Filta won another Franchise Award last month.  This time from America’s Best Franchise for being in their top 50 pick from over a thousand franchises.

Adam Blake, Filta’s VP of Franchise Development said:

“These awards mean a lot to us. We strive to select the best candidates and do the best for the Franchise Owners once they come on board.  It’s nice to be recognized for this by the industry.”

Filta Franchise Owners across the nation have been actively helping the economy by creating jobs in their local markets with the hiring of part time and full time employees. Franchise Owners are adding jobs by employing service technicians, sales professionals, accountants and other administrative support staff that any growing business needs. Since Filta’s green services naturally preserve the environment, it becomes a place where many are able to make a living and make a difference.

Filta Franchise Owners provide a mobile based onsite micro cooking oil filtration service for local commercial kitchens. The service known as the FiltaFry service is helping prolong the life of cooking oil and provided consistently cleaner fryers for those kitchens, all while promoting sustainability. What Filta calls the “Fryer Management” service, extends far beyond the kitchen. Once the cooking oil has come to its end life, Filta Technicians will have a regularly scheduled pickup of the waste cooking oil.

To see if there is a job opening in your area, check out http://www.gofilta.com/jobs

Why is my collection bin missing… and where is my used cooking oil? This is the puzzling question that commercial kitchen operators have been pondering more and more over the past year, and will continue to think about as 2012 will be a year in which cooking oil theft is projected to increase. Last year, hundreds of thousands of gallons of used cooking oil was stolen as a result of rising oil prices and a discrepancy on how the perpetrators should be charged. This is leaving owners and law enforcement authorities baffled by what to do.

You can place looking mechanisms on the bins or move the problem inside, but the easiest way to prevent oil theft is simply not to store any on site. Sounds simple enough, but the oil must still be removed and recycled responsibly. Many kitchens are now turning to Filta for a bin-free solution. Many of our locations have outfitted their FiltaFry service vans with waste oil tanks and are able to remove the oil directly from the fryers at the time of cleaning. The response to FiltaBio has been overwhelming, and more and more commercial kitchens select the eco-friendly service that removes the bins and barrels from the service location. By removing the problem, pests and perpetrators find themselves looking elsewhere to satisfy their desires. From there, the oil is safely transported to be made into biodiesel, the environmentally friendly alternative to petrochemical-based diesel. So say “bye-bye” to your bins and barrels. Right from your fryer to the Filta van…no bin required. For information on the FiltaBio service, contact your local FiltaMan.

Fats, Oils, and Grease, also known as FOG, is typically a messy and expensive side effect of food preparation done by commercial kitchens. FOG is the natural side effect in food preparation done in the deep fryers, but the biggest problem with FOG has been the environmental aspect. If grease traps are not installed properly, there is a potential for environmental contamination, a visit from the EPA, legal woes, and increased labor costs to fix the problem.

For many operators, this problem has a simple solution, FiltaBio. The FiltaBio service provided by Filta Franchise Owners relives the need of a grease trap or stinky bin, allowing the potential headaches to dissolve away. One of the great aspects of FiltaBio is that it is used alongside the FiltaFry service, which is the mobile micro filtration of cooking oil and the vacuum based cleaning of deep fryers. Many are already benefiting from the service that has a regularly scheduled pickup of used cooking oil.

The Filta Environmental Kitchen Solutions Franchise and Navion Insurance Associates have teamed up to offer restaurants and food service operations  a discount of at least 5% on their insurance costs, when the facility uses Filta’s FiltaFry service.

According to Eric Magee, Navion’s President, “Restaurants that use the FiltaFry service dramatically lower their exposure to workers compensation and general liability loss.  Filta effectively reduces employee exposure to hot oil and the hazards of cleaning fryers. It is simple – Since there is reduced risk, the restaurant deserves a better rate.” Eric says he has firsthand knowledge of the dangers of working with hot cooking oil and has a few scars from his youth to prove it.

Current Filta Customers can ask their local Franchise Owner for information on the program or contact Navion directly.  For food service establishments not yet familiar with the FiltaFry service but are interested in reducing their risk and cooking oil consumption, should contact Filta directly.  Filta offers a free on site demonstration of the FiltaFry service and will show you how the service can benefit your kitchen and your bottom line.

Work-related burns are one of the leading causes of occupational injuries in the restaurant industry. 

One of the most common injuries are scald burns, which is when the skin comes in contact with hot liquid or steam. Scalds from water are very frequent in the restaurant industry and can cause third degree burns.  However, scalds from hot oil are generally more severe than those from water.  This is because oil heats to higher temperatures, and oil is thicker so it may remain on the skin for a longer period of time.  With the constant growing of the food service industry, keeping employees safe in the kitchen has become one of the highest priorities for restaurants owners. 

