Podcast

Transcript

Joshua Miller (00:00)

All right, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the 5 in 20 podcast, where we have at least another five questions in 20-something minutes. I'm your host, Joshua Miller. And this time we're taking a deeper dive into the design process, more on the front-of-the-house side. Our guest is Harry Catalano, Regional Manager of Education Partnerships with Amtab. If you haven't heard of Amtab already, which I'm sure you have if you're in the K -12 world. If you haven't, you definitely should have. However, they also do work in the college and university world, not only helping you with designing those spaces, but also providing the manufacturing behind it and furnishing them. So definitely a lot of value with streamlining those processes there for you. So if you're looking to learn more on how to elevate those spaces, make sure you stick around for the value that's going to be dropped in this episode.

All right, Harry, thank you for joining in on this episode with me and the audience here to talk about this front of the house aspect, you know, the aesthetics, the atmosphere that all the students are diving into. However, before we get started, icebreaker question. I usually ask, what is your guilty pleasure snack? However, I will switch it up and ask you, what's your favorite restaurant?

Harry Catalano (01:20)

Oh man, that's a tough one, Josh. Well, for starters, thank you so much for having me on here. I've listened to a few of your podcasts previously, a few of your episodes, and they've been great. So we're really excited for this episode together. My favorite restaurant, I have to say, so there's a pizza place in downtown Park City on Main Street, or off of Main Street, it's called Davanza's.

Joshua Miller (01:32)

Awesome.

Harry Catalano (01:47)

I have to say that growing up, we used to take a trip out of Park City in Utah and that Davansa's place is some fire pizza, man. It's awesome.

Joshua Miller (01:59)

I'm definitely all about pizza. I'm ready to start traveling myself. So I'm in upstate New York, however, obviously I've had the New York City pizza and I'm told Connecticut has some pizza to die for as well. And remind me again, what area are you in?

Harry Catalano (02:07)

That's what I've heard. Sally's down there. I've heard it is unbelievable.

So I'm based in Charlotte, North Carolina, but I cover from Maine to Florida for Amtab. So I'm the Regional Manager of Education Partnerships for us. Yay.

Joshua Miller (02:28)

Nice, very large area. All right, also, we’ll be diving more into that, tell us a little bit about yourself and who Amtab is.

Harry Catalano (02:35)

Yeah, so I started with the Amtab about three years ago. I initially started as the International Education Manager and then moved to the Pacific Northwest. I was doing that for about a year and a half and then they moved me to the Northeast and eventually I got promoted to eventually covering managing the eastern half of the United States, specifically the East Coast. What Amtab does is we're a K through 12 manufacturer.

We're really known for our dining common space. We've really jumped in, but we've jumped into the signs, graphics, decor and learning environment space over these past couple of years. We really strive to make learning environments and dining common spaces more modern, popular, and fun together. So we work, yeah, we work hand in hand with nutrition professionals across the country and try to make their spaces into something.

Harry Catalano (03:33)

Less institutional, more food court, more of a food court basis or food court feel.

Joshua Miller (03:41)

Very cool, very cool. And one thing I love about you guys is, one thing I think finance and procurement people would love is that you guys do more than just the cafeteria, the dining areas. You also do pretty much everything for the classrooms, the auditoriums. So you can help streamline the procurement process. Throwing that in there as another added bonus for anyone that's interested in that. So why don't you tell us, so in terms of investing in upgrading the furniture and the signage in that space.

Harry Catalano (04:15)

So really what we, so the three or four components that Amtab strives on every single product we push out the door, quality, durability, ease of operation, and then the final one, those three add up to the value of your investment. And that's what we strive to for these school nutrition professionals. We work hand in hand with them to really have a return on investment of their purchase.

We recently did a case study for King County Middle School in Mercer County, Kentucky. So a little statistics about that case study. So before modernization with Amtab, 159 students participated in breakfast, 412 participated in lunch. After the modernization with Amtab, 336 students participated in the breakfast program. Which 536 students participated in the lunch program. I know that's just numbers, but the real financial impact that that made on the district was the school nutrition director was receiving an additional $19 ,800 per month due to the student participation, due to the increase of student participation, which is a huge financial impact for the district.

So we really, really work hand in hand with these school nutrition professionals to really strive to have a return of their investment.

