Filta Group is pleased to announce that it will be providing its environmental impact reduction service known as FiltaFry to two of the main venues of the 2010 Winter Olympics in the Vancouver area.

BC Place, the location of the Opening ceremonies, as well as GM Place will both be employing Filta’s micro-cooking oil filtration service known as FiltaFry. FiltaFry’s service focuses on purification and reduction of wasted cooking oil in commercial fryers. It allows venues such as BC Place and GM Place to drastically reduce their environmental impact due to disposal of used fryer oil while simultaneously improving the food quality in the venues.

Steven Hughes, the owner of the Vancouver FiltaFry franchise estimates that “FiltaFry will filter over 300,000 gallons of cooking oil during the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics between the two venues. That is enough cooking oil to fill roughly half an olympic swimming pool.”

Mr. Hughes also provides the green service for GM Place and the Vancouver Canucks during the NHL season. When interviewed, Mr. Hughes was honored that he was able to do his part in making the 2010 Winter Olympics as environmentally responsible as possible. Mr. Hughes is not the only FiltaFry franchisee to reside on non-American soil. Come February 12th, Filta Group will have franchisee representatives in 27 countries rooting for their prospective national hero’s in their race for the Gold.

Filta’s success in 2009 leading up the Vancouver games has caused the unique company attract an ever increasing client roster of high profile venues like those of the Olympic Games, Mile High Stadium, and a list of other professional sports venues. Filta Group is poised to expand on its success in 2009 By offering even more eco-friendly services in 2010. With its soft launch of FiltaCool already a success, it aims on expanding its offerings to include FiltaBIO, and FiltaTAB. Similar to how the Olympics include a variety of sports with an overlying theme of competition and sportsmanship, Filta’s entire line of services all aim to achieve the same core accomplishments. Filta aims to help companies reduce their environmental impact while helping them become more efficient and profitable.

A new marketing campaign to restaurants is being launched in Q1 2010.  The slogan “Want to see our Weapon of Mass Reduction” is being used for both direct mail and email.

Victor Clewes, Filta CEO

The U.S. Commerce Association has honored FiltaFry creator Filta Group Inc. with the designation of the 2009 Best of Orlando Award in the green services category.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) January 18, 2010 – The Filta Group Inc., The creators of FiltaFry Mobile Oil Filtration and other green services has been selected for the 2009 Best of Orlando Award in the Green Services category by the U.S. Commerce Association (USCA).

Best Of Orlando 2009 Filta Group

While Filta is proud of its impact as the green movement, environmental responsibility is merely a byproduct of good business for FiltaFry.

The USCA “Best of Local Business” Award Program recognizes outstanding local businesses throughout the country. Each year, the USCA identifies companies that they believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and community.

Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2009 USCA Award Program focused on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the USCA and data provided by third parties.

“While Filta is proud of its impact as the green movement, environmental responsibility is merely a byproduct of good business for FiltaFry,” says Filta Group CEO Victor Clewes. Filta Group was chosen for their relentless pursuit of business opportunities that promote green initiatives. The company has a long track record of providing services to business owners that allow them to run more efficient restaurants and commercial kitchens. Their original offering FiltaFry offers cooking oil recycling and fryer management. The service allows clients to eliminate the burn incidents that are common in most commercial kitchens related to filtering or disposing of waste cooking oil. It also allows them to increase the usable length of their cooking oil, and improve the taste of fried foods because of higher quality cooking oil and better understanding of the frying process. Using their highly advanced micro-filtration technology, Filta has purified enough cooking oil to fill even the largest football stadium. This recycled oil drastically reduces the need to produce, transport, and dispose of additional oil for cooking.

As of recently, Filta Group has expanded their initiative past just FiltaFry. They recently rolled out a multinational effort to introduce FiltaCool, a humidity control system for refrigeration units such as commercial refrigerators that conserves energy, prolongs air-condition equipment life, and reduces spoilage. Each of their two offerings focuses on helping restaurants and commercial kitchens control costs, liability, spoilage, and waste.

