3% up year on year: Hi Tech Catering Ovens Provide Rational Answer To Rescession

What do Blumenthal’s, Le Blanc’s, Ramsay’s and HM Prison Wandsworth’s kitchens have in common? They all use Rational’s high tech combi steamers.

The foodservice sector has been hard hit by the recession. Rational produces one of the premium commercial cooking appliances on the market. Yet it is more than holding its own – the value of sales at the end of the first quarter 2009 were up 3%, year on year. What’s the Rational secret?

"In the recession, I guess our biggest issue is that the Rationals are at the top-end of the market in terms of cost, compared to other commercial cooking equipment," admits Vic Brown, managing director of Rational UK. "However, the technology in them reduces running costs by up to 40% compared to traditional equipment, and they reduce staff costs as no supervision is required. Plus, the cooking results are the best in class. So buyers may have a greater initial outlay, but the real cost over its lifetime is lower and they get the best possible food on the plate."

Rational combi steamers use a combination of dry heat and steam to cook – by adjusting the balance of dry and wet heat, chefs can cook just about anything in its ideal cooking climate.

In late 2008 Rational launched a brand new technology that slashes its combi ovens’ running costs even more. "In the UK, the biggest single problem with combi steamers is that, because they use water, they are subject to limescale build-up. It’s the major cause of servicing issues," says Vic Brown. "The new technology, called CareControl, does away with the problem completely."

CareControl uses biodegradable tablets to flush the limescale out of the oven – all staff have to do is load the tablets when the oven tells them to, at which point the unit cleans itself automatically.

Until CareControl came along, chefs had to fit water softeners to combi steamers, to protect them from limescale. "The new technology means there is no need for the water filter. That alone can save hundreds of pounds a year in servicing and running costs," explains Vic Brown.

So the Rational way to survive the recession is to stick by your convictions. "We continue to invest in technology to give chefs the very best way to cook food – not only by helping them produce the finest results, but also by ensuring the machines have simple controls and consume the minimum of resources," says Vic Brown. "CareControl, launched in the recession, has helped us maintains sales and increase market share."

For more information freephone 0800 389 2944 or see www.rational-UK.com

Editor notes
Rational combi steamers are used by just about all the great chefs in the UK – Blumenthal, Le Blanc, Oliver, Ramsay – but they are also used in every sector of the catering market, from pubs to prisons, from hotels to hospitals. They’re popular because they deliver top quality results whilst being highly energy efficient and easy to use.

Rational combi steamers are made in Landsberg, Germany. Rational UK has been operating for over thirty years and is Rational’s largest subsidiary outside Germany.