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News Archives
from Regina's
LeaderPost 20 Years and Going, Growing Strong! All the way back in 2004, Superior Vending marked its fifteenth anniversary with a full-page ad in the Leader-Post that celebrated how far we’d come. Now we’re turning 20, and instead of looking back, Vendorman is looking towards the future. Ah, Vendorman. Last time we saw him, he was using his wondrous powers of... well, okay. Nobody’s really sure what superpowers Vendorman has, or where this whole alter-ego business came from. He has a definite love of old comic books, but he can’t leap tall buildings and he’s not faster than a locomotive. He can restock a vending machine remarkably quickly; apparently that counts for something. Though he won’t be battling cartoon supervillains any time soon (which is a lucky thing for everyone except the supervillains), Vendorman and his team at Superior Vending are still doing their part to help save the planet. Since day one, they’ve been recycling cardboard, cans, and bottles - pretty basic stuff. More recently, they’ve begun recycling fluorescent light tubes, wooden pallets, and clear plastics. Those rings that hold pop cans? They’re saved for school craft projects. (Let us know if you need any.) So far, so good. But let’s be honest; driving around to fill vending machines uses a lot of power, and not the kind that Vendorman thinks he sees when he’s flexing in front of the mirror every morning. A fleet of trucks deliver a lot of food and drinks to hundreds of vending machines every day - that’s a lot of gas (speaking of Vendorman’s mornings...). Sensing an opportunity to make a positive change, Superior Vending is moving toward the implementation of route management and inventory management software. Vending machines will be able to provide automatic remote status reports (or, in English, “we will be able to use the Internet to see which machines are running low before loading the trucks for the day”). With this information, our drivers will only stop at machines that need filling, and they’ll take only the product that needs to be delivered. In short, well send out our trucks for less time each day, and carry less weight (and burn less gas) in the process - all while keeping the same high standards of service that you’ve come to expect over the past 20 years. And when we do come to fill your machines, we’ll not only be bringing the snacks and drinks that you’d expect, but also fresh food from our health district-approved kitchen. Enjoy sandwiches, salads, pastries, and much more. In order to meet customer requests, we’re currently working to label and identify our heart-healthy options - that’s one more step forward. You know, between reducing our environmental impact and introducing healthier menu items, you could almost say that Vendorman’s real superpower is... hmm, nope. Still nothing. How about that? We even recycle our jokes. Thank you, Regina, for 20 great years! Here's to the next 20! Photo captions: Jim Kalyn: Founder, President, General Manager, and VENDORMAN! Give him 30 seconds and he'll assign himself another half-dozen titles. The Superior Vending Senior Management Team: The Vendormen (and Vendorladies; Regina Division): The Vendormen (Moose Jaw Division): The Lunch Box superstars: Barb "Leadfoot" Doehl, Marcine "Superboss" Kalyn, and Lori "The Enforcer" Gould The Kalyn Katering Dream Team: Our bookkeeper, Cheryl "Numbers" Hanoski. Jeannine joined us to oversee the Mosaic canteen and SaskFerco vending operations. Her fun, sparkling personality has earned her the name of "Madame Mosaic." Our coffee partners, Ed and Keith Brown of Commercial Beverage Inc. - a long established and highly respected Regina coffee company. The Superior Vending family would not be nearly as successful without the advice and guidance of our friend and menu master, John Gordon. Sadly, John passed away in January 2005, but his memory lives on in our hearts and his presence is felt every single day. Our Partners:
from Regina's
LeaderPost A Vendor's Fairy Tale... Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there lived a noble prince of features fair and virtue true. This is not his story. Our story does being a long time ago - fifteen whole years ago - and it does begin in a far away land called Saskatoon. But our noble prince, well, he was a beat-up, old accountant with a beat-up, old half-ton. One day, our hero said to himself, "I sure am tired of sitting behind this desk all day. I crave excitement! Adventure! I want to be more tired! And I want to spend some quality time with my truck!" And so it came to pass that our hero arrived on Regina's might shores with a rusted-out Dodge full of delicious canned beverages and a dream to start a full-service vending company, run by his new alter-ego - Vendorman. Apparently, this made sense at the time. One might suggest that our Vendorman had partaken of one too many of a certain kind of delicious canned beverage. Time passed, as it will do, and adventures were had, as happens in these stories. Snacks, ice