Overcoming Tragedy
Central Food Equipment stands strong through challenging times
In 2009, during the Great Recession, Joanne Caccamisi lost her husband, Danny, to cancer and found herself taking over his role as owner of Central Food Equipment, Inc. (CFE) in Lakeland, Fla. The company outfits commercial kitchens, a specialized field involving contractors and architects. To make things even more challenging, the company was experiencing a major dip in revenues because of the struggling economy.
“I never expected to be sitting in Danny’s chair,” she says. “But, you never know what role you’re prepared to handle until you are placed in that position. I believe God loves to put the least likely candidate in a role of authority and watch that person evolve. Even so, I wasn’t sure how I was going to follow Danny’s strong leadership style.”
An interior designer by trade, Caccamisi had helped in the office, so the industry wasn’t new to her; but she was accustomed to dealing with one table in a residential dining room, not 40 tables in a restaurant. There is a lot to learn in this field, in addition to understanding the structure of the business. Central Food Equipment supplies everything a restaurant or commercial kitchen needs—from forks to tables and chairs to walk-in refrigerators and pizza ovens.
Management with Style
Leaning on her intuition, she began discovering her leadership style. “I took it one step at a time,” Caccamisi recalls. “I couldn’t just walk in and say ‘Ok, I’m the boss now.’ I had to get to know the team and they had to get to know me. There are many ways I am like my husband and other ways that I’m not.”
For one thing, she prefers to delegate more tasks than he did. “He wore lots of hats while I see someone else may be better in a particular area than I am. For instance, our bookkeeper was given responsibility of payroll and completing our deposits. She now has the title of accounts administrator and has lived up to it amazingly,” Caccamisi says.
Becky Lovins, CFE Project Manager, worked beside Danny Caccamisi for many years. After he passed away, Joanne looked to Becky’s extensive industry expertise and expanded her role to handle large project quotes and installation, including kitchen design. “I give Becky the backup and support she needs,” Caccamisi explains.
The team approach is working, she says, as revenues and activity have risen to pre-recession levels. “Managing people is something I learned through making mistakes,” she says. “My husband told me, ‘Joanne, you will have to run Central Food. It’s not hard; you’re strong enough to do it.’ What I found most difficult was maintaining objectivity and handling differences of personalities. I had to learn how to be diplomatic and keep my own emotions in check and make decisions rationally.”
Fortunately, Caccamisi and Lovins haven’t encountered any dissatisfied clients with their service.
“Becky is a strong woman who handles it all. When she speaks, you can tell she has experience and knows what she is talking about. This is what earns people’s respect. Being a man or a woman has nothing to do with it,” Caccamisi says.
Small Shop and Big Boxes
Caccamisi says CFE has been the go-to place for commercial kitchen expertise since the company was started by her father-in-law in the 1970s. CFE works with the local mom-and-pop restaurants as well as ships products to national chain restaurants and franchise locations.
“We have multiple legs that support the table of this business, which is a good thing,” she says. “If one department is down, then another holds it up. With the recession in 2009, the large-ticket items fell and the small wares rose. Now, the equipment is going up as the economy and construction are booming.”
Caccamisi takes pride in the fact that CFE is a small enough company to give exceptional personal customer service while also being big enough to accommodate the needs of large chains.
“That’s important because of online shopping and big box stores,” she says. “There are much bigger companies than us and boundaries aren’t just in your own city anymore. We have a new competitor coming to Lakeland, but we’re not concerned about that because we have already succeeded in a marketplace with no boundaries.”
Personal customer service sounds like a cliché, she says, but people in this industry still need and want that. People still like talking to someone who knows them and knows what they need.
“In purchasing commercial equipment, a customer needs to be guided by someone who can recommend which product will perform the best and stay in budget. The contacts we have with our chain account department are loyal; they also like talking to someone who knows them, knows what they need and that we have it in stock,” Caccamisi says. “No matter what age, people need that person-to-person connection. This is important to qualify their needs and guide them in the right direction so they don’t make an expensive purchase mistake.”
This personal touch has brought the firm a variety of projects. CFE outfits commercial kitchens for many facilities, such as The Villages at Noah’s Landing, a community for the mentally challenged that serves three meals a day to its residents. CFE provided the walk-in coolers and 45 ice machines for the remodeled Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium, the spring training stadium for the Detroit Tigers in Lakeland, Fla. As a new Tex-Mex franchise expanded in Florida, CFE provided a hood system, walk-in cooler, cooking line and dining room for five restaurants.
Caccamisi and her team particularly enjoy working closely with the mom-and-pop establishments, offering design services if needed, as well as consultation on dining room arrangements and even paint colors.
“We know the mom-and-pops are opening on a budget, so we advise them on how to outfit the kitchen within their means by planning the cooking line, refrigeration needs, the dishwashing room, storage items, you name it,” she says.
For Caccamisi, her business philosophy is more than trying to reach higher sales numbers each year. It’s also about having fun.
“I like to ask, ‘Are you having fun?’ because it has been said from people in the restaurant industry, from servers to cooks and suppliers: once you taste this industry it stays in your blood. You are part of a club that loves all aspects about food. We love to talk about it, shop for it, cook it, eat it and especially go out and dine with others,” she says. “It’s a social experience.”
Giving Back to the Community
Caccamisi tries to combine that love of food and the food industry with giving back to the community. CFE provides weekly donations to one of three charities: the local Salvation Army; the Talbot House, which provides basic need services for poor and homeless men and women; and Lighthouse Ministries, which meets the physical, emotional and other needs of the poor and at-risk population. Another charity CFE supports is the Achievement Academy (formerly Child Development Center of Polk County, Inc.), which serves children with developmental delays and disabilities.
Caccamisi is a board member of Amici Charity, which was founded in 2011 to provide assistance to individuals and families who may not qualify for typical charities or government assistance, in an effort to keep them above the poverty level.
“These people are living on the edge,” she says. “We plan our own fundraisers and I do what I can with my time and with the things I may have here, like tablecloths for a banquet. As a company, we often contribute to silent auctions across the city, giving something off the shelf that people might be interested in bidding on.”
This leader’s servant heart is evident from CFE’s charitable activities to her ability to recognize the talent within her company. She’s a living example of looking at the big picture and how to surround herself with a great team.