Southbound Ch. 13-14

"Don't thank me, thank Leo and Dave and Ralph and Fiona. They're the ones who made it happen."

"Somehow I think you had a big hand in this," Mike said. "I can remember the first time this product came up, you shot it down in flames."

"True, but we didn't have the raw material, the press, or the slitter and the market was barely alive at that time. Things are totally different now. Ralph knew where to find the press, Fiona knew how to make it work for our key accounts, and Dave showed us how to make a profit. And when Dave talks, Leo listens," I laughed.

As I circulated that evening, I was surprised and pleased at just how easily Fiona was accepted into what was a closely knit group of people. She looked comfortable and it appeared she put people at ease when they were around her. I found I had a great sense of pride at the woman I was going to marry. She truly was someone special.

"Can you give Paul Cornell a call before we head back home?" I asked Fiona the next morning. "He's got an idea for packaging the coffee pods he'd like to discuss with you. He may need an audience at East Bay if you think he's onto something."

"Sure. I'll call him Monday while you're in your meeting."

"Did you enjoy yourself last night?" I asked.

"Yes ... I did. You work with very nice people. It's such a pleasure to be in that kind of environment. Are all Canadians like that?" she asked with a sly grin.

"Of course. We're terminally polite, inoffensive, and don't have accents ... mostly."

That provoked a laugh and a hug.

We had decided that we would remain in Fiona's home after the wedding. Why move to another similar house? Only Ms. Castro would be disappointed.

When we thought about our combined incomes, we would be very well off, although we were also mindful that Tina's college choice might require some additional funds. As well, Fiona's income was not guaranteed. It would be a direct result of her sales. It was a very small concern based on my belief in her talent. Whatever the situation, Fiona's money concerns were ended and we could look forward to a comfortable life together.

Our honeymoon would be postponed until all the new equipment was installed and operating. I had no intention of walking out of the plant until we could honestly say we were running with a conventional schedule and meeting our customer obligations. Fiona understood and accepted that provided we actually did have a honeymoon in the same calendar year as we married. I kept my fingers crossed that it would happen that way.

My meeting with Leo and Dave went a long way to relieving my concerns about our financial status. We were spending a lot of money, but not more than had been budgeted for the renovation and expansion. More importantly, the new business was coming in steadily and we were producing receivables on or ahead of expectations. The cash flow remained positive. I felt a lot better after that meeting and I was assured by Dave and Leo that they were very pleased with our progress to date.

Fiona was in a particularly sexy mood that night. Our flight wasn't until noon, so getting up early wouldn't be necessary. Good thing, as it turned out. She kept me up, literally and figuratively, for quite some time, causing me to wonder where this burst of energy came from. Mentally I shrugged. What difference did it make? I was on the receiving end of the best sex I was ever going to experience and, from my lady's reaction, the feeling was mutual.

"That was wonderful. What brought that on?" I asked as we lay in each other's arms in the early morning hours.

She didn't answer immediately, but her hand was stroking my chest and there was an air of contentment about her that I had come to recognize. I would wait for her answer.

"I don't know how to express what I feel, Andy," she whispered softly at last. "I can't seem to put it in words. I'm happy and sad at the same time. I'm happy I've found the man I want to spend the rest of my life with. And I'm sad that it's taken me this long. In another life, I would have wanted to make babies with you, but that's not to be. It doesn't change the way I feel about you, but it's something I think about."

"There's always my getting the vasectomy reversed," I said, tentatively, wondering if I shouldn't have just kept my mouth shut.

"No ... that time has passed. I'm deliriously happy with you and I don't want to change anything. I'm just being selfish again. I've won the lottery and now I want more. I have everything any woman could possibly want. Don't pay any attention to me. There's nothing you can do that could possibly make me any happier than I already am."

"Do you get the feeling that this is all some kind of dream?" I asked. "I mean, everything we've touched has turned to gold. Everything! I keep pinching myself to see if it's a dream, and I'm almost afraid it will turn out to be one."

"I know what you mean. In the real world, things just don't happen this way. Lonely spinster is struggling to make her way, raising a daughter. She meets the handsome stranger, immediately falls in love, watches her career rocket into the stratosphere, and lives happily ever after. Sound like real life?" she chuckled.

"Not when you put it like that," I agreed. "But maybe the answer is more ... understandable than that. My father has a saying he uses regularly. 'Timing is everything.' I'm not trying to brag, but I was successful before we met. You were successful before we met, even though you had limited resources at hand.

