Welbilt Inc, a leading worldwide supplier of commercial foodservice equipment and Halton, a technology leader in indoor air solutions for professional kitchens, have entered into a strategic alliance to facilitate the integration of Halton's ventilation systems into a wide range of Welbilt’s equipment to better meet the needs of their customers. Strong customer focus being the corner stone of Halton's innovation, the company has a long history of partnerships and co-development projects with various related technology suppliers.  With this first strategic alliance, Halton also strives to speed up the international sales and further development of its latest innovations, such as the mobile mini-kitchen solution, Halton MobiChef.

The alliance provides a framework to combine the best from both companies’ innovation teams to develop system solutions with specific focus on the following areas:

- Increase kitchen output while reducing kitchen footprint;

- Improve speed of service and overall kitchen ergonomics;

- Better manage kitchen temperatures to improve employee comfort and maximize productivity; and

- Reduce total building energy consumption.

- Restaurant chain businesses play an important role in both companies' futures which supports the growth potential of the aforementioned areas in different parts of the world.

“We are pleased to partner with Halton as we believe that peak kitchen performance requires the integration of the cooking equipment to the ventilation systems. This integration includes the acceleration of digital technology, kitchen control systems, remote monitoring including KitchenConnect® to provide better systems and service over the equipment life cycle. The alliance also complements our fitkitchenSM approach to develop high output kitchens in smaller footprints,” said Hubertus Muehlhaeuser, President and CEO of Manitowoc Foodservice / Welbilt.

"We are very happy to be able to combine our own top expertise with the solutions of a leading kitchen appliance supplier like Welbilt. Through the cooperation, we will be able in the future to create even better well-being for kitchen staff who work around the world and better possibilities for operators in the restaurant field too to offer the best customer experience for their own customers," says Mika Halttunen, Chairman of the Board at Halton Group.

"We also believe there is significant growth potential in mobile cooking globally. Partnering with Welbilt can help us expand our MobiChef solution by including an electric cooking suite, complete with refrigeration and have the combined products UL Listed for rapid customer adoption,” he comments.