october 2017 president s message - general partsgeneral parts has been working as a service partner...
TRANSCRIPT
President’s Message 1
General Parts Supports
RFMA Gives 2018
1
The Power of Customer
Service
2
Employee Profile – Karrin
Lunneborg
2
Spot Light on Blodgett
Oven
3
GP Opens in Yuma! 3
Boelter Golf Outing 3
Employee Milestone
Anniversaries
4
October 2017
Inside this issue: President’s Message
General Parts Supports RFMA Gives 2018 General Parts Group is pleased to announce its support of the 2018 RFMA Gives project by providing
labor and materials for the installation and repair of both hot and cold foodservice equipment. RFMA
Gives is an annual event coordinated by RFMA members with the aim of giving back to the community
by supporting a non-profit foodservice organization in the repair and remodeling of their facility.
This year’s recipient is the Salvation Army Rehabilitation Center located in Phoenix Arizona. The Reha-
bilitation Center’s mission is to provide holistic work-therapy, group and individual counseling, life skill
development, and spiritual direction for their residents to abandon substance reliance. They help
them combat their addictions, build their work and social skills needed to re-enter the workforce,
regain health and stability, and restore families that have been disrupted. The Center is 100% self-funded through the five area Salvation Ar-
my Thrift Stores in the greater Phoenix area.
General Parts support of this project will be coordinated through its Phoenix office with additional support supplied by Tucson and Yuma.
A Bright Future
The third quarter is now behind us and to date, we are having a good year. We continue to expand into
new markets and existing branches are delivering improved service margins. Thank you for your hard
work in making this a reality.
In our last newsletter, I mentioned we have engaged an outside consultant to help us identify and prior-
itize areas within the company that we can improve upon. Since then, Maria Snyder from Pragmatek,
has spoken with 27 employees holding varying positions within our company. From those conversa-
tions, she's has constructed a matrix of all areas discussed. In total, there were 96 different areas which
were noted by our employees. Some topics were mentioned by the great majority of those she spoke
with, while others were only mentioned once or twice.
Maria then developed a matrix assessing the organizational value of each topic along with assigning a
difficulty ranking for implementation. From this matrix, we’ve identified the priorities we want to start
working on. Some of you will be called upon to participate in these new initiatives. Your input will be an
important factor in the process and will bring about positive improvements in transaction processes,
hiring, training, communication, sales and marketing and inventory management. We will also be con-
structing a written business plan that will be shared with all associates. More information will be forth-
coming in the next few weeks as we finalize timelines and work groups.
Finally, I want to emphasize that this focus of building for our future will be ongoing, and that we are
just getting started!
“The best way to predict the future is to create it” (Unknown Author)
Bruce Hodge
The Power of Customer Service There is no denying that what we do is important, our services literally help power America by helping our customers serve their customers.
What makes the difference however, is not just the services and parts we offer, its our attitude to our customers. Putting the customer first and
going that extra mile can resolve a demanding situation for a customer a whole lot more quickly and as we all know, time really is money in the
foodservice business. Here are a couple of examples of customer feedback following outstanding customer service by our colleagues.
Firstly, and once again our Fort Wayne team goes above and beyond.
Craig,
I just wanted to take a minute and give you some feedback on my experiences that I have had with Gen-
eral Parts. To start with I have been a manager at Applebee's for 12 years and a General Manager for the past 2
years and I have never had such a great relationship with a company that does any work for us as I do with Gen-
eral Parts. I want to mention a couple of people that have been a staple in that process. Jessica Whitman has
always been able to help me with any issue that I have had. She is always trying to fit my issues in where she
can and I know if I talk with her it will be handled. Dan Sudhuff where do I start... Dan is probably one of the best
service guys that I have had the pleasure working with. He takes his time and explains everything to me so I understand the problem and how to prevent
the issue from reoccurring. He is very honest and I trust his opinion and or advise. I know without a doubt if Jessica and Dan are involved in getting a
job done I really have no worries that it will be done and done right and in my line of work one less thing to worry about is fantastic! Please reach out to
them and let them know they are appreciated.
Thanks,
Dave Werling - GM - Applebee's
And not to be outdone, GP-PartsDirect have also been impressing customers with their customer service. The following quote excerpt was left
as a voice mail.
“Ivan and Jose, those guys are outstanding, they are fast, they are knowledgeable, I just wanted to tell you that those guys are awesome, anytime I get
one of them on the end of the line especially when I am busy like this, it’s awesome dealing with them and they are polite”.
Nathane - Eclipse Service
We are lucky to have employees with these abilities and even luckier to have clients who appreciate the extra effort. Go General Parts.
Page 2
Employee Profile
Karrin Lunneborg – Accounting Supervisor
In this edition of Generally Speaking, we move the spot light to the company’s corporate head office and get to know Accounting Supervisor,
Karrin Lunneborg. Karrin joined General Parts in 2006, and after successful stints working in both accounts receivable and payable became the
Accounting Supervisor in 2015.