"And further, what prompted Lorne McDermott to call Leo Cornell and suggest acquiring Statewide? I've wanted to ask Lorne that question and I keep forgetting to. Make sure that's on my to-do list, will you?"

"So, what you're saying is that all of what's happened is just coincidence. A lucky set of circumstances that combined to put us together and have all this happen to us?"

"Well, which do you prefer?" I asked. "Timing or fate?"

"Fate ... for sure," she said as she kissed me lightly. "It helps me believe in the future ... our future."

We returned to the office on Wednesday morning and were greeted with several phone messages on both our cell phones and the office service. As I sorted through them, I saw a number from my previous customers in the area as well as one from Grant Loren at East Bay. I picked up the phone and called the number he had left.

"It's Andy Andrews, returning Mr. Loren's call," I announced to the switchboard woman.

"Loren here," I heard almost before the first ring tone had finished.

"Hi, Grant, it's Andy Andrews. You called?"

"Yes, I did. Do you know a man named Rod Ventriss?"

"Yes, I do. He and his son used to represent Statewide Converting. I ended the relationship last December."

"Was it an acrimonious parting?"

"Well, they weren't pleased. Why do you ask?"

"He was in here last Friday, looking for some business opportunities. He represents a couple of small converters in the Los Angeles area. Neither of them produce anything we would be interested in. However, he took the time to bad-mouth Statewide, or what it has become as Flex-Tek. He suggested you were unethical, made suspect product quality claims ... you know, the usual."

"Huh! That's the first I've heard of that, but I guess I can't pretend I'm shocked. I terminated their brokerage agreement since there was no binding contract to prevent me from doing so. I found their business practices weren't in line with my thinking."

I was trying to be vague, not wishing to say what I really thought.

"That's very diplomatic, Andy," he chuckled. "I've never had much time for guys who dump on their competitors or former employers. It's almost always a case of sour grapes. Regardless of who they represented, I would have been reluctant to do business with them. You've just confirmed my instincts were correct. I'd keep my ear to the ground if I were you. You don't need that kind of talk in the marketplace. It only takes one or two guys to fall for it and since Flex-Tek is a new name around here, it might cause you some problems."

"Thanks for the heads up, Grant. I'll inform my sales people to be on the alert for any other instances."

"Do you have a lawyer here?"

"Yes ... in Oakland. Oren Kavanagh handled the acquisition and his firm looked after my work visa. You think I should let him know?"

"Well, that's up to you and your boss. There are laws about this kind of thing if it becomes epidemic. Usually a strongly worded letter from a law office puts a stop to it."

"Good advice, Grant. Thank you again. I'll let you know if I hear anything else."

"Good luck, Andy."

I leaned back in my chair. I didn't want to overreact, but I wasn't about to ignore the warning.

"Donna, would you set up a conference call with our sales reps for as soon as they can make it happen?" I asked.

"Right away," she nodded, heading back to her desk.

I vacillated about calling Leo and letting him know. I stuck to my original decision and would wait to see if the Ventriss men would continue spreading their poison.

It was almost noon before Donna was able to get everyone on the line at the same time.

"I don't want to alarm you all, but I had a conversation with one of our important clients and he advised me that Rod and Rob Ventriss are spreading stories about us that aren't very complimentary. I want you all to let me know the minute you hear any such thing from your current customers or people you know in the industry."

Everyone tried to talk at once and I had to calm them down with assurances.

"First of all, I think you all know that we run an ethical and completely legitimate operation, both here and in Canada. You also know we terminated our agreement with the two at the end of last year because I was unhappy with their method of doing business. It didn't fit with this company's standards. Rumours are very difficult to combat, and we need to stamp this out if it is a concerted effort on their part to discredit us. We've worked too hard to let a couple of malcontents ruin our efforts. Please keep me informed and assure any customer or potential customer that we can provide references to dispute their claims. Any questions?"

I should have known better than to add those two words. The only person who didn't have questions was Fiona. For the next twenty minutes I covered just what actions we might take and how we would protect their reputations. Since they were commissioned agents, their reputation was very important to them. The only good news was that none of them had heard any negative feedback about Flex-Tek so far.

Fiona called me an hour later, just as I was preparing to leave for lunch.

"I guess into every fairy tale, a little rain must fall," she said sombrely.

"Maybe it's just a single instance, love. It was Grant at East Bay that tipped me. I don't want that out in public, but you should know we have a loyal ally. He doesn't think much of Mr. Ventriss, Senior."

"What are you going to do now?" she asked.

"Nothing unless and until I hear of another instance. Then I'll call Leo and I hope he'll let me talk to our lawyer about dealing with this."

