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 news@generalparts.com. 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.