Joshua Miller (05:43)

Absolutely. And I have to say, on the Amtab website, when I'm going through some of those modernization slider photos, I'm like, double-taking. I'm like, is that even the same building, let alone the same room? So you guys definitely do a great job making these spaces beautiful. And meal participation, as you said, is very, very important in both worlds. I mean, yes, college and universities, it's not as financially driven in terms of raising those numbers, but they have to add that value to the students. And that's why you want to see those meal participation numbers go up. So in terms of functionality and aesthetics, there seems to be some cool things that you guys are doing with being able to balance that in your design of the products and the spaces. How are you guys able to accomplish that?

Harry Catalano (06:15)

So what we do is we take the seating capacity and we either meet it or exceed that seating capacity. We don't do the whole institutional rectangle stool tables, rectangle bench tables. We put a variety of furniture. We do 100 % of our product in -house. So we manufacture it. So we get our steel from the Rust Belt. We get our lumber from the Pacific Northwest and the Southeast.

So we make 100 % of the product in our 400 ,000 square foot facility in Bensonville, Illinois. So basing all of that off of us, the customization is endless. So we don't strive to have these institutional looks that they had in the previous years of this industry. We strive to have more of a modern, popular, and fun type of environment for these kids, for these students.

Joshua Miller (07:24)

And I can only imagine that charging ports are becoming more and more important in the design process.

Harry Catalano (07:32)

Oh yeah man, yeah you gotta make sure you got that USB -C charging port as well.

Joshua Miller (07:37)

Exactly, exactly. Which goes back, especially a building that's being, or a dining hall that's being taken down to the studs, basically, getting the electricity in the right places so you can actually have that a part of it. So if it's important for you to have that almost comforting and the functionality with being able to charge your personal devices, that's definitely something that I'm a fan of. However, totally unrelated story. I was at another dining hall last week and beautiful, beautiful. It's actually up for actually a design award. Beautiful space, front and back. And it was interesting because if you look at the seating that they had in there, it seemed almost as an afterthought, right? Like it was like hard, clunky, but then they explained it was very intentional, which sometimes it is. They want to make sure that students can keep coming in and in order to do that, they need them to leave. So they didn't put any soft seating in, they put the most uncomfortable chairs in so that they can churn out more students in that same dining space.

Harry Catalano (08:40)

Oh, traffic flow is essential, man. It's essential in these spaces.

Joshua Miller (08:50)

Yeah, absolutely. It's like the booths versus no booths discussion, right? So can you discuss, are there any recent trends or innovations that are in the cafeteria furniture space or signage space? And I'm sure if anyone would know, it would be Amtab here.

Harry Catalano (08:55)

Yes, one thing that we've actually been seeing of these past couple of years is the increase of branding in spaces. So whether it be signs graphics and decor, logos on the walls, we can do any kind of word graphics, acoustics. Those have been huge these past couple of years. Or it can be the furniture, whether it be more vibrant colors or doing branding for their school you know, logo on the tables or, you know, etc. It really brings the students together as a family. That's what we strive to as well. We really want to bring these students together, bring in school spirit, school pride, and make the space a great environment because these students can't choose where they eat. Well, why don't we bring the food court to them? You know what I mean?

Joshua Miller (09:59)

And, you know, one easy fluff. So let's say someone, you know, has nice, beautiful furniture. I feel like in a few years, they could even say, you know what, we want to do a refresh in this space. And it could be as simple as the signage and the wall graphics. It doesn't have to be like, you have to start from scratch with all the furniture all over again.

Harry Catalano (10:14)

So we actually recommend if you don't have the budget to do all these, the full package, the full furniture, signage, graphics, decor, everything, we even recommend doing the furniture one year, then coming back and doing the signage and graphics the following year and maximizing the space.

Joshua Miller (10:38)

That's a very good point. Sometimes it's smarter to do slow changes and not everything all at once. Sometimes it makes sense to do it all at once. Sometimes it doesn't. So that's good to throw in that flexible option for people. You don't have to take it all on at the same time. And the acoustics, oh my goodness, that is such a nightmare when it's an afterthought. And you go into a space and everyone's talking at the same time and you can't hear yourself think because they're too many hard surfaces and nothing to absorb any of that sound reflection. 

So what considerations are taken? So I know you guys do a lot of work with the K -12 space. In terms of college and universities, what considerations do you guys take into that? Any special ones?

