, heated serveries for the military, the mod.

Speaker A: X, Y, Z. I haven't got anybody, so.

Speaker B: X, I haven't got anybody. I. I apologize.

Speaker C: X, I've got Express Chef. Oh, uh.

Speaker A: God. So I think you do really well. All your, all your um, this Is

Speaker C: this for 36 years of the industry does for you. So uh, yeah, that was a. One of the first accelerated cooking systems.

Speaker B: Mhm. Yeah. Why I've. I've got yce.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker C: I've got the same one to be fair.

Speaker B: Yeah. Yce Yorkshire Catering Equipment. Catering equipment, yeah. They, you know, back. What was it, 15 years ago or whatever. They were a strong, strong distribution. Zed. Who's got a Z?

Speaker C: No, uh, I've got two Zanussi.

Speaker A: Oh yes, yeah. Brand that disappeared into actual.

Speaker C: Before that Zopas. Okay, so they were, they were what? Zanushi branded in the UK before it was a new sea. So Zopas, Zanussi, Electrolux.

Speaker B: Wow.

Speaker A: Wow.

Speaker B: There you go.

Speaker A: There you get. Well, okay, well, fantastic questions and a uh, bit of thought. Food for thought really. Yeah, some big brands there. Uh, just, just looking ahead for the rest of 26. I'm going to come on to a quick fire round in a minute but um, you know, you picked up quite a few accolades recently with nc, I think Gold winner or, or supply of the year and then gold winner for SME Market Buckinghamshire Wards. What does sort of the next rest of this year and the next five years look like for Mechline?

Speaker B: I think. Yeah. Um, we obviously we're quite proud of the awards that we win. I think it's very important to be recognized and uh, NC was as you said, was Associated Products and Services Supplier of the year, which was fantastic. And you know, we appreciate the support from all the NC members. We also did the gold business of the year for under 50 employees for um, Milton Kings and uh, Buckinghamshire. But we also were the overall winner of business of year for Milton Kings. Yeah.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker B: So. So if we're saying what we're looking forward to, well, we're now in the national, so. So yeah, we're now looking forward to hopefully doing very, very well in the national small, um, to medium business, enterprise business business. Award for under 50 employees, which is in November. So keep your fingers crossed. Um, we do well, but I think that the challenge now is, you know, everybody wants growth and you know, for us it's where, where do we get the growth? Because we've already discussed today the investments, the levels of investment we make. We want to continue making those investment. So, you know, we have to keep growing the business. And I think it's, you know, it's looking at our product range very closely, which is what we're currently doing and saying what other markets can we diversify into?

Speaker A: Yeah, okay.

Speaker B: Um, we're really strong in the food service, but, you know, with, with some of the products we, we have, there are absolutely, absolutely, absolutely care homes. Yeah, but it's, yeah, diversity classification, I think is, is, you know, either with product or with market segment is where we've got to go next. We've got to keep taking our expertise, uh, wherever we can.

Speaker A: M Definitely. Okay, so we're going to come in here to end the podcast. We're going to do a quick fire round. You might have heard it or not heard it. It's really quick. So short answers. I'll start with Nick. Favorite city in the world for food.

Speaker C: Milan.

Speaker A: Love it. Have to say that the Italian roots

Speaker C: and spending so much time there, to be fair.

Speaker B: Um, I think mine is Paris.

Speaker A: Oh, really?

Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. I love the city.

Speaker A: I'm surprised it's Amsterdam.

Speaker B: No, you don't go that far, but no, no, Paris food, the environment, phenomenal.

Speaker A: Ultimate comfort food. You know, when you've had a long week. What are you gonna have?

Speaker B: I'm really old fashioned and a bit of a traditional. I gotta love my Sunday roast dinners, I'm afraid. Rad.

Speaker A: Nice. Nice.

Speaker B: Really?

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: Italian again, I'm afraid. Pasta puttanesca.

Speaker A: Okay. What is that?

Speaker B: Uh, I'm glad you asked.

Speaker C: You should perhaps look at the history of it. Um, we probably couldn't say on air, but it's, uh, it was a food that was introduced in Rome many years ago to feed, um, ladies of the night, should we say.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker C: To keep them energized for the evening. Um, but a very spicy Italian dish. Just absolutely love it.

Speaker B: Excellent.

Speaker A: Nice. Favorite piece of commercial equipment. Commercial kitchen equipment being. You can't say mech lion. Sorry.

Speaker C: Um, it's got to be a commercial dishwasher. Yeah. Unsung hero of the kitchen.

