Within the visitor industry, we often look at metrics that capture economic impact from the perspective of visitor dollars spent in our communities. In 2023, it is estimated that visitors spent a whopping $1.1 billion. This spending supports nearly 11,000 workers in Lane County and provides tremendous opportunities for residents to enjoy many experiences that would not exist without visitor spending.
What these spending numbers don't take into account is the economic impact generated by investments made by hospitality businesses. The construction of a new lodging property, or remodeling an existing property, a new or remodeled restaurant or a new or updated attraction, the amount invested reaches tens of millions of dollars each year. These investments support local families and create taxes that support local communities. Numerous local businesses support our hospitality partners, but one came to mind when I began thinking about this topic. Curtis Restaurant Equipment has been working with hospitality businesses since 1963 and today they are stronger than ever. I posed several questions to Dan Curtis, son of founder Bob Curtis.
Give our readers a sense of how long Curtis has been serving businesses in this region?
Curtis Restaurant Equipment was started in 1963 and by 1976 we had a whopping four employees! We began securing our first chain accounts, which included Taco Time. They were going in everywhere and it seemed like every couple of weeks we were installing another Taco Time. With how many we were doing at the time we ended up developing a modular set-up which made the installation quicker and more seamless. With more practice, we took on International King’s Table – one of the original buffet restaurants. Kings Table started in Eugene, but then branched off into Old Country Buffett in Minneapolis and throughout the mid-West, and HomeTown Buffet on the West Coast. Servicing our local customers and then having that turn into a statewide and nationwide project was pretty incredible. Other local customers have included the Oregon Electric Station and all of the Papa Murphy restaurants – well over 1,000 stores. I remember driving north from Springfield to Portland, and there was rarely an exit along I-5 that I would pass, that didn’t lead to a restaurant that we had installed and helped set up.
Dan and Mike Curtis, 1980
Over those years, what are some highlights that come to mind and conversely what were some of the challenges the organization has had to overcome?
Honestly, the biggest highlight is when we became an employee-owned company in 2015. The advantage of this is that I was able to maintain the legacy of the company that my father built. We never had to sell the business to anyone, plus we were able to give ownership to the people who have worked for us. Many of us have been here for 20, 30 or 40 years, so sharing Curtis with them and our 70 employees is a huge win and a huge highlight for me.
Of course with every hill there has to be a valley, and we’ve had our fair share of valleys. The buffet installations were about 75 percent of our business and in the mid-90s there was an economic downturn so we had three fourths of our revenue that just dropped off. We were literally Dealer of the Year in 1995, but two to three years later it almost disappeared. It was scary there for a second, but luckily we only had about 15-20 employees, so the overhead wasn’t that bad. We banded together to figure it out and that’s how we started to branch out to different types of installations.
We started to install new equipment and new kitchens into schools, college campuses, hospitals, churches, event centers, retirement homes and hotels. Also, the internet has changed our business because people could suddenly buy things online. This is where the alternative installations like schools, hospitals and hotels really worked out. We were now working with general contractors on projects from the ground up – helping in the design process and collaborating with general contractors and owners to seamlessly bring these new design concepts to fruition.
You served on the Travel Lane County Board of Directors for many years. Why was this a priority and what were the benefits?
I always loved networking and building relationships and friendships through our monthly meetings on the Board of Directors. It was always a good time to get together and find out what was new in our community and also to share what restaurants were building new kitchens or what new eateries the community could expect.
Is there a highlight that comes to mind from your time on the Travel Lane County board?
The Sports Commission. Having Lane County be the hub for so many amazing sporting events like track and field events that attract a lot of people to the area through sporting tourism. The economic impact to our neighbors in hotels and restaurants is huge during this time. We also helped to install the kitchen equipment in Matthew Knight Arena, so participating in a Travel Lane County Board of Directors meeting at Matthew Knight Arena and being able to see the installation and share this with the board created a great sense of pride.
How is the restaurant equipment business affected by the many restaurant closures with respect to the market for the used equipment that comes from these closures? Does Curtis work within the world of used equipment or only new equipment?
We’re fortunate because we have a variety of projects other than restaurants that we work on, which are affected much less by the used inventory market which we typically don’t put in a new restaurant. There may be a rare occasion that there’s a piece of equipment that doesn’t have a lot of wear and tear on it and we'll explore if it's a good fit and there’s a need by a customer, but typically we don’t install used equipment.
There’s an ongoing discussion in Eugene around decarbonization and a move away from natural gas. We hear from industry partners they cannot currently operate effectively or efficiently without gas. We are also hearing that better electric equipment is coming and I wonder what you (experts) see concerning this issue? Is electric equipment coming that can serve our restaurants, breweries, etc.?
Yes it is. We’re already seeing electrification making its way into the market. All electric would be very tough for our customers. Gas is less expensive, more reliable and the majority of us like to cook with gas and fire. But the industry is responding, and the electric equipment being produced now is so much better than it used to be. We and our industry partners are responding to the decarbonization change and if that’s the way we have to go, then restaurant owners can rest assured that their equipment will be intuitive and easy to use. Most manufacturers have a full line of electrical equipment, minus a good electric charbroiler, which is still something they are working on.
What does the future hold for Curtis?
We see a lot of growth in our future, especially being an employee-owned company. So many people have a stake in our success, so we’re going nowhere but up. We’ve expanded to four locations in Oregon and Idaho and are always on the lookout for our next opportunity to expand our market.