cream, fresh brew coffee, bill changers, bottled drinks, and ATMs were made available. The company reached outside Regina, latched onto Moose Jaw, and has never let go. A health-district-approved kitchen was opened, providing customers with a variety of delicious, fresh food. The Dodge was sold. Nobody noticed. The dream has been realized. Superior Vending Ltd. has become the largest independent full-service vending company in Saskatchewan. Who would have guessed? Today, the company continues to grow, always leading to new adventures. As we mark the passing of fifteen years since this story began, our hero would like to take this time to say thank you for taking a chance on a beat-up old accountant with a beat-up old half-ton Photo captions: The Vendormen: The Moose Jaw Vendormen: Our bookkeeper, Cheryl "Numbers" Hanoski. The Enforcer and Leadfoot showing off their wares. Our coffee partners, Keith and Ed Brown of Commercial Beverage Inc. - a long established and highly respected Regina coffee company. The Kalyn Katering Dream Team: The Lunchbox Crew: Barb "Leadfoot" Doehl, Lori "The Enforcer" Gould, Marcine "Superboss" Kalyn, and Gizmo the guard dog (economy model) The Superior Vending family would not be nearly as successful without the advice and guidance of our friend and menu master, John Gordon. The Timeline... ...With cashless vending on the horizon, our timeline will continue well into the next 15 years!
from Regina's
LeaderPost It is with a sense of sadness, smoldering anger and indignation that I read the letter from Barb Byers in The LeaderPost. Her justification for limiting the salaries of CEOs to 10 times the salary and benefits of the lowest-paid worker is, I believe, uninformed at best and dangerous at worst. I have often read interviews with Byers and have always respected and admired her dedication and devotion to her cause. In this instance, I believe her views lack balance. No consideration has been given to what it takes to get to a level where you are paid an exceptionally high salary. I am the president, CEO, chief cook and bottle washer of a small Regina business: a blue-collar worker who hopes to earn a salary someday in excess of the 10 times mark. Let me show Byers how a person might achieve this. It all starts with a dream and desire to make money in a job you enjoy. To set your own hours and be the master of your domain... so to speak. You spend time on a business plan. You take you severance, your mortgage, your RRSP and whatever else you can beg, borrow or steal to your local banker and ask for a chance to make your plan a reality. Unfortunately, you encounter a 22-year-old account manager who believes, and will throughout your career continue to believe, he knows more about your business than you do. You are so financially tied that you have to show up at his office once a week just to prove you haven't left town. You put up with this because you believe in yourself. So, onward you go. For the first three years, you don't get sick - you can't afford to. You start at 8 a.m. and work until 9 p.m. There are precious few moments with your family. When you sleep, you dream about everything you have to do the next day. There are no coffee breaks. It is consumed on the run. Lunch is a luxury enjoyed at the drive-thru. There are no holidays, weekends, or long weekends. You believe God created Sundays so you can catch up on your bookwork. Then you hire an employee or two and immediately double your problems - sick days, holidays, stat holidays, payroll taxes, T4s, etc. You have to learn to manage people and bureaucracy. But you're growing, so onward you go. Then, one day, you have your first major revelation. You realize you are the lowest-paid employee in the place. What's left after everyone else gets looked after doesn't come close to minimum wage. Yet you continue to bear all the risk. You still believe in the dream. The next few years are harder still. You need a holiday, but you can't leave for very long or be too far away from the phone. Then comes the second revelation. You are at work on a stat holiday and realize that you're working to pay the wages of people who get the day off. You're not working for yourself any longer. But you still enjoy what you do, so onward you go. Finally, it starts to happen. You pay off a couple of loans, get some respect from your banker and create a little cash flow. Then you realize your competition has stepped up, your technology is outdated (not to mention your vehicles). The weather is affecting your business and you have to reinvent yourself. Then comes revelation number three. The stress and need to continually grow to get ahead and stay ahead is never going to go away. Every day, you fight the good fight all over. Fortunately, you make some correct decisions, and in the end you have a credible business. The serious money should be there and the experience you gained along the way will help ensure it stays there. If you don't believe in the dream any more, you can take that experience and be compensated for it elsewhere. But wait - another problem