Victor Clewes remarked on the achievements saying that Filta was grateful for being recognized for its efforts. He also remarked on the expansion in the early part of 2010 of Filta’s additional green services such as waste oil pickup and recycling under the name of FiltaBio.

As restaurants and companies dealing in food production struggle to survive, a small industry is capitalizing on opportunity. Cost reduction services are thriving off the needs of business owners to reduce overhead anyway they can. One company in particular has positioned itself to profit from the increased demand for cost reduction, as well as capture the attention of sustainability managers looking to push corporate green initiatives.See how this business is paving the way for inevitable changes in the way businesses deal with green initiatives in the coming years.

As struggling businesses look to cut costs, the small but growing industry of cost reduction services is flourishing in the current economic environment. In times like these, anything that helps a business lower its operation costs is going to be a welcomed service. Several companies are taking such needs all the way to the bank, but an oil filtration company known as The Filta Group found a particularly unique niche that combines the benefits of cost reduction with the social capital of going green for restaurants and commercial kitchens.

Win-win situations are rare when environmental initiatives work in tandem with profit strategies, but the company based out of Orlando, Florida is succeeding by doing just that. Called Filta, this green franchise focuses on environmental and efficiency solutions for restaurants and commercial kitchens. The company’s largest product is an oil microfiltration service, which allows cooking oil to be used effectively for a much longer period of time, thus improving food quality and the life of the frying systems. It is a service that most restaurants had never heard of until Filta Group started franchising their FiltaFry service in the 90’s. Oil filtration is exactly what it sounds like. The company uses a proprietary technology to filter impurities out of used cooking oil to extend its use life. The company says it can extend oil life by up to 50%, reducing costs for restaurants (far more than the cost of the service) while lowering their impact on the environment. According to Filta’s president Jason Sayers, the company has filtered over 250 million pounds of oil since it’s inception, or enough to fill an entire football stadium. That’s a tremendous positive impact on the environment, as well as the profits of thousands of restaurants and commercial kitchens. The word is beginning to spread.

Starwood Hotel Brands, which includes the likes of Sheraton, Aloft, Westing, St. Regis, and other hotel leaders, entered a deal with the company recently to offer Filta’s services to the hundreds of hotel-managed restaurants and commercial kitchens in its management portfolio. A national agreement was reached with the hotel giant after a pilot program yielded an impressive 37% reduction in costs associated with frying oil processes or roughly $570,000 in savings.

Other major corporations are soon to follow suit as the attraction of cost reduction, and the added social capital of going green, grabs the attention of upper financial management and sustainability managers alike. The only downside is that oil filtration services are not yet available nationwide to fill the ever-increasing demand for such a service. Analysts expect the demand for oil filtration to increase 25% annually for the next several years, as going green and cost reduction becomes the motto of every Fortune 500 company and small restaurant chain alike. Filta Group president Jason Sayers put it best, “fried food isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Fryer’s are an essential part of almost any commercial kitchen. We just found a way to make them more efficient and profitable for restaurants. If we can make a profit making their business more profitable, then we have done our job.”

Staying true to its food service cost-reduction core, Filta has also just released a new service known as FiltaCool. This unique system utilizes passive moisture-controlling technology to increase refrigeration efficiency in restaurant coolers. The move is paying off for Filta and clients alike. Studies have shown the system’s ability to significantly increase the efficiency of refrigeration systems to control humidity and temperature, two major factors that help decrease energy costs in cold-storage. This passive and relaltively inexpensive service allows commercial kitchens, and restaurants to reduce operations costs even further than FiltaFry alone.

If you have not yet seen a Filta mobile service van in your area, expect to see it soon. The company is barely keeping pace with the number of new requests for franchise information. In times like these, it is good to see any company thriving. Especially one that combines green initiatives with profitability. Companies like Filta are the next evolution in the new economy. They are proof that social responsibility and profit can be achieved at the same time.

