Team Building, Laughter, and Diversity are Essential to Learning

Mark Pumphret
National Sales Director,
Hatco Corp.

Our industry uses many different methods to train. The most common kind of training is the lunch and learn or the 25-minute sales meeting. The question I often ask is what knowledge does one retain after attending 20 or more of these sessions?

Hatco-U has a worldwide draw that brings DSRs from around the globe to our facilities in Sturgeon Bay, Wis. Having a diverse group of people creates the perfect learning environment. We’ve evolved our program over the years to encompass a great mix of classroom and practical hands-on interaction with our equipment. Team-building events put the DSR in direct contact with our equipment—giving them practical hands-on experience. We believe this is essential to learning. If nothing else, it’s fun, entertaining and memorable. Often, we have mystery chefs critique their performance and these judges bring their A game. There may even be an occasional tear of laughter—something we value greatly. Adding humor to learning is essential to keeping students engaged and enthusiastic. This is a core strategy at Hatco U.

So, what do they learn? They walk away with in-depth knowledge of our products and competitive products while learning important theory about foodservice in general. Participants get to see our factory up close and how modern, clean, and technologically advanced it is. They get to know the Hatco sales team, our culture, and a whole lot more.

Dealerships that support trainings like ours, year-over-year, tend to see significant growth with the brand. Having a toolbox full of knowledge and experience wins every time. The value of a program like Hatco U is something we believe so strongly in that most of our own employees also attend. And why not? We need them to be experts as well.