HAPPY NEW YEAR 2018 January 2018
Inside this issue: President’s Message
1
President’s Message WOW! I can’t believe that 2017 has come and gone. It just seemed to fly by. It’s been a very busy year, and by most accounts a successful one. We accomplished most of the goals we set for ourselves, financially
We’re a Winner with
1
Welbilt 2017, That Was the Year
Financially, we ended the year very close to our projected budget. This is a tribute to the hard work and 2
that Was! Employee Profile – Dean
continuous efforts of all GP Associates. I truly believe we have the best people in the industry! Administratively, we successfully integrated the branches we acquired in the purchase of Ron’s and
2
Wayne Spot Light on Hatco
and administratively.
Certified Refrigeration, while at the same time expanding our service foot print to include Eugene, OR and Houston, TX. Meanwhile, our invoicing improvement team, working with our consultant, identified changes in our billing process to help streamline and standardize how we invoice. Some of those chang-
3
es have already been implemented, and others will be shortly. Additionally, we have scheduled a company meeting the week of February 5th in Bloomington that will
GP Opens in Yuma!
3
Boelter Golf Outing
3
include service managers, branch managers, as well as all senior management. At the meeting, they will be introduced to the company Business Plan and our newly created On Boarding Plan for new hires. Included in the Business Plan is a new and expanded Organizational Chart that’s ready to be posted on our internal website. This new structure provides us with the management infrastructure necessary for
Employee Milestone Anniversaries
4
long term growth and financial oversite. I want to take this opportunity to thank all stakeholders; GP associates, customers and our manufacturer partners for their continued commitment to General Parts. Let’s make 2018 an even better year! “Business goes where it’s invited. Business stays where it’s appreciated.” - Jack Kaine Bruce Hodge
We’re a Winner with Welbilt®! General Parts has been recognized for its contribution to the Welbilt RISE program at the 2017 KitchenCare® Service Recognition event held in Austin, Texas. The company was the winner of the RISE Install/Startup award. For readers unfamiliar with RISE and wondering what it means, it stands for Reliable Installation and Startup of Equipment and the award was given for delivering exactly that! The award was presented by Wayne Lemke, the Welbilt Country Manager for the Americas, to Bruce Hodge and Cassidy Martin. It has been a great honor to be involved in the RISE program and with over 700 calls completed at the time of the award, we are delighted to have met the challenge of this program and deliver on the confidence Welbilt has placed in our company. What makes this award extra special is that it is a new award category, making General Parts the first ever winner. Let’s hope we have set a high bar for the future as we continue to define GP Service Excellence.
Pictured left to right are; David Neidlinger, Dan Kaltenbaugh, Cassidy Martin, Bruce Hodge and Wayne Lemke.
Page 2
2017, That Was the Year that Was! A new year is upon us. Hopefully, 2018 will be another record breaking year, but before we rush forward to beak those records, let’s take a moment to remember some important 2017 accomplishments. After all, it was quite a year. We had determined that most of our energy during the year would be directed at consolidating and fully integrating our newer operations and expansion would be done on a limited basis. We kicked off this process with the opening of our second distribution center in Portland, Oregon. This second center offers our clients a greater range of in-stock items and expands our shipping to cover all time zones of the lower 48 states. Following this, our brand-new eCommerce site for https://gp-partdirect.com was launched on February 1st, after almost two years in development. The new site has been steadily establishing itself and now has a regular online customer base which is growing. In March, the relocation of our Medford, OR branch to a new larger facility provided the necessary room to grow. At the same time, also in March, our Portland branch opened a new satellite location in Eugene, delivering service throughout central Oregon and reducing some of our Sub-Agent exposure. Finally, in June we completed the integration of the former Ron’s Service locations of Portland, Medford and Boise onto the General Parts business platform. This integration is already delivering significant internal administrative and purchasing efficiencies. Looking back to April, we relocated our Pensacola branch to a larger facility and expanded our service further east in the Florida Panhandle. Like Medford, we are now better positioned for growth. For more details about the official opening of Pensacola, see page 3 of this edition of Generally Speaking. The summer months brought heat and new operations to the company. We planned the opening of a new branch in Houston, TX and we were also able to lease a building in Yuma, AZ, providing a much-needed facility for our technicians who had been working as satellite techs for over a year. The late summer storms in the Gulf of Mexico hit the Texas coast and Houston especially hard. This did delay the “formal” opening of the Houston branch, but as you’d expect with Texan resilience, we quickly reopened for business. A building lease has been signed and we are moving forward. Regarding the summer heat, Yuma was the hands down winner! Finally, in November General Parts staked a claim across the Colorado border and began providing satellite service in Cheyenne, WY on a fulltime basis. On behalf of the entire senior management team, we would like to thank all our employees, customers and suppliers who made this possible. Look out 2018, here we come!