Harry Catalano (11:10)

Not really. I mean, more like so there's definitely a different feel for, you know, K -12 and higher ed. We've actually seen some of these high schools kind of moving towards the trending higher ed furniture. So whether it be like a high top waterfall conversation table or a bistro table standing height, kind of just like moving away from the traditional rectangle stool, like I said, or convertible bench type of flow moving in towards a variety of furniture, whether it be soft seating, conversation tables, collaboration tables, etc.

Joshua Miller (12:00)

Nice. And collaboration tables. Can you elaborate on that a little bit more? What is that for anyone that doesn't know?

Harry Catalano (12:03)

So a collaboration table is a table that we actually launched. It's a four stool table that can come with a power accessibility. We can put a butcher block top on there. And the stools are actually easily stored. So you lift up on the stool and it stores, it rests right in underneath the tabletop. It's really neat.

Joshua Miller (12:26)

Awesome, awesome. Yeah, again, I mean, I looked at your catalog and it's hundreds of pages long and I'm like, wow, so many options. Yeah, yeah, it's overwhelming.

Harry Catalano (12:31)

Oh dude, I think we had, I'm pretty sure we have like 25 ,000 SKUs now. When I started, it was like, you know, I think 3000. So that just shows you how much we were growing.

Joshua Miller (12:43)

Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. You have something for everyone at that point.

Harry Catalano (12:47)

Oh, we're so, I believe we're the most innovative manufacturer in the industry. We gotta be.

Joshua Miller (12:53)

For sure, for sure. From my perspective, that is absolutely true.

Joshua Miller (12:58)

All right, so going into our next question here, you guys have a lot of accomplishments on your web page. I see things are made in the USA, limited lifetime warranty, ADA compliance is an option. Oh, yeah?

Harry Catalano (13:09)

Not just limited. So we have a lifetime limited lifetime warranty. Oh, it's the best in the industry.

Josh (13:15)

Oh, OK, so even better. You're protecting the investment. And this is a heavy, heavy investment for sure. And then you also have a MAS certified green certification. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Harry Catalano (13:21)

That's right. That's right.

Yes, in this modern day age, we strive to be the best product. We also try to be the cleanest product.

Josh (13:38)

Wow, and so essentially you're helping with that sustainability factor and the health of the actual space itself, making sure we're not putting in all these unnecessary crazy chemicals and whatnot into the products. Yeah, that's very, very important to me for sure. Especially as we go more and more and people are becoming more educated about these things that are out there and wanting to make sure that they're putting in the right products in these schools.

Harry Catalano (13:50)

Yeah, no chemicals whatsoever. It's such a clean product.

That's right, especially in this modern day age man, you can't beat that.

Joshua Miller (14:08)

Yeah, absolutely. So speaking of protecting the investment, so everything does have a lifetime to a useful lifetime. So in terms of Amtab furniture, if someone's saying they're trying to convince someone maybe we should make this investment, what should they be telling them? Should they be telling them, hey, this is going to make our space upgraded for the next five years? Is it eight years, 10 years? What is it are we talking about investing in?

Harry Catalano (14:35)

So typically like what we see, the average life of a cafeteria table would be 10 to 15 years. So our warranty is actually a lifetime limited lifetime warranty. So what that is is a lifetime warranty and all of our Dynarock Edge, which is our polyurethane spray on edge, our weldings, and we do a 360 weld on all of our welds. So no short cuts are taken.

We also offer a lifetime warranty on all of our operating mechanisms. The rest of the table is covered by a 15-year bumper-to-bumper warranty.

Joshua Miller (15:04)

That is protection for sure, protecting your investment. That's a long -term investment that's definitely worth it.

Harry Catalano (15:20)

Oh yeah, but like I said, we typically see the average life of a cafeteria table would be about 10 to 15 years.

Joshua Miller (15:26)

Yeah, and I mean, just the warranty alone, it should encourage people to say, hey, maybe we should look into this further. Because if, you know, I'm a huge fan of best warranties because that tells us that the quality of the product that you're putting out, whether it is tables and whatnot, or if it's a cooking equipment, if a manufacturer is giving you a very extended warranty that's surpassing their competitors, that tells you something about the quality of it for sure.

Harry Catalano (15:45)

Yeah, man. And just to elaborate on that, we have the best engineering team in the industry as well. The product design that we have, I think our lead engineer was on a Navy ship for 20 years and he has like about 30 patents under his name. I mean, he's a literal genius. So, I mean, no shortcuts are taken, especially with our owner, Doss, working hand in hand with him. Our general manager, Steve, our production lead, Jason Samikkannu. I mean, no shortcuts are taken whatsoever.

