Welbilt, Inc. is an internationally recognized family of brands that designs, manufactures, and delivers commercial kitchen equipment and services worldwide. Food and beverage services cover facilities in foodservice, hospitality, healthcare, education, travel, catering, and small retail businesses.
Welbilt offers a comprehensive suite of products and services that can store, cook, hold, serve, and dispense hot and cold food and beverages, catering to the diverse needs of various industries. Besides, the company provides innovative kitchen startup and after-sales solutions. With its 12 elite brands and 3 innovative services, Welbilt has something to handle every step in foodservice operations.
Welbilt Brands
Welbilt introduces itself as “more than a name–it’s a promise,” resting on the founders, the Hirsch brothers’ commitment to “bringing innovation to the table.” Over the years, the company’s name, partners, and subsidiaries have changed. Still, the passion for constant innovation in pursuit of excellence has remained the primary driving force. Therefore, Welbilt has always worked with brands that have pursued the same goal, driven by the same motivation. Each manufacturer addresses different needs of commercial kitchens, so Welbilt can offer complete kitchen solutions to its customers.
1. Cleveland
Established in 1847, Cleveland is an internationally recognized leader in steam cooking equipment, clinging to its “timeless quality” motto. It has gained a reputation for delivering the best braising pans & tilt skillets, steam-jacketed kettles, and pressure and convection steamers. Cleveland never ceased evolving and developed many firsts in the Welbilt Development Center in Tampa, FL. For example, it introduced the first kitchen steamer (1974), a combination pressure and pressureless steamer (1987), a vertical steam boiler (1993), and a boilerless convection oven (2002).
2. Convotherm
Convotherm has been delivering top-of-the-line commercial combi ovens since 1976, continuously raising the standard in product and service quality and efficiency. Besides quality, engineers work tirelessly to improve the user-friendliness, sustainability, and aesthetics of their products. This rigor in product development has led to numerous patents for them. The energy-saving Closed System for Combi Ovens (1982), the fully automatic cleaning called CONVOClean system (2002), and easySystem, the first touchscreen panel for a combi steamer (2007), are some of its patented products. Convotherm became a subsidiary of Welbilt in 2017.
3. Crem
Crem joined the Welbilt family in 2018 as a leading brand in professional coffee machines. Brewing coffee is a passion. Grinding the coffee beans without losing the smell and aroma into a lightly caramelized frothy espresso is an art in its own right. Any form of art requires a crafty hand as well as the right tools. Crem blends cutting-edge technologies with the timeless tradition of hand-brewed coffee and designs an extensive line of coffee makers, ranging from manual to fully automatic machines, coffee grinders, and filter brewers.
4. Delfield
Founded in 1949, Delfield is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of refrigeration equipment. The company has been producing refrigerators, freezers, and refrigerated work tables as part of Welbilt, Inc. since 1999. Delfield markets its appliances under three categories. Besides reach-ins, blast chillers, and equipment stands in the refrigeration group, you can find beverage coolers, display cases, and dispensers in the serving systems category. In the third category, fabrication, drop-ins, utility stands, refrigerated prep tables, and hot food tables allow you to create customizable production centers.
5. Frymaster
Frying is the staple cooking method in practically every segment of the foodservice industry because fryers can cook everyone’s favorite snacks, side dishes, or main courses. Welbilt’s choice of fryers is Frymaster. Frymaster has used premium technologies and creative ideas to develop fryers, filter machines, oil caddies, and food warmers since 1935. Computer-controlled frying, built-in automatic oil filtration, and high-efficiency fryer systems are among the first innovations Frymaster introduced. Whether you run a full-service restaurant, cafeteria, or food truck, Frymaster has a frying solution to help ensure ongoing profitability.
6. Garland
Garland started manufacturing stoves in 1864. The company produced more than 200 stove models in its early years. The company swiftly reached its passion of becoming the world’s best stove and range manufacturer. Following the formation of the Garland Group in 1995, the brand expanded its product line. As a Welbilt member since 2008, Garland US Range has released high-quality ranges, innovative griddles, induction cooking equipment, broilers, fryers, and ovens. Garland’s effort to minimize cook times and energy use brought them four Kitchen Innovation Awards between 2017 and 2022.
7. Kolpak
Welbilt’s preference for walk-in refrigeration systems is Kolpak because it protects your future through durable and dependable walk-in units. The quality and taste of the meals you serve on customers’ tables start with the quality of food storage. Kolpak’s walk-in coolers, walk-in freezers, and walk-in cooler freezer combos can withstand the heaviest use in the busiest and largest food service facilities. The remote electronic control system, ArcticFox, in Kolpak walk-ins reduces defrost cycles, maximizes performance, facilitates tracking, and improves internal temperature retention.
8. Lincoln
A commercial kitchen would be incomplete without pizza ovens, so Welbilt has a member dedicated to pizza-baking equipment. Renowned for its expertise in conveyor pizza ovens, Lincoln Impinger Ovens takes its top seat here. With the high-performance conveyor and impinger pizza ovens, Lincoln promises consistency in pizza baking even on non-stop days. Apart from being the first to manufacture impingement ovens in America, the brand also incorporates Fast Bake and ventless technologies in its ovens. Lincoln ovens are equipped with air impingement technology and conveyor belts to reduce cook times, increase output, and minimize operator errors.
