Design
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C&T Design and Equipment Co. helps start-ups fulfill their culinary dreams
Kitchen Creators, Dream Makers BY CHARITY SINGLETON CRAIG PHOTOGRAPHY BY JENNIFER L. RUBENSTEIN
Above: C & T Design principals enjoy lunch at one of their Indiana clients, Meridian Restaurant and Bar. Seated left to right are Vice President Mark Green, CFO Mike Kennedy and Vice President of Sales Gawain Guy. 8
edible INDY
food start-up boot camp issue 2016
alk into the headquarters of C&T Design and Equipment Co. on the Eastside of Indianapolis and you can immediately see the award cases full of trophies. And then, the framed pictures of client success stories on the walls of the hallway leading to their client test kitchen. Their warehouse is loaded with the best and newest in food service equipment, grouped together by project and ready to be shipped out to clients all over the United States. But to really get a sense of how C&T does business, you have to talk to the people. People are at the heart of this project-oriented company that’s been helping to design and install commercial kitchens for clients of all sizes since 1971. “There are a lot of dealerships that sell equipment. Some of them are very focused on processes, like catalog or Internet ordering, and for some of them it’s a showroom, with a focus on the product. They fill their wagon and they want to sell what they have on their shelves. We’re just more invested in people…and empowering our people to go out and help our clients get to where they want to be,” said Mark Green, vice president and one of three principal/owners of C&T. By “invested,” they really do mean a financial and professional commitment to their team members, too. Any time new sales consultants are hired, C&T provides a two- to three-year training period before setting them free to create and handle business on their own. “We really consider ourselves more of a professional services company as opposed to just a distributor,” said Mike Kennedy, CFO and another of the principal/owners. The professional services C&T provides are project-oriented, turn-key processes for helping food service enterprises of all types set up shop in the kitchen. From food trucks to military facilities, from start-up restaurants to hospitals, from caterers to convenience stores, C&T helps clients move from concept to working kitchen. “First, we identify where the client is in the process,” said Gawain Guy, vice president of sales and the third principal/owner. “They come to us in different stages,” Green added. “Sometimes they are already pretty far down the road, and they have a format we can build on. Sometimes we have to work backwards with them.”
