Southbound Ch. 11-12

"Almost?"

"I had to serve my time first before you arrived."

"Was it that bad?"

"The last year ... yes."

"I'm going to do my best to erase that memory," she promised.

"It's already fading and it will soon be gone. I promise it will never be a part of our life together."

"I believe you," she smiled.

"Let's compare notes," I said as Fiona sat across from me in my office as we prepared to discuss the coffee survey.

"Well, a good percentage of the roasters want to be able to participate in the market," Fiona began. "Unfortunately, putting in filling equipment is pretty much beyond their means. However, I did have an idea. East Bay has a cup filler that is idle and pretty close to the same size as the coffee pods Keurig uses. If they could adapt it to fill and lid coffee, we could set them up as a co-packer for a number of the smaller roasters.

"The roasters would grind bulk and ship to East Bay for packaging. We could talk the roasters into that kind of setup pretty easily I think. But I have another idea."

"Go ahead," I said with a smile. The lady was on a roll.

"We could develop five or six generic labels that could be sold to any of the micro-roasters. That would be for dark, breakfast blend, de-caf, tea, hot chocolate ... that type of thing. East Bay would hold the generic film and two or three cup colours and fill and sell back to the little guys, giving them a new market. Everything I've heard says these pod type coffee packages are growing like crazy. The big roasters don't have much good to say about the coffee, but they know it's eating into their market and if you figure out the price per pound, someone is making a killing."

"Your information pretty much jibes with mine," I nodded. "They may not think much of the coffee itself, but it's dramatically improving the return they could make. East Bay may be exactly the right solution for the smaller private label guys, and I do like your idea of a series of generic labels. It means that everyone could play if they chose to."

"How many of the larger players will go it alone?" she asked.

"Folgers have already committed, along with Starbucks, Newman's, and several others. The list is growing every month. However, they might be interested in our supplying them with specialty labels. The printing is fragmented among a bunch of varieties and flavors, so it fits our style just fine. I think we've got a good chance to make this work. Did you get any pricing information?"

"Not much, Andy. How about you?"

"Yeah, Folgers gave me a ballpark and Newman's pretty much gave me the price."

"Is it enough for us to decide?"

"I'll let Dave tell me. I suspect what East Bay will end up doing is taking a prospective price list out to some selected clients and see how they react. Mike has a bunch of roasters in Seattle and Portland, and he's in very tight with them. That's probably where we'll get our best feedback. Can you give me a written report on your findings and the generic proposal? I'll put it together with my information and send it on up to Langley."

"You'll have it later today," she promised.

"Hi Ralph, how are you?" I asked as I picked up the call.

"Good, Andy. Just called to let you know the pouch machine is en route and will be in Oakland on the 26th of this month. That's just about exactly on schedule."

"Good news. I know you're jammed on your two machines, so I'm sure you'll be happy with some relief."

"No kidding. That sales rep of yours just keeps pouring in the orders. Maybe you can slow her down."

"Not a chance, my friend. She's a peddler, remember. You've dealt with Mike and me, so you know better than to ask that," I laughed.

"When are you going to marry that woman?"

"Not decided yet. She and her parents and my parents are getting together and taking it out of my hands. I was hoping June or July, but time will tell."

"I'm really happy for you, Andy. She's something special and I'm sure you know it."

"I'm bringing her up to Vancouver in a couple of weeks ... the last Friday in April."

"Oh, so that's what Leo's shindig is all about. Plan on a long night, my friend. There are a lot of people who want to meet the woman that everyone around here is talking about."

"I think she's somewhat anxious about it, but we'll be there," I promised.

"One other thing, Andy. Leo gave me the go ahead to negotiate the Mark Andy purchase along with a couple of slitters. That surprised me. He's been preaching restraint for a several months. I guess it looks like a good market, then."

"Dave gave me the numbers and it looks very good as long as someone doesn't come along and mess it up. What none of us know is how long this system is going to last. Is it a fad or something sustainable? But ... if I've got the press, we'll find a way to fill it. I'll just set Fiona loose on it. She'd figure something out."

"Wick doesn't seem to think it will be a problem fitting it onto the floor?"

"No ... he's got it all worked out just in case we got it. I'll let him know it's official and he can get the prep work done. Any idea of delivery?"

"If I can cut the deal, it will be however long it takes to crate it and get it on a truck. A week, maybe ten days."

"And the slitters?"

"On the floor ready to ship. Your new Atlas slitter should be there in two weeks or less. The narrow web slitter is a Deacro and I would guess it will be along the same time as the press. All these items are sitting on the floor. It's been a slow year for machinery sales."

