Lancer first pioneered advanced beverage-dispensing equipment nearly 50 years ago in San Antonio, Texas, and became one of the industry leaders. Five decades later, the name Lancer is synonymous with the very best in beverage dispensing systems featuring ingenious design, quality durable materials and ease of use. Romana Moares reports.
Lancer, with its corporate office still in Texas, manufactures a comprehensive range of advanced mechanically cooled and ice-cooled soft drink dispensers, dispensing valves, carbonators, and a variety of top of the range beer dispensing equipment. The company also produces an extensive line of beverage dispensing parts and accessories to suit all needs. The diverse range serves clients from different environments – food service, convenience stores, supermarkets, sports venues, rock concerts or theme parks.
Image: Lancer Bargun. Credit: Lancer
Worldwide reach
The company is operating on a global scale. “We have had operations in Europe since 1997, in Brussels Belgium.
In 2002 we started Lancer UK to further expand our engineering and development capability,” says Mr Paul Haskayne, VP and Managing Director Lancer EMEA. “In 2006, the whole Lancer corporation entity was acquired by Japanese company Hoshizaki, a leading multinational manufacturer of high-quality commercial kitchen and food service equipment, and the creator of Japan’s first fully automatic ice maker.”
The acquisition has boosted the company’s position worldwide but left it sufficient room to continue to develop its own unique capabilities. “We do adhere to the corporate structure, but we also have our own P&L and local European identity, so we are seen as an independent subsidiary that generates revenue for the group based on our sales and knowledge of the European market and our ability to react to the many different time frames, languages and cultures in EMEA,” Mr Haskayne affirms.
Lancer Europe today operates an office in Brussels, and the UK, and has sales managers in Russia, Spain and Romania, while the remaining regions are covered by the sales people from the Brussels office as well as independent distributors.
Image: Lancer EU building. Credit: Lancer
Reflecting local market trends
Whether it’s the top-selling Ice Beverage Dispensers (IBD) or the patented valves, the company has achieved worldwide recognition as a provider of optimum beverage dispensing solutions. Ice-cooled chilling is an alternative to the traditional refrigerated ice bank chiller, where ice is used as the cooling medium on a beverage cold plate. Ice-cooled dispensers are available as a countertop or drop-in into bench configuration.
Although the ice-cooled products for cooling drinks that have been produced in the US market for 50 years are still popular there, this has not been the case for the EMEA region. “To better serve those markets, we have developed our own European products – a Bridge dispensing tower, and a Bar Bridge dispensing tower.
We have a philosophy of listening to the market and our customers and helping them to meet the needs of their clients. This is a feature that makes us rather unique,” Mr Haskayne points out.
“We are currently developing a range of remote cooler carbonators for the European market, featuring Lancer’s unique design, and simplistic, but reliable operation. They have been designed and prototyped in our UK office, and will be manufactured in Telford at our parent company Hoshizaki’s UK plant where icemakers for the EMEA market are produced.”
Image: Bridge tower. Credit: Lancer
Win-win approach for the future
Lancer’s products have accompanied some the world’s premium events. “We supplied over 600 countertop coolers, some of which were used in the venues at the 2018 World Cup,” says Mr Haskayne, to give just one example.
Lancer Europe also provided the very latest in post-mix dispensing equipment to venues around the Sochi Olympic zone, installed in bars, cafes, hotels and fuelling stations where 85 Lancer fountain dispensing machines served the visitors and participants. Its main winners at Sochi were counter electric dispensers.
Given the current market development, the company is set to grow further, says Paul Haskayne. “Our growth strategy is to build on our relationships with our key customers, and support them with solutions for their customers, so that we can all win.
“We also have to think outside the box with new ideas to grow our business,” he adds. “We are currently the EMEA master distributor for Blendtec, a prominent US manufacturer of blenders and bar equipment, offering the finest range of blenders for catering equipment. Also, we have developed a strategy to use the synergies with our parent company Hoshizaki to grow the beverage and kitchen business as a whole, utilising our expertise in our chosen areas in QSRs (quick serve restaurants),” he says.
Pursuing the different business lines and further building on the company’s proven capability while at the same time responding to fast evolving market needs is something that Lancer has been good at; and will continue to be in the future.
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