Employee Profile Dean Wayne - Regional Sales Manager In this December edition of Generally Speaking we meet Regional Sales Manager, Dean Wayne. Based in our Chicago office, Dean has worked for General Parts since 1994. Initially working in parts support and later as the Parts Manager, Dean found that he liked the interaction with customers, especially in the field when delivering emergency parts. This led Dean to join the sales team in 1998, an early success included working with Bruce Hodge on the Wrigley Field contract. In 2015 Dean was promoted to the role of Regional Sales manager as part of the reorganization of the company’s sales force. Dean’s role encompasses the management of his team to develop markets in Minneapolis, North Dakota, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Kentucky and Texas. In addition, Dean is responsible for the development of corporate programs and is currently working with such companies as Nando’s Peri Peri, Five Guys, Teds Montana Grill and Applebee’s. Dean is a passionate customer service advocate and is extremely proud of General Parts and its growth in recent years. Outside of work Dean is an avid ‘do-it-yourself’ guy and constantly works on his labor of love which is his historic home, the Martin Young House in Chesterton, Indiana. The home is in the register of historic sites and was built in 1878. It turns out that Dean is quite the romantic, he dreamed of owning this house as a young man having lived just down the road with his family who have lived in the area for over 150 years! You can learn more about the Martin Young House here. In his leisure time Dean loves to play golf and dreams of one day playing at the home of golf, St Andrews in Scotland. Best get saving Dean and don’t forget to pack your umbrella!
Page 3
Manufacturer Spot Light— Hatco Corporation In this December edition of Generally Speaking we are pleased to feature the Hatco Corporation as our spot light vendor partner. Named after its founders, Hatco (Hatch Company) was formed in 1950 in Wisconsin by Gordon and LaReine Hatch and over its history has developed a reputation for quality equipment design and manufacturing innovation. Hatco manufacturing was originally based in Milwaukee and was initially famous for its Electric Booster Water Heater which set the industry standard for sanitizing rinse water. Following this was the launch of the world’s first conveyor toaster the Toast King® in 1966. From this early success Hatco moved its manufacturing plant to Sturgeon Bay which has subsequently undergone nine major expansions to become a state-ofthe-art global manufacturing base. Development and growth has continued and today Hatco produces a wide array of heating and holding equipment including fryers, inductions cookers, merchandisers, strip heaters, wells, drawer warmers, carving stations and much more. Indeed, the only limitation in Hatco’s portfolio is that it has a rule about never selling a product that can’t fit through the customer door! Another notable event in the history of Hatco is the process it began in 2004 launching an employee ownership stock plan which culminated in Hatco becoming 100% employee owned in 2007. General Parts relationship started in the early 1970’s. In fact, the opening of our original Milwaukee location is directly linked to Hatco as it was then Hatco rep Dick Green who encouraged General Parts to open and to support the Wisconsin market. General Parts is only 170 miles from the Sturgeon Bay manufacturing facility and a mere 15 miles from the Milwaukee corporate head office.
A Grand ‘Opening’ for GP Pensacola It’s been a great 2017 for Pensacola with the branch, literally doubling in size! In light of this, Branch Manager Russell Broxson took the opportunity to turn the branch’s annual Open House into a bigger celebration by having an official opening of its new facility. The event was supported by the Greater Pensacola Chamber of Commerce who we should add, deserve special thanks. Sending seven ambassadors certainly shows an outstanding level of support. With 50 attendees we think the event was an enormous success, the gumbo, jambalaya and cakes were certainly a hit! Thank you Jerry’s Bistreaux Cajun Catering and The Cake Gallery for your hard work. We would also like to thank Escambia County School District, Vanquish Worldwide and the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association. Your attendance was greatly appreciated. We look forward to supporting the Pensacola foodservice community in 2018 and beyond!
Pictured from left to right are; Ron Scott, Kathy Hubbard, Eddie Murray, Jeff Martin, Steve Clopton, Russell Broxson, JR Weber, Kati Hoagland, Michelle Moak, Chris Turnbull, Joseph Davis, Audrey Preston, Nelson Lillie and Drew Hardgrave.
Page 4
Employee Anniversaries and a Welcome to New Colleagues Anniversaries
Katrina Combs, Dallas
Craig Archer, Memphis
Garrett Pipkin, Dallas
Sunny Perez, Omaha
Cecil Dietz, Denver
Chris Turnbull, Pensacola
Al Johnson, Denver
Mikhail Lewis, St. Louis
Tommy Thomas, Des Moines
Sheila Birk, St. Louis
Kelly Volz, Fort Wayne
William Worthy, Tucson
Joshua Hulbert, Fort Wayne
Dominic Hagenkord, Waukesha
Carl Young, Houston
Nicholas Holter, Waukesha
New Colleagues
Thom McBride, Houston
Ryan Nash, Wichita
Candice Gieseke, Bloomington
Ernie Ketcham, Kansas City
Christina Lorona, Yuma
Joel Block, Bloomington
David Jett, Kansas City
Nicholas Jacquet, Bloomington
Nancy Barnes, Kansas City
Chris Wahmann, Chicago
Blaine Collins, Louisville
25 Years Tom Rheault, Bloomington
10 Years Matt Whittier, Bloomington
5 Years Chuck Trumbull, Milwaukee
Get Involved With This Newsletter Want to share news about your department, location or recent branch event? Contributions, photographs and suggestions are welcome. Send
About General Parts Group General Parts Group is a provider of food service equipment repair services. Founded in 1939, the company has grown to be distributer of O.E.M. parts and provides service for over 60,000 customers and 400 manufacturers of commercial foodservice equipment. Company headquarters are located in Minneapolis, Minnesota and with major branch operations strategically located in Arizona (3), Colorado, Florida, Idaho (2), Illinois, Indiana (2), Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri (2), Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma (2), Oregon (2), Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin. (2) General Parts Group is ideally positioned to provide Quality Service for over one third of the United States. Viewed as the market leader in the majority of the markets served and in terms of overall sales, General Parts Group ranks in the top five of independent service companies nationally.