The Small Business Administration has just released its newest list of failure rates by franchise brand from October 1, 2000 until September 31, 2008. This is a list of general SBA 7(a) and real estate and equipment 504 loans to franchise owners. It gives a sense to lenders and buyers on how well franchisees in a chain are financially able to perform. This is the list that the agency provides to loan officers of its most trusted lenders and banks throughout the country.

Loan officers and franchise buyers realize that there are thousands of franchise opportunities to buy from, so why mess with the riskiest?

This Report, in spreadsheet form, is the unedited data from the US Small Business Administration (SBA) reporting on franchise loan performance on the brand level during the time period of 10/1/2000 and 9/30/2008.

The table of data includes listings for all identified franchises by franchise code for loans guaranteed through the 7(a) and 504 programs. The table includes the number of disbursements, the amount disbursed, the failure percentage and the charge-off percentage. Individual loan data is not included in this report.

FiltaFry’s failure rate is only 6%. There are more than 300 brands with much higher failure rates (as high as 85%!) including:

Athlete’s Foot – 46% failure rate
Dollar Discount Stores – 44% failure rate
Carvel Ice Cream – 41% failure rate
Blimpie – 40% failure rate
Golf Etc – 40% failure rate
Wing Zone – 38% failure rate
Kwik Kopy – 33% failure rate
Mr. Electric – 33% failure rate
Back Yard Burgers – 32% failure rate
Fast Frame – 27% failure rate
TCBY – 25% failure rate
Budget Blinds – 24% failure rate
Godfather’s Pizza – 23% failure rate
Wetzel’s Pretzels – 23% failure rate
Minuteman Press – 22% failure rate
Meineke Discount Muffler – 21% failure rate
Petland – 20% failure rate
Quiznos – 19% failure rate
Lawn Doctor – 18% failure rate
AAMCO – 17% failure rate
Chem-Dry – 16% failure rate
Long John Silvers – 16% failure rate
Mr Handyman – 13% failure rate
Exxon – 13% failure rate

For more information visit www.filta.com

By Abraham Aboraya

SEMINOLE COUNTY - When Gov. Charlie Crist signed an executive order in July to make the state government a more environmentally friendly employer, part of the provision was that agencies should use “green lodging” for conferences when it’s available.

Tom Rovison, the owner of franchise company Filtafry, hopes his company’s business of reducing waste in restaurants will get a boost from the order as the New Year comes around and the bulk of the order comes into effect.

“A lot of these companies are in a rush right now to get involved with the Florida Restaurant [and Lodging] Association and the green theme lodging so they’re still allowed to host these functions,” Rovison said. “What happens at that point is people have to follow certain waste guidelines – reduction to a certain level – a

nd we help them get to that level and it’s a cost effective way of doing it.”

Rovison’s company uses a vacuum and pressurized filter system, an imported system from Europe, to clean the frying oil and double the life of the oil. Rovison said that one of his goals for 2008 is to expand his business in Seminole County.

“No one likes to clean the fryers, but we’ve got it down to a science,” Rovison said. “We’ve got all the tools that are needed to do it fast, safely and cost effectively.”

Filtafry has a sister company that works with restaurants and cafeterias to secure the used oil and convert it to bio-diesel fuel. ABC Research Corporation in Gainesville, a company that does lab work for Burger King, said the recycled oil may be lower in coal tar and even trans fat, the Orlando Business Journal reported.

The company is also expanding and offering a filter service for freezers, which Rovison said can both lower the temperature of the freezer and equalize the humidity, which means less time with the compressor running.

“You save on electricity which means less fossil fuels which means more environmentally friendly,” Rovison said.

Rovison services a variety of clients, from the cafeteria at Central Florida Regional Hospital in Sanford to all three Papa Joe’s in Seminole County. For many of his clients, Rovison said, it’s not the environmental and health benefits that lure clients to his business as much as it is the release of liability.

According to a 1999 study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, there was an estimated 44,800 injuries suffered by restaurant workers – and nearly half of those injuries were from burns. Numbers for burns in Seminole County aren’t kept by state’s worker’s compensation department, the state Department of Health or the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Florida office.

