Dale Bartholomew, a far too energetic person sit sit behind a desk, graduated school in 1975 and went to work for a family owned kitchen equipment dealer. Initially, this was to be a temporary job while figuring out his career path and moving on to bigger and better things. However, Dale quickly fell in love with the business. Over the next 13 years, he worked for this company learning the trade and becoming a well known expert in the field of commercial kitchen lay-out and installation in all types of foodservice operations.

On April 1, 1990, after being with the same company for 13 years, Dale created what is now known as “Daleco”. Starting out with a small customer base, word spread about Dale’s work ethic and quality of work over the past 30+ years. Whether the project is for a “ma and pa” restaurant or a professional sports stadium, Daleco has earned a reputation for quality, fairness, superior knowledge, reasonable pricing, flexibility and speed.

Due to the quality craftsmanship put into every project, Daleco has had several requests and ample opportunity to grow the company. However, Dale’s desire to provide personal attention to every customer, he continues to resist large scale growth and keeps the company below 10 employees. 

Today, Daleco is still a small company with a big reputation. The company’s largest and most prestigious project was to install all of the kitchen equipment in every foodservice operation areas in the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, Ohio - Home of the Cincinnati Reds which reopened in the spring of 2003. 

To keep the family-owned business going once Dale decides to retire, he brought his nephew, Mike Oliver, back to the company in the summer of 2022 to take the reins. Dale and Mike will be working closely together over the next few years to pass on the immense wealth of knowledge Dale has learned over the 40+ years in the industry.