Greetings!

As we say goodbye to 2008 and welcome 2009, I’ve been reflecting on what the Clark Associates family has accomplished over the last year. At times it amazes me how the company has evolved since 1971.

At the beginning of 2008, we expanded our operations to Sarasota, Florida. Clark Florida has exceeded our expectations with several million dollars of contract work. Our focus has been bid contracts, design build, and Florida School State Contract work. Our desire is to continue growing and to extend our warehousing and distribution of food service equipment and supplies in these areas.

Our Bid Spec department ventured out on its own at the end of 2008 and now operates as 11400, Inc. 11400 is the AIA contract number for food service equipment. On a yearly basis, they install 80-100 jobs all over the East Coast. The creation of 11400, Inc. will help us distinguish the “hard bid” model from the design/build and negotiated contracts that Clark Food Service Equipment pursues.  

ClarkIT, our online ordering system, has been extended to our customers who utilize our services through the Pennsylvania DGS State Contract as well as customers outside of our traditional geographic delivery area.

To keep up with rapid growth in our e-commerce division, The WEBstaurant Store, we moved all warehouse operations into a much larger building in August. The new building features state of the art order pickers that will allow us to maximize space and grow into several new product categories. We also developed new software and shipping procedures that dramatically improved our efficiency.

The key ingredient to the success of our company continues to be our employees. These health and wellness benefits were introduced this year:

• Clark on the Move. A new program that had the employees counting their steps. Our employees were given pedometers and encouraged to increase their daily steps. This was a six-week program that instilled some ‘healthy’ competition in our employees throughout Clark Associates companies.
• A Body Mass Index Incentive. Employees are rewarded based on their BMI reading. Each employee weighs in and a BMI reading is calculated based on a person’s height and weight. If the employee’s BMI reading is below 30 at the end of year, a cash bonus is awarded.
• Gym Membership Reimbursement

Because teamwork is an essential attribute to the success of our company, we provide DiSC training to our employees. DiSC is a personality profile system that helps our staff to better understand themselves and others. By working as a team, we are able to achieve the goals of our company. The main goal remains the same – to serve our customers to the best of our ability.

Sincerely,



Fred E. Clark

President, Clark Associates, Inc.