About

WE EXIST TO MAKE OUR CUSTOMERS SUCCESSFUL WHILE POSITIVELY IMPACTING THE WORLD.

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With Antunes in your corner, you can expect success — but why?
What makes our company so unique?

First, we’re proud to be family-owned and operated, with three generations currently working inside the company today. From our headquarters in Carol Stream, Illinois, we’ve grown to become a leading custom solutions provider of countertop cooking equipment and water filtration systems for the global foodservice market. At Antunes, we don’t just solve problems for our customers. We create the right solutions. That means offering innovative products of the highest quality, backed by our team of industry experts and our commitment to personal service. It’s what we’ve been doing for more than 60 years — and it’s what we continue to do every day for our customers around the world.

From our founding in 1955, August J. Antunes built our company on values that still inform our work to this day — principles like integrity, respect for people, excellence, passion and family.

Those core values helped shape our company’s promise: to drive success for every customer — first by listening, then by delivering on our steadfast commitment to excellence.

Today, Antunes continues to innovate, but it’s all about meeting the needs of our customers first. Our story began with the creation of a simple switch designed to solve a real-world challenge in the market — and new chapters of that story are written every day as our engineers and experts work together on the next great solution.

We exist to make our customers successful while positively impacting the world.

OUR VALUES

Excellence

People

Integrity

Passion

Family

We continually pursue excellence. We expect every solution, product and service that we provide to consistently exceed the customers’ expectations. We are accountable.

We respect and trust each other. We value the diversity of our workforce. We invest in our team members. We believe in the worth of every individual and that the future of our company is dependent on these team members.

We keep our word. We are ethical. We hold ourselves to a single high standard of integrity in everything we do.

We are passionate about building an enduring great company. By doing so, we serve all of our customers, team members, suppliers and the societies we touch.

We are a privately held company that prides itself on being family owned and operated. We intend to stay that way.

Historical highlights

1955

Founder August J. Antunes meets Jack Smith, and the two begin working together as manufacturer’s representatives, forming a new company.

1962

Following the passing of Jack Smith in 1960, August J. Antunes officially changes the company to A.J. Antunes & Co. August’s brother Jerry joins the company.

1963

A.J. Antunes & Co. begins representing EmberGlo and its line of broilers and steamers, working with McDonald’s to use EmberGlo steamers to warm buns for their fish filet sandwiches.

1964

A new safety regulation for industrial ovens creates the need for specialized air and gas switches. August develops the W-1 switch, the first product manufactured by A.J. Antunes & Co.

1970

August J. Antunes creates the circular hotdog grill and names it “Roundup.” That same year, the company enters the foodservice industry as an equipment manufacturer.

1977

The company’s growing manufacturing business leads A.J. Antunes & Co. to build its second facility in Addison, Illinois.

1979

August J. Antunes forms a new electronics division to make controls for the company’s expanding line of foodservice equipment.

1983

Glenn Bullock joins A.J. Antunes & Co.

1984

The success of the foodservice, switch and electronics business leads A.J. Antunes & Co. to build two more manufacturing areas in Addison, Illinois.

1990

August J. Antunes passes away on March 14, 1990. Team members, customers, distributors, representatives and business partners all mourn the loss of a truly great man who transformed the company into a global leader.

1997

A.J. Antunes & Co. develops the VCT-200, the first 10-second commercial toaster, to support McDonald’s new Made For You production system.

1999

The company condenses its operations from five separate buildings into a brand new facility in Carol Stream, Illinois.

2000

A.J. Antunes & Co. starts a new division, Antunes Filtration Technologies, for water filtration systems.

2001

Glenn Bullock takes on a new expanded role of CEO and President of A.J. Antunes & Co.

2003

Continued international expansion prompts the company to build a new manufacturing facility in Suzhou, China, to serve that area.

2008

A.J. Antunes & Co. expands its Vision Statement to include: “We exist to make our customers successful.” This serves as a lasting reminder of August J. Antunes and his dedication to all his customers.

2015

A.J. Antunes & Co. celebrates its 60th anniversary in business.

2016

A.J. Antunes & Co. unifies its brands of Roundup, Antunes Filtration Technologies and Antunes Controls under the Antunes name.

2017

Antunes breaks ground for expansion of its Carol Stream headquarters, featuring expanded manufacturing capacity, renovated offices and wellness/recreational facilities for team members. Antunes celebrates completion of the expansion in 2018 with an Open House.

2018

Antunes raises a record-breaking $78,000 for Splash at its 7th annual Charity Golf Outing.

2019

Antunes inaugurates its joint venture with NADI Manufacturing Pvt. Ltd. in Chennai, India and begins the manufacture of water filtratation equipment in India.