Rational wins two prestigious UK awards – including Heavy Equipment Supplier of the Year

Votes from distributor partners make Kitchen & Equipment Awards “very, very special” 

Rational UK has won two prestigious Kitchen & Equipment Awards.  The company is not only the 2020 Heavy Equipment Supplier of the Year but also won Supplier of the Year Training and Education award.

The awards are organised by two of the UK’s leading foodservice industry titles, Catering Insight and Foodservice Equipment Journal (FEJ), and are voted for by distributors, manufacturers, consultants and foodservice operators.

A delighted Simon Lohse, managing director of Rational UK, thanked the distributors and customers who had voted for the company.  “These are very special awards, because they are voted for by the stakeholders we deal with every day, our business partners,” he says.  “This is a proud moment and a real tonic at the end of a difficult year for the whole industry.”

Judges commented that Rational led the voting for the Heavy Equipment award by ‘a convincing margin’, adding that Rational had “launched advanced ergonomic cooking equipment in 2020, which uses intelligent technology to minimise power and water consumption.”

Lohse adds, “We really value winning the Heavy Equipment Supplier of the Year.  It’s recognition of the support that we offer to our valued distributor network, which we have continued to build on throughout this year. It’s also a reflection of the technological and performance improvement that have been achieved in the design and development of our new product ranges, the iCombi Pro and the iVario.”

On the Training and Education Award, which is sponsored by FEA (the UK’s Foodservice Equipment Association), judges said that voting had been very close, adding that due to the Covid-19 pandemic Rational had had to “Spring into action and quickly develop online training to support its major product launches.”

Lohse says that picking up the Training and Education award was the icing on the cake.  “I especially want to thank all our dealers and service partners, who embraced our online training.  They made themselves and their staff available to take part, committing time and effort to ensure they had the knowledge and expertise to give their Rational customers the best possible support.”

Throughout the pandemic Rational remained consistent with the training they have become known for, where it was possible and safe to do so, and, when required, innovated with virtual training solutions.

He adds, “Rational’s company ethos is to provide maximum customer benefit – and to achieve that, we need strong partner relationships.  Working together with our dealers we are able to deliver innovative hot food preparation solutions to foodservice operators. The launches of our new iCombi Pro and iVario during 2020 have been so successful precisely because of these strong strategic relationships.”