When Danna McGowen arrives at a business in the bright yellow Fitafry van, he’s wearing what look like welding gloves – thick gloves that go to the elbow made from bulletproof kevlar – and he’s armed with four years of experience changing out the 360-degree oil.

Both McGowen and Rovison said people often show them the scars they’ve gotten changing or cleaning the oil.

“They’ll roll their arms up and show you the scars,” Rovison said. “We take that liability away from them and give them a better product.”

“We can handle pretty much anything coming our way,” Rovison said. Currently, he estimates that he filters about 10,000 pounds of oil in a week. “The more (clients) the merrier.”

In the face of rising oil prices and global concern over the availability of fossil fuels, the biodiesel trend is steadily gaining favor amongst the automotive community.  Forward thinking companies that realize this emerging trend and seek to take advantage of the rising value of bio-fuels put themselves at a greater advantage in the developing marketplace.  “The global markets for biodiesel are entering a period of rapid transitional growth, creating both uncertainty and opportunity.  The first generation biodiesel markets in Europe and the US have reached impressive biodiesel production capacity levels, but remain constrained by feedstock availability. In the BRIC nations of Brazil, India and China, key government initiatives are spawning hundreds of new opportunities for feedstock development, biodiesel production, and export,”  assesses Will Thurmond, author of Biodiesel 2020 and Biofuels International columnist.

With increasing concern and a shifting focus toward sustainability, many companies are choosing to revaluate how they conduct business and the operational procedures of their franchises.   This is especially true in the food service industry, where waste has always been a necessary, albeit undesirable, evil.  Since its inception in 1996, Filtafry, an internationally renowned leader in environmentally conscientious kitchen solutions, has been helping the food service industry minimize waste and reduce energy usage.
“The price of cooking oil, as a commodity, has sky-rocketed in the last year and the need for efficient operations has never been greater,” states The Filta Group CEO Victor Clewes.   “Filtering and re-using cooking oil reduces oil purchases. Reduced oil purchases result in cost and waste savings. Then, when the oil can no longer be used for cooking, it becomes bio-fuel. Nothing is wasted. It’s used in the food we eat, then in the cars we drive. It becomes a net positive for the environment as well as a restaurant’s bottom line.”

The Filta Group originated as a waste oil and fryer maintenance service based out of the UK.  From its humble origins it has since grown to become a global leader in not only environmentally conscientious oil management, but has since expanded its eco-friendly efforts into cold storage with its FiltaCool line of products and service.
As more and more large corporate entities begin to embrace green business, many smaller businesses are beginning to follow suit.  Restaurant owners are starting to realize that the waste oil that was once a burden is rapidly becoming a marketable commodity and that getting in now will serve them well in the future.  “From 2008 through 2020, a series of transitions in the bio diesel industry will create winners and losers,” says Thurmond. “Bio diesel producers that are best able to evolve and adapt to transitions in technology, markets, feed stocks and government policies are most likely to succeed over the long term.”

As these trends continue, it becomes imperative for small businesses to pick up the banner of sustainability and green business.  Not only is their public pressure to do so, but as new means of conservation are struck upon, it becomes more and more apparent that availing oneself of them is the economically sensible thing to do.  Keeping current with emerging developments and finding ways to integrate more efficient and sustainable business practices is the only practical means of growth and development into the burgeoning biodiesel market.

Since breaking into the US franchising market in 2002, Filta has been taking the nation by storm. A unique company in and of its own right, Filta has also continued to make progress and makes great strides in enhancing the already valuable service. Already known as a leader in the environmentally friendly business sector, Filta seems to continue to strive to maintain the standard of quality and environmentally sound way of doing things, as well as finding newer and more innovative means to implement that very business strategy.

It is hard to believe that such a small improvement in restaurant cooling systems could make such a big impact, however, the FiltaCool system offers big changes and takes up very little space. The Filtafry technician attaches a small filter box to the refrigeration unit, offering businesses a new way to keep the humidity down in cooling facilities which offers many benefits.

