Company keeps on truckin- with food

A two-story brick building tucked into Dexter Avenue is home to Food Truck Festivals of America.

An event management company, Food Truck Festivals for America organizes food truck and craft beer festivals around the country.

Company founder and Watertown native Anne-Marie Aigner started Food Truck Festivals of America in 2011 after noticing how popular food trucks had become on the West Coast.

In the past eight years, Aigner has expanded the company from New England to the entire country. Her positive attitude and belief in herself, Aigner said, is what has helped her plow through the bad times to make her business successful.

From marketing to food trucks

FTFA is not Aigner's first business venture. She first co-founded Aigner Prensky Marketing in 1984 with Janet Prensky. The marketing business is what led Aigner to food trucks.

About eight years ago, longtime client PineHills, a master planned community in Plymouth, asked the firm to plan a summer event. In the past, Aigner's firm had organized music and art shows for PineHills. This time the company asked Aigner to come up with something different.

"We're like what's missing, well, food," Aigner said. "I researched what was trending in food and noticed that food trucks were very hot in L.A. and were slowly moving east."

The firm decided to organize a food truck festival.

Aigner found a mere eight food trucks in the Boston area. She said the trucks were not even what people today would consider food trucks, they were retro-fitted catering vans for some of the major restaurants.

Aigner Prensky Marketing brought all eight of those food trucks to PineHills for the June event where, to their surprise, it was a huge success.

"Thousands of people showed up to wait in line for a hot dog. We could not believe it," Aigner said.

This success led her to try similar events in other locations. Again, thousands of people showed up, and Aigner knew she had hit a chord with New England residents.

In 2012, Aigner incorporated Food Trucks Festivals for New England with Aigner Prensky Marketing as the new company's sister agency.

"We didn't know if this was a fad. Are people really going to eat from the street?" Aigner said. "It turns out it is not a fad. It is a trend, I believe, is here to stay."

This article was originally published by the Watertown TAB July 12, 2019. Read the full article here: https://www.wickedlocal.com/news/20190710/company-keeps-on-truckin---with-food