MILWAUKEE -- Hatco Corp. has acquired Ovention Inc., the Dallas-based oven technology company. Ovention owns the rights to the Matchbox Oven.
"We are very excited about the Ovention technology and its overall industry potential. The Matchbox oven is truly revolutionary and solves many common operator problems. This technology offers excellent growth potential for years to come," said David Rolston, president and CEO of Hatco. "The focus on delivering customer value through highly innovative products is a natural fit with the way we've run our business for over 60 years."
Hatco has been serving as the sole, contract manufacturing partner to Ovention since the second half of 2012. Hatco said that it intends to operate Ovention as an independent business unit supported by a team of dedicated professionals, several of whom will transition with Ovention to Hatco as part of the acquisition.
Hatco has appointed current director of business development Steve Everett Jr. to the position of general manager of the Ovention business unit.
"From a market perspective, Ovention's team will be independent from Hatco's which will allow us to dedicate our sales professionals and manage our distribution channel efficiently," said Rolston. "The synergies provided by leveraging our manufacturing resources will further contribute to Ovention's and Hatco's success."
Ovention founder Phil McKee is the former co-founder of TurboChef Inc., where he and his team created the original TurboChef oven and pioneered the accelerated cooking sector.
Hatco is a Milwaukee-based, employee-owned company with a history of more than 60 years in the design, production and servicing of holding and warming equipment. In 2009, Hatco introduced their first refrigerated drop-in well product for the cooling part of its foodservice product line.
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