Still living up to the Filta standard for eco friendly quality the small, lightweight box goes into the refrigeration and cooling unit and begins to work its magic. However, it is not by magic that it works, the secret is first in the way that it minimizes bacteria and corrosive gasses. These tend to hasten the ripening of food, and that leads to earlier rot and waste for restaurant owners. In slowing that down, food waste is prevented, but also, food is more palatable for a longer period of time- making this a benefit to the customers as well.  Enabling businesses to be able to waste less, use less and to be able to save on not only inventory cost, but energy costs also lowers prices to the customers they serve in reducing the overhead.

The impact of excessive humidity is well known amongst those in the hospitality and food service industry- the equipment has to run longer, and use more energy. So, in controlling humidity there is the bigger benefit of not only having cleaner running equipment that is better maintained, but also yet another way Filta continues to provide services that are not only extremely useful to businesses, but good to the environment as well. Cold storage need not be an energy intensive part of businesses every day running any longer, and the added benefit of food that tastes better, longer is definitely cutting back on inventory related losses to those business owners.

Forging ahead into newer ways of making the business even more environmentally friendly, Filta continues to roll out advancements and ways of doing things that are showing more and more that it does not have to be expensive or time consuming to adopt greener ways of doing things. Filtacool is just one small example of the many different, environmentally friendly things the franchise has implemented in the way that they do things, and is a great benefit to any establishment that utilizes refrigeration and cooling in their business. It seems that as more and more are embracing better ways of reducing their own carbon footprint, Filta has been doing so and seems quite intent to continue to bring better options in running more environmentally friendly businesses to the table.

Rapidly gaining ground as a strong market, the bio diesel trend is gaining ground at a steady pace. Bio diesel 2020 author Will Thurmond said, “The global markets for bio diesel are entering a period of rapid, transitional growth, creating both uncertainty and opportunity. The first generation bio diesel markets in Europe and the US have reached impressive bio diesel production capacity levels, but remain constrained by feedstock availability. In the BRIC nations of Brazil, India and China, key government initiatives are spawning hundreds of new opportunities for feedstock development, bio diesel production, and export”. Companies that keep their focus towards more environmentally friendly ways of doing things have certainly got an edge, this being the case.

Growing sustainability concerns are bringing about vast changes in the way that many businesses and franchises are doing things. Filtafry, a known leader in environmentally sound food service technology has not lost sight of that, since its inception in 1996.
“The price of cooking oil, as a commodity, has sky-rocketed in the last year and the need for efficient operations has never been greater,” says Victor Clewes, CEO of The Filta Group, an international Eco-friendly services company which specializes in cooking oil filtration and recycling. “Filtering and re-using cooking oil reduces oil purchases. Reduced oil purchases result in cost and waste savings. Then, when the oil can no longer be used for cooking, it becomes bio-fuel. Nothing is wasted. It’s used in the food we eat, then in the cars we drive. It becomes a net positive for the environment as well as a restaurant’s bottom line.”

The Filta Group began its foray into the world of more sustainable efforts in the UK, and since has become a worldwide leader in offering a better way for businesses to do things as well as an opportunity for franchisees to also jump on this trend. With larger companies also beginning to trend towards this, small business owners, from franchisees to food service industry are finding that getting in now is a wise choice. “From 2008 through 2020, a series of transitions in the bio diesel industry will create winners and losers,” said Thurmond. “Bio diesel producers that are best able to evolve and adapt to transitions in technology, markets, feed stocks and government policies are most likely to succeed over the long term.”

Now more than ever, it is vital to align oneself as a business owner with more environmentally friendly standards and practices. Sustainability also invests a great deal in the economic status of the business itself, bringing about a much more cost effect means of the way that some are looking at the way they handle waste vegetable oil and its disposal, but also the way that overall business is conducted. Keeping abreast of the changes, but also beginning to integrate better ways of maintaining more sustainable business practices is not only a practical step, but one that is going to help not only US markets, but global markets take the most advantage in the rise in bio diesel use.