RTD Manufacturing and Mobile Kitchens Canada

Jeff Green | Jun 19, 2019

David Craig starting out his working career as a caterer.

When he realised there was large demand and little supply for mobile kitchens, compact commercial kitchens capable of preparing 1,500 to 2,000 meals per meal time that can be hauled to wherever they are needed, he saw a business opportunity, and jumped into a new venture.

He was living in Inverary at the time, so he set up a facility on a vacant lot on Davidson Road, just south-east of the village, hired a crew and began retro-fitting stock trailers with stainless steel counters, sinks and refrigeration units, stoves and everything else that is needed in a commercial kitchen.

His company. Mobile Kitchens Canada, began leasing the mobile kitchens for short term use, and festivals and other special events, and longer-term use during major renovations to large institutional buildings. FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the United States, heard about his services through other contractors that they use, and that has brought the kitchens, and Craig, to some of the major disaster sites in the United States over the last 15 years.

“We had a fleet of trailers in New Orleans after Katrina, and I went down to set them up and manage them. We had to have a police escort when delivering them because of sniper attacks in the area, which gave me an idea that this wasn’t going to be a job like any other I had been involved with.”

David ended up spending nine months in New Orleans, and since then Mobile Kitchens Canada have supported relief at numerous disasters since then, including in Houston during the major flood there and in Pan Handle of Florida for hurricane relief. They have also been across Canada, most recently during the BC wildfire season last year.

Mobile Kitchens Canada became a very successful enterprise, and a time came when David Craig was planning to pull away from the business and let the staff that he had developed over the years run it for him while he moved into semi-retirement.

Then he took a drive back to Ontario from Florida with his Chief Financial Officer. The hours in the vehicle gave them an opportunity to talk about what David wanted to do, and the conversation came round to a discussion about opportunities.

“I had been frustrated over the years because we always had to fit our mobile kitchens in the stock trailers that were built for us. If we could control the entire process by building custom trailers for ourselves, we could make not only mobile kitchens, but other fully customised trailers for fire departments, emergency services, concert stages, and list goes on” he said, in an interview last week from his office.

The first idea they had was to build standardised trailers in order to have orders in hand when investing in the necessary upgrade to the factory in Inverary.

He made some calls while they were driving and by the time they had made it through the Carolina’s they had commitments from distributors to purchase hundreds of trailers.

“We were in business. What I did not realise was that it was a lot easier to sell that may many stock trailers than it was to build them,” he said.

RTD trailers did not end up in the generic trailer business because the work that they were really interested in doing, creating custom trailers for specialised uses, has consumed the company.

Recently, RTD needed a larger metal bending machine, and just as the Eastern Ontario Development Program (EOCP) was wrapping up, with assistance from the Frontenac Community Futures Development Corporation, they applied for and received one that covered some of the costs of a new machine.

“We are also looking at putting in an application to the new granting for a new piece of machinery that we need,” he said. “the CFDC has been great to work with.

A major expansion which will more than double the size of the manufacturing facility on Davidson road to over 20,000 square feet is in the works. This will give the company the capacity to develop a much better workflow and will lead to an increase in staffing levels.

There are already over 16 full time employees and 9 new positions were created in the last year.

“Once our expansion is complete, we will need even more people. Most of our employees are from the local area, and we will need more skilled workers in the future,” he said.

There seems to be no limit to the amount of business that is open to the company as order outstrip their manufacturing capacity on a regular basis.

“We have always done well in the United States, partly because of the Canadian dollar, but I have to thank Donald Trump for an upswing in demand from Canada. More and more Canadian clients are looking a made in Canada option.”