"Good. That's exactly what those two assholes need to have happen to them. A nice big fat lawsuit."

"I hope it doesn't come to that, but if it does, that would make the whole thing public and I'm not sure that's what would be best for us. You know ... where there's smoke there's fire."

"Well, at least it's an option. I'll keep my ears tuned for anything that sounds like they may have been around. I don't have a lot of customers that would buy what they're selling. They've got a pretty limited product line right now."

"Okay, call if you hear anything at all. I want to stop this before it gets a foothold. Take care, I love you."

"Love you too," she said, signing off.

It didn't take very long. Two days later I had a call from Rick Mendes in Bakersfield. He had picked up some feedback from a couple of accounts that one or the other of the Ventriss family had been telling lies about Flex-Tek and why they were cut adrift. I thanked Rick and asked him to keep a record of anything he heard that was of the same kind. The time had come to act.

"Leo, we have a problem and I need your help. The Ventriss family has been badmouthing us in the territory. They are telling lies about why we cancelled our agreement with them. I've had reports from both East Bay and a couple of Mendes's customers."

"What do you want to do?"

"Grant at East Bay suggested we have our lawyer write a strong letter threatening legal action if they didn't stop immediately."

"Okay, that sounds like a good first step. What happens if they don't stop?"

"I don't know. I'd like to talk to our lawyer and see what he says. I guess we'd end up having to sue them for defamation ... or something."

"Well, it's not like that's never happened down there. Okay, Andy, you contact our lawyer and keep me informed."

"Will do, Leo. Thanks."

I called Oren Kavanagh's office and left a message for him to call me. An hour later he returned my call.

"Oren, we have a situation where two former brokers that represented Statewide are spreading very negative stories about us in the marketplace. I terminated their contract at the end of last year, so this may be some kind of payback. What can we do about it?"

I proceeded to give Oren the details of Rod and Rob Ventriss and mentioned the reason I had terminated the relationship. I also mentioned that Grant Loren at East Bay Packaging could corroborate what Rod Ventriss had said about us.

"Good, that's where I'll start. With your permission, I'll talk to Mr. Loren and get his version directly. Then I will write a sternly worded letter telling both the Ventriss men to cease and desist on threat of legal action. The letter will be delivered by courier to each of them. At that point we'll have to see if that puts a stop to their activities."

"Okay, that's pretty much what I expected. In the meantime, our sales people are keeping their ears open for any negative comments that might have come from them. I'll keep you informed."

"Very good. It will be interesting to see if we get any response from them."

I hung up and sat back in my chair. Flex-Tek was not very well known in the California market, so spreading lies about us could have a harmful effect on our ability to grow. I wasn't worried about our existing customers. They knew us and could separate the BS from the facts. It was the new target accounts and the old Statewide customers we wanted to keep that concerned me. I would just have to wait and see.

On Friday morning, I got a call from Fiona. She was in Manteca and was anxious to talk to me.

"You'll never guess who I ran into this morning," she said. "Rob Ventriss was in Stockton Nut Farms, trying to get some business. I was waiting for my nine o'clock appointment when he came out and the look I got from him was something to behold. He went white, then red, then tried to get out of there as fast as he could. I stopped him and asked him if he got the letter and he tried to play dumb. That's when I spelled it out for him.

"I told him that we had been given instructions from our head office to prosecute them if they continued to spread lies about us. I also told him I was very friendly with Will Pancratz at Stockton and he would tell me quick enough if you were still doing that. He didn't ... or couldn't ... say a word. He just turned and hustled out to his car."

"So what did Mr. Pancratz say?" I asked.

"He said they told him they quit Statewide/Flex-Tek because they didn't like our ethics. How's that for revisionist history?"

"Anything else?"

"No ... Will said they had nothing he wanted to buy and knew me well enough that when I told him the truth about the two, he accepted that. We're okay here, but it sounds like they haven't quite given up the fight."

"Okay, Fiona. Thanks, that good information. I'll let our lawyer know. He'll know what to do."

When I got in touch with Oren, he had an immediate reaction.

"We can file for notice of civil action. It won't cost much, but it will let them know that we weren't fooling. I haven't heard anything back from either of them or anyone representing them. I'm thinking they aren't taking us seriously. The notice of action should convince them."

"Don't do anything until I let my boss know what we plan. I don't want him left out of the plot."

I called Leo and got an immediate okay to enact Oren's plan. I called the Kavanagh office and gave them a go. Once again, it was a matter of wait and see what happened.

To Be Continued