9. Manitowoc
Manitowoc ice machines are engineered for ease, decreasing challenges and simplifying the workflow in commercial kitchens. That’s why Manitowoc is the ice machine provider of the Welbilt organization. Ice, particularly nugget ice, is now a consumable commodity, so extreme caution should be exercised in production and storage. Manitowoc’s diligence in food safety and devotion to innovation, which increased user-friendliness and greenness, made the brand America’s best-selling ice machine manufacturer.
(Note: Welbilt announced in March 2022 that “it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its Manitowoc® Ice business to Pentair.”)
10. Merco
Cooking delectable dishes is one thing, but retaining their flavor until they reach customers is something else. Merco builds a bridge between your kitchen and customers, enabling you to serve quality on demand. The CrispyMax fried-food stations and MercoMax hot-holding cabinets maintain food at serving temperatures, ensuring it remains hot and healthy. Merco also offers pickup lockers, allowing self-serve and express pickup of food, beverage, or dessert orders. Merco has been under the Welbilt banner since 1985.
11. Merrychef
Regardless of the restaurant style you have, your customers will demand one thing: mouthwatering menus in a short time. Taste and speed are the core of today’s commercial kitchen concepts, but not at the expense of quality and consistency. This is where Merrychef comes into play. From the world’s first commercial pure microwave oven to the latest Connex series, Merrychef has always shaped the future of high-speed cooking. The groundbreaking technologies in its Eikon series high-speed ovens won the Kitchen Innovation Award for several years. The brand’s rapid cook ovens gained global recognition under the Welbilt name starting in 2008.
12. Multiplex
Multiplex entered the Welbilt group to refresh customers’ dining experience by quenching their thirst with cold, frosty beers and chilled soft drinks. Multiplex VISION beer coolers and ICECORE soft drink coolers feature a remote cooling system. They use HFC-free refrigerants for eco-friendliness and promise “whole-life cost reduction.” Albi series beverage dispensers deliver still and carbonated drinks, as well as water, ice-cold. The brand’s Fresh Blender is a self-serve beverage dispenser that prepares fresh blends, including fruit smoothies, frappes, milkshakes, and lemonades.
Welbilt Services
No two foodservice establishments are alike in many respects. However, they all need the same thing for success: a seamless workflow from kitchen design to equipment selection. Welbilt has a promise to its customers: to connect people, technology, and food seamlessly for a sleek look, increased functionality, flexibility, and space efficiency. This involves developing comprehensive kitchen systems tailored to customers’ needs. That’s why Welbilt partners with a wide selection of manufacturers. Besides premium products, customers also need services to integrate different appliances into one complete kitchen. The company offers three one-of-a-kind services.
1. FitKitchen
FitKitchen is a unique Welbilt service that provides innovative solutions for modern kitchen designs. The FitKitchen team brings together elite brands’ equipment, the culinary team’s expertise in cooking, and market development professionals’ research and analysis. The purpose is to offer its customers the most optimum and practical equipment, workstation concept, and kitchen design. The service delivers turn-key kitchen systems. The team also provides ghost kitchen, to-go, drive-thru, and no-touch delivery practices. Additionally, you can request kitchen optimization suggestions and virtual culinary training for your existing establishment.
2. KitchenConnect
Designing a well-integrated kitchen doesn’t guarantee success on its own. It should be continuously optimized to respond to emerging changes and expectations. Welbilt brands manufacture innovative equipment. KitchenConnect is a digital platform that collects and analyzes this data, making suggestions to optimize your kitchen operations. You receive detailed reports on menu management, utility consumption, equipment status, and food demand analysis for both peak and low business times. KitchenConnect agreed to work with HCL Technologies and began offering a secure cloud solution utilizing Microsoft Azure IoT.
3. KitchenCare
The final step in a thriving commercial kitchen operation is equipment maintenance. While you work hard to satisfy your diners, Welbilt handles the servicing issue through its KitchenCare system. KitchenCare is a planned maintenance program that begins with the initial purchase and installation of your equipment. The program adopts a proactive approach, scheduling regular maintenance cycles to maximize equipment lifespan, and achieves a first-time-fix rate of over 95%. You can also benefit from self-help videos, documents, and software to troubleshoot common issues on your own. In the event of a replacement, Welbilt uses performance-guaranteed, genuine OEM parts.
Welbilt Today
Today, Welbilt is a global leader with 12 brands, each occupying the top position or a close second in its respective product segment. The company sells products and services in over 100 countries, with nearly 65% of the sales in America. The organization’s carefully selected names produce innovative cooking, beverage dispensing, ice production and storage equipment, refrigeration, and food preparation & holding. That’s almost everything quick-serve or fast-casual restaurants, convenience stores, supermarkets, or hotels need. The company employs over 80 top-class chefs in its culinary team for product customization and personalization. Welbilt is the only company developing complete kitchen systems on the market.