Joshua Miller (16:29)

I love hearing those background nuggets of information about what's happening in the background and the engineering is absolutely important aspect of what you guys are doing.

All right, so when you guys go in to look at these different cafeterias, they're looking to work with Amtab and bring you guys in for the designing and furnishing of it. What are some of the biggest pitfalls that you see, like the common mistakes that you're seeing with the current dining area setup that you guys come in and fix?

Harry Catalano (16:44)

Yeah.

Um, yeah, so, um, the biggest pitfall I see is, like I said, the, the, the old institutional look of the, the whole black, uh, black diner rock, gray nebula, um, you know, uh, or, you know, the black edge or the gray nebula top with the black stools and the, uh, you know, it's, it's all very institutional look, blah, like a little, you know, plain and, you know, it looks terrible. It looks terrible. You know, I mean, I, I hate to say that, but.

I mean, we tried to make the best and the most elaborate product. We tried to make every single one of our projects more modern, popular, and fun, more modern, popular, and fun environment.

Joshua Miller (17:40)

Yeah, it's so important. I've seen some very, very outdated spaces in my career and it's, you couldn't say it any better. It's flat. And you know, sometimes it's the opposite. Sometimes the front of the house is gorgeous and beautiful and then you go in the back and like the equipment is like falling off the hinges. So it's like finding that balance between both. You got to invest in both for sure and try to keep everyone happy. But that's a conversation for another time.

Harry Catalano (17:46)

They're just so bleh. You know, I hate to say that, but it's just like... Yeah.

Joshua Miller (18:12)

All right, so let's talk a little bit more about the innovative side of Amtab. What are some of the features of your products or the options that you guys have that other manufacturers are not doing?

Harry Catalano (18:24)

Yeah, man. So we actually launched our new high speed gas cylinder this 2024 Q1. What that is, is a new hydraulic system for all of our folding tables. It's the slickest in the industry. You know, a lot of these other industry manufacturers are using the strut or the torsion bar or, you know, vice versa.

So on and so forth. We've launched our high -speed gas cylinder just to make everything a lot easier. We have a lifetime warranty on that as well.

Joshua Miller (18:49)

And that's making it easier for them to...

Harry Catalano (19:01)

Lift up the table, put it down on the table. It makes the custodian's life a lot easier or the cafeteria staff just making their lives a lot easier.

Joshua Miller (19:13)

Yeah, and that's one thing I've noticed is that option because if there's like a certain room or area, maybe it is the entire cafeteria where they need to flip that for other events and they need to put away the tables and the chairs, I see that you guys design them so that it is super easy to do.

Harry Catalano (19:30)

Yeah, like I said in the beginning of the podcast, we strive for all of our products to be the most quality products, the most durable products, the easiest to operate. And adding up to those three is the return of your investment. Yeah.

Joshua Miller (19:47)

Absolutely. All right, so great. Thank you, Harry, for coming in on this episode. Can you let everyone know, where can they go to connect with you or learn more about Amtab?

Harry Catalano (19:57)

Yeah, please connect with me on LinkedIn. I'm Harrison or Harry Catalano or visit our website www.amtab .com. Please sign up for our partner resources. It's in the top right corner of the website. Our marketing manager, Connor Doyle has done a great job with the website and configuring everything. Applause to him.

But we have a great rock star team at Amtab. We're the most innovative company in the industry. We're rocking and rolling. We'd love to be a part of your future projects in the industry to all you nutrition professionals out there.

Joshua Miller (20:39)

Well, thank you, Harry, for taking the time to come on this episode and add some value to the audience. Hopefully they've learned something they didn't know, even if they have heard of you guys before. And if they haven't heard of you, hopefully they're checking you guys out for their next project. And I thank you and the entire Amtab team. What you guys are doing is nothing short of remarkable. You are ambassadors for the remarkable academic food service industry. And I thank you guys for doing that and continuing to do it.

Harry Catalano (20:42)

No, we appreciate you, Josh. You're a forerunner in this industry as well with this podcast. This is awesome. So we really sincerely appreciate you having us on here.

Joshua Miller (21:14)

I appreciate you taking the time and I'm learning as I go here. So it's getting better. Hopefully if anyone's still listening to this episode, that means I must be doing something right. All right, everyone, thank you for tuning in for another episode with us. And again, hopefully you got some value out of this. And until next time, I'm your host Joshua Miller signing off.

Harry Catalano (21:20)

See ya'll.