Speaker B: Yeah, sorry. I'm. I've got to go back to my food service roots. After 25 years of rotisserie ovens and rotisserie chicken. You cannot be a rotisserie chicken.

Speaker A: Projects a minute. Uh, commercial officers, they're having one put on there.

Speaker B: Really Fantastic. Yeah, yeah. It's the theater, the taste, the smell. Yeah. I, you know, I've still got a love for that machine, I'm afraid.

Speaker A: One ingredient you could never live without.

Speaker C: Uh, I need two ingredients. Rad. It's got to be garlic and it's got to be basil.

Speaker A: Nice.

Speaker B: I'm really sad. Chorizo.

Speaker C: I love chorizo.

Speaker A: Really do. If you, I mean you just go wacky with this if you want. But if you're not in the food service equipment industry, what would industry would you be in? Dream. If you want.

Speaker B: It is a dream. It is. Right. I, I said earlier I love my sports. I never sat there and I've never sat there and said I want to be a fireman or a policeman, whatever. But I think it would have to be something within the sports industry. So in some way or form. Okay. Would love that, I think. Yeah. Just love that.

Speaker A: Professional footballer.

Speaker B: No, no, more on the. No, no, we would never be that. It would never be that. It would just be involved with a, you know, sport, a big sports club or sports environment. Um, and just doing something around that.

Speaker C: Um, my passion at work is motorcycling. So I think something to do with motorcycling. Okay, whatever that would be. But um, yeah.

Speaker A: Motorcycle.

Speaker B: Plural.

Speaker C: Motorcycle. It's become a disease, I'm afraid.

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker A: They're.

Speaker B: He doesn't say on air how many because he doesn't want the wife to know. More than one.

Speaker A: Are they not stored at home? Secret location.

Speaker B: Oh, it's good to shout him out really.

Speaker A: You can really draw me in it now, Mrs. Falco. You can check that out. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Finally. Um, best meal you've ever eaten. You got. You don't have to tell me where it was but, but maybe location.

Speaker B: Not a, um, I've, I've got to say because of location. Recently I was um, in Singapore, which we mentioned for the FHA and went to treat myself at um, Marina Bay. Uh, Marine Sounds Bay.

Speaker A: Oh yeah, yeah. Uh, amazing hotel.

Speaker B: Oh, phenomenal hotel. Phenomenal hotel. But the food was equally stunning. And having a, ah, meal at sunset up at high and just over.

Speaker A: But that wasn't cheap.

Speaker B: No, no, but it was a treat.

Speaker C: It was a treat.

Speaker A: Not everyday.

Speaker C: Fair enough. I struggle with this one actually. Right. London. I remember, I don't know if you remember, Gary Rhodes and Rhodes 24.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: Had a phenomenal meal there one night that was really, really nice. But actually nothing fancy, but the best pizza by far I've ever eaten was from a, um, a visit on a wet Tuesday evening to a village called Gorgonzola on the outskirts of Milan. Um, a pizza arrived on the table that was the size of a dustbin lid, and it was the best thing I have ever eaten. I have to say, it was phenomenal. And 400 people in there on a Tuesday, wet Tuesday evening, probably, um, told you all you needed to know about the quality of the food. So, uh, yeah, that's one that sticks out.

Speaker A: Fantastic. Well, brilliant. Um, answers, sadly, that brings us to the end, the podcast. I hope you both enjoyed it.

Speaker C: It's been great fun. Thank you. Yes.

Speaker B: Yeah, it's good fun.

Speaker A: Great. Okay, well, Gary Sacca, market, um, development director, and Nick Falco is the product and technical director for metclone Development. It's been, it's been a pleasure having you both here in the studio and looking back over the last kind of 30 years together during the ABC, which did stump me a little bit as we went through, and it's clear that Mechline, it's, you know, people think of it as grease traps or taps or whatever, but I think it's, it's so much more than that.

Speaker C: It is.

Speaker A: And I thank you both for your time.

Speaker C: Thank you.

Speaker A: And to our listeners, thank you for joining us today on Kitchen Curiosity. And if you enjoyed the conversation, please subscribe or leave us a review on Spotify, Apple or Amazon. We're back very soon with more from the food service equipment sector. Uh, until next time, I've been your host, Radford Chancellor, and you've been listening to Kitchen Curiosity.

Speaker B: Kitchen Curiosity is written and hosted by Radford Chancellor and is edited and produced by Tom Anderson. Kitchen Curiosity is a sound rebel production.