July 2024
Dear Team,
Further to the newsletter sent a few months ago, this is intended to continue to keep all of us at Douglas Lake Equipment and Avenue Machinery in the loop.
As earlier stated, the plan is to provide visibility into the ongoing developments, celebrate our milestones, and foster a stronger sense of community within our organization. Please continue to provide feedback which is crucial to making this worthwhile.
The Benefit Plan consolidation is now complete, and we look forward to completing the RRSP consolidation soon. While there were a few bumps in the road on the Benefit Plans, we have been able to make the necessary adjustments to ensure we provide the best of both plans to all our employees.
Looking back on it, we put our trust in the benefit provider to put together the best of both worlds and a few things fell through the cracks. Thanks to those who brought these to our attention.
While you may think we have said this before, we believe we are at the approval stage on this important project. We met with our owner’s real estate team and are close to moving forward.
On another note, we are preparing for a visit with our owners sometime this summer. They are looking forward to meeting our team and having a look at the new building site.
This program is going well. Slow but sure. We are also working on a plan to utilize CDK/PFW more fully for quoting and pricing equipment. This will improve efficiencies and provide more accurate reports for equipment sales.
The 5-year lease renewal is now signed and in effect. We are however experiencing an unusual number of break and entries to the property after hours. We are working with the police and meeting with security companies to help prevent future break ins. Please let your supervisor know if you see anything unusual.
If you haven’t already heard, we were recently forced to close our Vernon branch due to the risk of hazardous material on the lower floor. After extensive testing and clean up we are happy to say that our building has a clean bill of health, and we are back to business as usual. A big thank you to all who helped Kelly O’Donnell and his Vernon team during this time (Todd Sevrens, Chris Juhl, Brent Mitchell)
You may already know but we have decided to modify our dealer agreement with New Holland to a Parts and Service (Aftermarket) agreement. We will no longer sell “new” New Holland out of the Kamloops branch but will continue to provide Aftermarket support to our customers. Rest assured, this does not affect our working relationship with New Holland in the Dawson Creek and Grande Prairie branches.
Our website serves as a critical sales tool, and thanks to your efforts in providing high-quality equipment photos and descriptions, we continue to elevate our online presentation and maximize our sales opportunities. We thank everyone for their continued efforts to provide quality photos and descriptions of equipment for the website.
Another big thank you to our IT team of Steve and Grejohn for working diligently during the week of June 24 while CDK/PFW/Intellidealer was inoperable. We were fortunate to get it up and running with a few days left in the month of June to allow us to close work orders and settle equipment sales.
Our Service and Parts managers participate in monthly meetings to review key elements of our Aftermarket business. We continue to look for efficient ways to do business and work with customers. Areas such as the new mapping for completion of campaign fixes, quality checks on units leaving the shop, monitoring training, and sharing warranty and technical issues between locations are key elements of the communication.
Please welcome the following new hires who have recently joined our team.
Christine Alexandrovich – Marketing Specialist. Christine works out of our Surrey office to support all locations. She is a long-time Lower Mainland resident with a lot of experience in marketing, but also strong knowledge of the agricultural business as she grew up on a farm and participated in 4H.
Steve Pearce – Vernon Service Manager. Steve joined us in June and brings Agriculture experience from his days with Cervus Equipment and Rocky Mountain Equipment in Alberta.
Adrian Thacker – Vernon Service Department. Adrian is back from major knee surgery in the Vernon branch and is working his way back to full time over the next few weeks. Welcome back Adrian!
Andrew Lootens – Abbotsford Construction Equipment Sales Rep. Andrew started with us in March of this year. Andrew lives in Chilliwack and has experience in civil engineering with the Township of Langley, working in landscape construction and design and also owned his own swimming pool design and construction company.
Madison Clipperton – Vernon Parts Person. Madison has moved back to the Vernon area in June and was previously with Penticton Bobcat. It is always good to steal a good employee from the competition as it makes us stronger and makes them weaker.
Matt Tolg – Vernon Parts Person. Matt was previously working in our Kelowna location and moved to the Vernon branch a few weeks ago.
Cole Ritchie – Kelowna Parts Person. Cole started with us in April to replace the vacant position in Kelowna created when Matt moved to Vernon. Cole was previously with Sunbelt Rentals.
Chole Anne Mitchell – Kamloops Parts Specialist. Chole moved back to Kamloops from the lower mainland to join our parts team in December of last year.
Michael Jack – Kamloops Shipper/Receiver. Michael joined us 3 months ago and previously handled warehouse duties for an Electrical distributor.
Ashton Enns – Surrey Apprentice Parts Specialist. Ashton started with us in December of last year and previously worked at one of the local golf courses. He is planning to start the Parts apprentice program later this year.
Farshid Noemani – Surrey Heavy-Duty Field Technician. Farshid started with us also in December of last year and has been busy covering the lower mainland area for field service repairs.
Jared Friesen – Abbotsford Apprentice Technician. Jared started with us in May and is a level 2 apprentice from Chilliwack.
Jaden Vander Wjk – Abbotsford Apprentice Technician. Jaden started with us in June and is also a level 2 apprentice and is from Agassi.
Both Jared and Jaden started in May/June of this year and completed their first-year apprentice training at the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV).
Brandon Nagy – Surrey Apprentice Technician. Brandon is a second-year apprentice and has been with us since January.
Colby Eslinger – Grande Prairie RAP Shop & Yard Labourer. Colby started with us in June of this year and is helping for the summer busy season. Colby comes from a local farming family and knows his way around the agricultural equipment.
Aaron Easton – Abbotsford Wash Bay Attendant. Aaron started in April. Aaron’s long-term plan is to return to school for apprentice training and wants to be a journeyman tech.
A heartfelt congratulations to our tenured employees for their dedication and contributions:
Birthday wishes to people with birthdays in Q2:
Thanks again for all your hard work, and I hope everyone finds some time to enjoy the summer.
Warm regards,
Mike Correale
President, Douglas Lake Equipment and Avenue Machinery
