The Custom Story

Welcome to customsalesandservice.com! I hope I've created a place where you can feel comfortable while you imagine your project develop completely from concept on through creation.

It would be simple to just say that Custom is one of the largest designers and manufacturers of catering trucks, mobile kitchens, kiosks, carts and other mobile food and merchandizing systems...

...yet that would only tell a small part of the larger story that defines who we are.

Allow me to give you a brief glimpse of the origin of Custom Mobile Food Equipment.

I was the son of strict Polish and Ukrainian parents who migrated to the United States at the turn of the last century. At the age of eight I was working in the sweltering summer streets of the bustling city of Camden New Jersey, pulling a wagon and scraping snowballs. People used to line up to get their favorite flavored snowball treat and as I worked, I would watch and notice how happy it would make them. I would see them pay wearing an anxious smile - take a deep breath and be on their way to enjoy it on their own, or with friends. Through it all I'd made lots of new friends while earning a little money too.

Eventually, I decided to follow a dream of running my own little wagon business. Soon it grew to where I was selling everything from ice cream and Italian ice, to soft pretzels and even produce.

After my military tour in World War II I opened five diners in southern New Jersey when one day my coffee supplier came in with a magazine showing a picture of catering trucks that were being used at job sites in California.

I recognized immediately what a brilliant idea it was. Having owned a wagon business as a kid, I had terrific success 'going to' the market place and giving the customer what they wanted.

So in 1952 I flew to California to see the trucks in action and then met with officials from Western Urn, a coffee company that also had manufactured the vehicles. I had proposed, and convinced Western Urn executives, that they need representation on the East coast. They were very interested and I left having struck a deal to sell 20 trucks on consignment.

Thus Custom Sales Company was born and the business was moderately successful. Unfortunately for Western Urn, coffee sales plummeted. They'd built the bodies to increase coffee sales, but they weren't selling any more coffee.

So I set out to find a partner locally to build the truck bodies. A Hammonton New Jersey- based company, Cabinets for Electronics agreed to build the truck bodies for the business, while Custom Sales handled the sales and the marketing.

After two years the joint company was struggling to turn a profit but I was determined to make the company work. I'd decided to buy out my partner in 1956 and with some hard work, and lots of prayer Custom soon turned around. A year later we showed a profit and continued to focus on improving the catering trucks quality and design for maximum operating efficiency and heighten consumer appeal.

Of course that was long, long ago. These days my business is in the creation and continued generation of revenue streams for all our clients by providing all manner of food service carts, kiosks, and trucks.

We create stunning custom designs and match rigid franchise specifications.

And yet in the last 50 years of doing business with the small business entrepreneur as-well-as with Major Corporations; although new technologies have opened up a whole new world of possibilities, and although we're able to envision and innovate to meet the needs of our clients - nothing much has changed.

The key, as it's always been, is to be in front of the people. As it is now.

It's still a 'people' business; people want a great product, at a fair price. And they want to be treated with respect. They're also concerned with the value of their time, and that it not be wasted.

People do business with people they can trust. With people whom they can be relaxed. Where the possibilities are subject only to the limits of the imagination. I've built my business around that premise, It's a place where you can go and have it all done under one roof; from the computer aided design - to the manufacturing - to sate-of-the-art graphic work, and awning/canopy work…to delivery.

For me it's about noticing the changes in the marketplace and striving to constantly develop fresh, exciting, innovative approaches, to help your businesses bottom line.

And if I've done my job right, it's about a place where you'll get real value for your investment, and I, get the pleasure of having you become comfortable doing repeat business with us.

Again, welcome and thank you for choosing to come over and learning about us. I look forward to meeting with you personally and making the time you spend with us rewarding.

Thank you for stopping by,
~ William "Bill" Sikora