has arisen. Someone wants to legislate your salary because they feel you have more than you need or deserve. Byers has disrespected every business owner in Saskatchewan. And she has disrespected every wannabe owner who has the desire and work ethic and is trying to put their plan in motion. These people walk and walk and talk and talk. While others look on, they step up to the plate and put their capital on the line. And they hire people - a lot of people. There is a cardinal rule a banker friend told me. Capital is a coward. It will always take the easy route and go where it is welcomed. Favourable tax laws, labour laws, business climate will always take precedence over restrictions and uncertainty. In the context of investing capital in Saskatchewan, the comments by Byers are very damaging. Perhaps in Calgary, Toronto or Montreal, Byers and I would be at odds. But in this province, we are on the same side. We are neighbours. Our kids attend the same schools and we meet each other at various functions. She wants capital and investment here for the benefit of labour. Having more people here would be great for my business as well. I hope she will keep our common goals and objectives in mind when making future comments. Jim
Kalyn  Dealer
Appreciation
The Lunchbox from Regina's
LeaderPost We offer the best selection of fresh pastry, sandwiches, salads and hot food, all prepared by Regina Health District approved caterers. Chef salad, Shepherd's Pie, Ukrainian Dinner, Corn Dogs - we carry it all. To
have one of the bright orange trucks stop by,
from Moose
Jaw This Week On September 20, Superior Vending Ltd. hosted a BBQ for Saskferco out at the Belle Plaine Plant "We have been providing vending services for Saskferco since October 1991" said Jim Kalyn, President of Superior Vending Ltd. "In the past nine years we have been through orientations, shutdowns and expansions. All throughout, they have made us feel like we are a part of their team. As they have grown, so have we. We added coffee services, cold food, frozen food and novelties and bill changers to our lineup of cold drinks, chips, and bars. With their support we are now Saskatchewan's largest independent vending company. We wanted to say thank you in a tangible way." SUPERIOR
VENDING
By BRUCE
JOHNSTONE Jim Kalyn, president of Superior Vending Ltd. of Regina, which operates vending machines in Regina and Moose Jaw, says imposing a five-per-cent sales tax on snack foods - as recommended by the Personal Income Tax Revenue Committee - would be a major headache for his company. "We have one tax - the GST (goods and services tax) - included in the price. Adding the PST would cause us to break the psychological $1 (price) barrier," Kalyn said. Unlike the province's restauranteurs, Kalyn doesn't oppose the recommendations of the committee, chaired by U of S accounting professor Jack Vicq. In fact, Kalyn was in one of Prof. Vicq's accounting classes in the College of Commerce in the early 1970s. "We're in agreement with the Vicq report. I support any tax cut," he said, referring to the $434-million cut in income taxes proposed by the Vicq committee. "We're really asking for more time to deal with this (PST expansion)." Under the committee's proposal, restaurant meals and snack foods would be included in the sales tax base. At present, PST is not applied on restaurant meals or snack foods, but the GST is. Basic groceries are exempt from both taxes. Kalyn said the problem is not so much the amount of tax, but the expense of upgrading vending machine systems, which have been changed frequently in recent years to accommodate changes in coinage and taxes. First, the machines had to be adapted to accept one-dollar coins, then with the advent of the GST in 1989 a seven-per-cent consumption tax. In April 1991, the Devine government harmonized the PST with the GST, which required another change. Then in October 1991, the newly elected NDP government rescinded the harmonized tax, resulting in another change. More recently, the machines had to be upgraded to handle two-dollar coins, which cost anywhere from $90 to $300 per machine. And there have been changes in deposits and environmental charges. Now he's getting the machines ready to accept a new quarter June 1, which has a different metal content than silver quarter. And if the Vicq recommendations are adopted, the sales tax will be expanded July 1, requiring yet another change to the machines. "There have been changes every year - taxes, or deposits or environmental charges." Kalyn said he's lobbied Finance Minister Eric Cline and NDP MLAs to delay the PST expansion in order to give vending machine operators more time to make the changes. "Give us a year to complete the upgrades to the machines," he said. An official with the Finance Department confirmed that products sold from vending machines would be subject to PST, if the Vicq recommendations are adopted by the province. Which,
if any, of the Vicq recommendations will be adopted by the provincial
government will be known in the March 29 budget, the official
added. |