Another serious work-related injury in restaurants is slip and falls.  Many serious burns occur when employees slip and reach to steady themselves.  This action often can knock hot liquids off of counters and stove tops on to the worker.  Another instance could occur if an employee is carrying full containers of hot liquids. 

Among the most dangerous job duties of a restaurant employee is the removal of oil and cleaning or “boiling out” of deep fryers.  This task is very time-consuming, unpleasant, and unsafe.  However, the Filta Group’s FiltaFry service greatly reduces, and almost completely eliminates, the dangers behind managing commercial deep fryers.  With its unique machine and safety equipment, FiltaFry’s mobile onsite cooking oil filtration and fryer management service system completely takes the responsibility of dealing with the deep fryers away from the employees.  The service includes filtering the cooking oil, discarding of the waste oil, cleaning the deep fryer, and calibrating the thermostats, while making sure the surrounding area is clean and hazard free.  Thus, by relieving the employees of the duties of cleaning the deep fryers, FiltaFry gets rid of majority of restaurant related injuries.  Employees will no longer have to deal with hot deep fryer oil, which cuts down on scalds and burns, as well as possible slip and falls.

A puzzling question that restaurant and commercial kitchen operations have been asking is how to communicate their kitchens’ eco-friendly practices to the consumer. Filta, the world’s largest mobile based cooking oil management service, is providing awards to commercial kitchens who are promoting environmental excellence by using the FiltaFry or FiltaBio services. “The Filta Eco-Award will be given to customers who have shown environmental excellence in the aspects of cooking oil handling, fryer management, and waste cooking oil recycling. It is a great way for commercial kitchens to display their commitment to the green movement.” COO Tom Dunn of Filta stated.

The award certificate will be provided by one of Filta’s Franchise Owners. In addition to the certificate, a window or wall cling that can be displayed in the establishment will be provided. The Eco-Award brings an added element to the food producing organization and it gives them a chance to stake their claim as an environmentally forward company.

As the 2012 Filta Franchise Conference comes to a close, Filta promised and delivered a stellar lineup of sales oriented speakers and discussions. Filta believes its conference theme “The future is so bright we have to wear shades” was captured by its Franchise Owners and the brand’s vision is gaining momentum as the year progresses. Janine Driver aided that vision with sessions geared toward body language and why it’s important to evaluate throughout the sales process. “Janine was a hit and she made an impact on everyone in the room. Not only was she highly entertaining, she offered real world techniques that Filta Franchise Owners could implement the moment they returned home from conference.”

Outside of Janine’s keynote and breakout sessions, the conference offered other learning platforms which included: the Panel of the Pros, the MFU, Hiring, Servicing, FAC Updates, and more. In addition to these learning platforms, Franchise Owners participated in a vendor fair that was designed for a direct interaction with Filta’s vendors and suppliers.

The 2012 Filta Franchise Conference promises to deliver an impressive lineup of presenters to speak to its Franchise Owners. Filta has been putting all the workings together behind the scenes to produce a conference that will be designed to focus on one key aspect of business growth, sales. The conference attendees will learn how to drive the sales aspect of the business and will host various sales oriented sessions with some of the top Franchise Owners in the Filta Franchise Network. The “Panel of the Pros” will share their tips and best practices on building an organization through sales and what makes them profitable.

A key highlight will be keynote Janine Driver, the President of Body Language Institute. After the keynote, Mrs. Driver will go into specific techniques on how Franchise Owners can use body language to their advantage in closing sales.

“I want to go green and be eco friendly, but if I do, how will my customers know?” This is the question that many commercial kitchen operators have been asking as the green movement gains momentum. Fortunately for Filta’s customers, the environmentally forward company has just rolled out its Environmental Impact Reports. The Reports are able to quantify the positive impact that Filta Franchise Owners are making on the environment and serve as a two way avenue of communication. The first shows the educational arm of Filta’s services and why they are making such an impact. The second avenue quantifies the impact of Filta’s Fryer Management services.

As Franchise Owners explain the reports, they have the option to travel two avenues. The educational route takes commercial kitchen owners and operators through the production aspect of how cooking oil is created from the seed to the fryer. Along that journey, facts are given about the process, like it takes 1.2 pounds of plastic to create the “jug in a box” packaging. As one reads through the report, one can see why Filta’s services are making such an impact. Additionally, Franchise Owners are able to generate their own, customer specific reports. This road allows commercial kitchens to benchmark their individual results. For example, the carbon offset of saving and collecting 1,000 pounds of oil equates to planting 168 trees!

Contact your local Filta Franchise Owner to get a glimpse of these innovative reports!