2012 has been a year of progress, success and continued innovation. As a company, we've always tried to meet the needs of our customers better every day, and expanding our operations is one way we're continuing to do that.
We'll be opening our 7th cash-and-carry Restaurant Store in Baltimore in early 2013. This will bring our great prices, excellent selection and customer service, and a cutting-edge TheRestaurantStore.com website to foodservice operators in the Baltimore and Washington metro areas.
Our industry leading e-commerce site, WEBstaurantStore.com, will also be moving into a new home early in 2013. The building in Lititz will bring our Content, Development/Marketing, and Customer Service/Logistics teams back together under one roof. With room for nearly 200 employees, it will allow us to continue to grow. A cutting-edge test kitchen, and a fitness center, available to all Clark employees, are a few design highlights.
The WEBstaurant Store's distribution center in Madisonville, Kentucky, now employs over 80 people in three shifts. We're also looking forward to opening a third distribution center in Reno, Nevada later in 2013.
Other divisions have seen similar success and growth. For example, Clark Food Service Equipment has completed projects as far away as Texas and Hawaii. It also completed the largest single project in our history, providing over $3.3 million of equipment and millwork for Geisinger Medical Center’s new Atrium Café in their Hospital for Advanced Medicine building. This included a new cafeteria-style serving area, made to order patient care kitchen, and a large warewashing system for these two areas.
To better serve the needs of its customers, CFSE has also started a Designer Apprentice program, and is also implementing the REVIT design platform. This powerful tool lets the designers create their projects in 3D and provide life-like renderings of the rooms and design features.
Clark Florida moved into a new, larger office with warehouse space and have worked on concession stands for the USF Sun Dome Arena and McKechnie Field, the spring training home of the Pittsburgh Pirates
ClarkPRO (formerly ClarkIT) has also continued to expand its footprint, and now serves customers in 4 states. A new account management system provides excellent flexibility and allows our Account Managers to provide even higher levels of service and support.
Here are some other notable achievements from 2012, thanks to our employees' hard work: We've been named the second fastest growing company in Central Pennsylvania by the Central Penn Business Journal, and were further honored in November when they named us the 2012 Business of the Year for companies with more than 100 employees. Despite the difficult economy, we are happy to say that we have hired over 100 new employees in the past year.
Industry-wide, we're the sixth largest foodservice equipment dealer in the United States, according to Foodservice Equipment Reports magazine. What does this all mean for you, our valued customer? That we're constantly working hard to make your job easier and save you money.
We're also proud of our employees' involvement in the community and support their participation in Relay for Life events, and volunteer activities with Homes of Hope, Water Street Rescue Mission, and the Central PA Food Bank.
Looking ahead to 2013, we anticipate another challenging but successful year, and would like to thank both our employees for their hard work, and our dedicated customers for their business.
Best Regards,
Fred E. Clark
CEO, Clark Associates, Inc.