"My priority is the Atlas right now. It's our bottleneck, so we'll work on that first. The Mark Andy is for new business we haven't got yet."

"Good to know, Andy. I'll handle it for you. Good luck."

"Thanks, Ralph. See you at the end of the month."

"We're getting a new Atlas slitter in a couple of weeks," I told the group assembled in the office. "It should go a long way to relieving our backlog."

I could hear a sigh of relief from the group.

"At the same time, we will be receiving a ten colour narrow web press and a slitter for it. We will be entering the lidding business for coffee pods. We are growing much faster than we expected and that's all good as long as we can keep it under control and not disappoint customers. We have a third shift available on the new press and laminator, so we still have some room. And just to add to Wick's workload, the new pouch machine is expected to arrive on the 26th."

There was silence for a minute until a couple of the supervisors stood up and began to clap. Within a few seconds the rest of the group were applauding as well. It was completely unexpected. As I looked around, I saw a lot of happy faces. Flex-Tek was on its way in a hurry.

"Another hero badge for my future husband," Fiona said that evening.

"It's always easy to announce good news," I said, sipping a nice single malt on the rocks.

"You've been giving us nothing but good news since last December. Our people have come to expect it."

"Changing the subject, when do you want to talk to East Bay about coffee?"

"I have an appointment with Maureen on Thursday. I've asked her to include her boss and I'll make a presentation on the concept, including the generic labels."

"Do you want me there?"

"Yes, I think that would help Maureen get her boss to the meeting. She can't make this decision, but I'd like her to get the credit for promoting it. Any time they can put an idle machine back to work, they'll be happy."

I smiled to myself as I had been doing quite a bit lately. Once again, Fiona had thought further down the road and come up with a strategy to make her customer contact look good and help her promote a worthwhile idea.

I had met Grant Loren before and had a good business relationship with him. I had referred several customers to him in the past five years and he was aware and appreciative of that. I was sure he would attend the presentation on the coffee business.

"That's quite a lady you have working for you," Grant said after Fiona's presentation had wrapped up. "I was impressed with her concept and I think we'll go ahead with her proposal. When do you think you'll be in business?"

"We should be able to begin supplying web by the end of May. The press will be on its way next week I'm told. I've got foil on order and we've worked up some designs for you to look at next week for the generic concept. What we showed you in the presentation were some quick sketches and not the finished concept. We'll be passing the designs by some of the coffee roasters to get feedback. However, I don't want to get into a situation where they want us to redesign to suit their tastes. This concept is all about the word generic."

"Good thinking. Present them as finished designs. In the meantime, I'm going to have Maureen seek out cup suppliers. I think two or three colours should be enough. We'll only need two configurations and two filters to do either the Tassimo or the Keurig. That will really help keep inventory down."

"I think our timing is about right for this, Grant. It might ward off some of the competition if you're already established and it opens up a market that wasn't there before."

He nodded. "I really appreciate your bringing this to us. It looks like it's going to fit into our operation very well. We'll probably be a month getting the cup filler modified to suit the new sizes, but we should be ready to roll not long after you are. Any time you or your people have an idea for us, we'll listen," he smiled.

We shook hands and I left feeling that once again we had scored big. If there was any meaningful business left for us at East Bay, I was pretty sure we would get a crack at it.

"Your mother wowed East Bay this morning," I told Tina.

"That's no surprise," she said with a straight face. "She's the best."

"I happen to think so too."

Fiona was off on a visit to the supermarket before supper would be ready. Tina was doing the preparations and I was helping where I could. I could peel a potato with the best of them. There was a comfortable silence for a minute or so until Tina spoke.

"Are you sure about me coming to Canada with you?"

"Yes I am, and so is your mother. We are going to be growing your family when your mother and I marry. You'll have two new brothers, two new grandparents and an uncle and aunt."

"And my first Dad," she added quickly.

"Yeah ... that too."

"If Mom never married, does that mean you're not my step-dad?"

I thought about that. "I have no idea. I never liked that term anyway. Why don't you and I decide I'm your dad, even if I'm not your actual father?"

"Yeah ... I like that idea. So that way, my new grandparents will be really my grandparents and my uncle and aunt will be too."

"Works for me," I grinned. Her questions were among the things I hadn't thought about. It would be up to my sons to decide just what their relationship with Tina would be. I wondered just what their reaction to a very lovely young woman showing up and becoming part of their lives. Phil would probably instantly want to date her, knowing him. Neal would be the unknown.

To Be Continued