CRFA show draws 13,000 visitors over three days

March 21, 2011, Toronto – The 2011 Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association (CRFA) Show attracted thousands of industry professionals who discovered fresh ideas to help promote, manage and grow their foodservice and hospitality businesses.

Held March 6-8 at the Direct Energy Centre, the 2011 CRFA Show added up to a resounding success with 13,000 visitors, 1,200 exhibitor booths, 38 chef demos, and 31 educational seminars and workshops.

Show awards

Four exhibitors – Ecolab, Garland, Libbey and Vollrath – were honoured with loyalty awards celebrating 50 years of participation in the CRFA Show and its predecessors, the HostEx and Food and Beverage Show.

 “Vollrath was honoured to receive the loyalty award as a celebration of our 50th year at the CRFA Show. The ever-expanding CRFA Show has continued to provide our company with an ideal platform to strengthen awareness of the Vollrath brand in the Canadian market,” said Paul Bartelt, CEO of The Vollrath Co., LLC. “We look forward to an ongoing partnership with the CRFA show and continued growth in this important foodservice market,” says Paul Bartelt, CEO, The Vollrath Co., LLC.

Four other exhibitors were presented with best booth awards: Bevtech for best small booth, Bunge Oils for best traffic-building booth, Rational for best large booth and RE.CO.TE for best first-year exhibitor.

Giving back


Second Harvest collected over 26,000 pounds of food from exhibitors at the CRFA Show, including salmon, chicken, perogies, olive oil, yogurt and fresh produce.  “This food will provide delicious healthy meals to those who are hungry in our city,” the group posted on the CRFA Show Facebook page.

In addition, Friends of We Care, which assists Canadian children who have physical disabilities, raised funds and awareness at the CRFA Show.

“Our thanks go out to everyone in this innovative and dynamic industry whose participation made the CRFA Show such a tremendous success,” said Garth Whyte, president and CEO of the CRFA. “The feedback from visitors and exhibitors has been outstanding, and the wheels are in motion to build on the success to make next year's show even better.”

The 2012 CRFA Show will return to Toronto’s Direct Energy Centre on March 4-6, 2012.