In this role Karrin manages a team including Kris Lattimore and Nadine Fearell that between
them ensure that our vendors are paid and customers payments end up in the right spot! Kar-
rin is responsible for the company’s weekly check run which is the ongoing process of organiz-
ing payments to our vendors, sub-agents and employees. This we think you will agree is one of
the most important tasks in the company. What you may not realize is just how many transac-
tions are handled by this team, in a typical month 6500 vendor invoices are vouchered for pay-
ment and 6100 customer payments are applied by check, ACH, or credit cards. That’s a lot of
work!
Outside of work Karrin is kept busy with family activities which include camping and supporting
her two boys who play both basketball and baseball. Now for a fun fact, did you know that Kar-
rin represented the USA as part of its trampoline team? Competing in two World Champion-
ships at the age of 15 and 17 Karrin visited Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, Germany and New
Zealand. Boing!
Manufacturer Spot Light— Blodgett Oven In this edition of Generally Speaking, we feature a company that is one of America’s preeminent manufacturers of commercial foodservice ov-
ens. With a global footprint and an extensive range of products, Blodgett is a company name that everyone recognizes. Nevertheless, here are
some things about Blodgett and its relationship with General Parts that you may not know.
Gardner S. Blodgett built his first oven for a local Vermont tavern owner in the gold rush year of 1848! So, with 169 years of growth, you could
say Blodgett also hit gold that year. Today Blodgett produces Convection, HydoVection, Combi, Rotating Oven Racks, Deck Ovens, Ranges and
Steamers. To meet the needs of its customers now and into the future, Blodgett is relocating to a new 180,000sqft facility in Essex, VT that will
include a state of the art training center. As proud Vermonters, Blodgett looked long and hard before deciding on this location. This ensured
that Blodgett would keep its local workforce, which it sees as critical to its success and brand quality. In addition, this space will allow Blodgett
to undertake the additional production of other Middleby Corporation brands such as Market Forge and Marsal Pizza Ovens.
General Parts has been working as a service partner and O.E.M. parts distributer with
Blodgett for over 45 years. Key relationships such as this take commitment and continual
training to ensure that we keep current with the ongoing development and innovations at
Blodgett. To that end, we have spent the summer sending small groups of technicians to
attend a specialized Certified Combi school. At the time of publication, we have already had
two groups of 10 successfully com-
plete the certification and a third
group is already on the schedule. We
look forward to many more years of
our successful partnership with
Blodgett.
Page 3
GP Opens in Yuma, AZ In August General Parts opened its third Arizona location in the city of
Yuma making 27 nationally. Prior to the opening of the location two
locally based technicians, Conrad Beverly and Daniel Brinkman have
been successfully running calls supported by dispatcher Laura Day
who is based in the Tucson office.
As with all other General Parts markets, our Yuma location will be
providing service on all types of cooking, refrigeration, ware-washing
and HVAC equipment.
The new Yuma office is
located at 720 E. 39th Place
Suite 2, Yuma, AZ, 85365.
Boelter Golf Outing On August 23rd General Parts attended and was one of the sponsors
of the Boelter Charity Golf Outing. This event was a great opportunity
to network with foodservice professionals from across the industry.
General Parts attends several of these events a year. However, this
event calls for some additional attention as the $10,550 proceeds
were given to Camp Hometown Heroes. JR Weber who attended on
behalf of General Parts was struck by the good works of this organiza-
tion and asked that we feature Camp Hometown Heroes in General
Speaking which of course we were more than happy to do.
Camp Hometown Heroes provides week-long summer camp sessions
and other healing programs for children aged 7-17. Through the gen-
erosity of thousands of do-
nors these are offered com-
pletely free of charge. If you
would like to learn more
about this charity, volunteer
or even donate you can visit
their website by clicking the
picture to of the two happy
campers to the right.
Thank you Boelter for bring-
ing this to our attention. Click to Learn More
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 head-
quarters 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 na-
tionally.
Page 4
Employee Milestone
Anniversaries
Welcome to All New
Colleagues
Get Involved With This Newsletter
Want to share news about your department, location or recent branch event? Contributions, photographs and suggestions are welcome. Send
to [email protected]. Thank you.
Al Jasso, Chicago
Michelle Moak, Pensacola
Michael Enyeart, Fort Wayne
Victor Hernandez, Houston
Alex Williamson, Bloomington
Andres Sepulveda, Phoenix
Angela Pendergrass, Portland
Gary Johnson, Fort Wayne
Chris Martt, Bloomington
Joseph Davis, Pensacola
Sam Gaeta, Omaha
Dale Ballweg, Seattle
Kyle Kerr, Oklahoma City
Doug Collins, Phoenix
Richard Adams, Witchita
Kara Schick, Des Moines
Craig Wierman, Portland
30 Years
Tim Rehlinger, Waukesha
15 Years
Jose Saldana, Chicago
Brian McMenimen, Bloomington
10 Years
Richard Senko, Bloomington
Adolfo Castillo, Waukesha
5 Years
Krissy Andreson, Waukesha
Congratulations to
Ryan Reszczynski,
Alto-Shaam tech of the
month for August.