Hoshizaki Alliance named Craig Hammel director of customer experience and aftermarket support, effective Oct. 12.

The appointment pulls Hammel from Refrigerated Solutions Group. He steps into a role that spans the company's operating units across the United States and Canada, according to an October announcement.

What does the role actually cover?

Hammel will lead a Center of Excellence team. The unit's mandate, per the announcement, is to develop and execute "a customer experience and aftermarket strategy across the Hoshizaki Alliance operating companies in the United States and Canada."

In plain terms: warranty workflows, parts logistics, service-partner enablement. The aftermarket side of foodservice equipment generates recurring revenue well beyond the original equipment sale. For operators, it dictates how fast a broken walk-in gets fixed and how clean the paper trail is.

Why this matters for operators

The Hoshizaki Alliance bundles several commercial kitchen manufacturers under one North American umbrella, including Hoshizaki America, Jackson WWS (warewashing systems) and several other operating companies. Service infrastructure is the connective tissue. When a chain operator specs a fleet of ice machines or dishwashers across 200 locations, the strength of aftermarket support often decides renewal contracts as much as sticker price.

Hammel's lineage at Refrigerated Solutions Group, a commercial refrigeration specialist, suggests a hire weighted toward cold-side service discipline. Refrigeration service is the highest-margin aftermarket segment in the equipment category. Warm-side categories follow similar economics but tolerate longer response windows.

What shifts operationally

The structure repositions customer experience from a regional function into a centralized Center of Excellence. That reorganization typically yields two things: standardized service-level agreements across operating companies, and consolidated parts warehousing that improves technician fill rates.

Neither outcome appears in the announcement. Both are reasonable inferences from the job description language and from how parent groups (Middleby, Welbilt before the merger, Hoshizaki) have organized post-acquisition service functions for the past decade.

Hoshizaki did not respond to questions about reporting structure, budget authority or staffing levels for the new center. Those details matter. A director with a P&L (profit-and-loss responsibility) wields different influence than one running training programs.

The M&A backdrop

Hoshizaki has spent the past several years assembling its North American portfolio through acquisitions. Each deal brought a service network with its own conventions, software platforms and technician compensation plans. Integrating those networks under one aftermarket strategy is the unglamorous work that determines whether bolt-on deals compound value or quietly erode margins.

A director-level hire signals the parent considers that work far enough along to warrant dedicated leadership. It also signals the work is not finished.

The Oct. 12 start date leaves roughly eleven weeks left in the calendar year. Expect a quiet onboarding and a louder first-quarter rollout once fiscal 2026 plans firm up.