|
LETTER
FROM THE EDITOR
Finally the Leader is back!
 We
hope that the wait since our last edition in October
has not caused too much distress amongst our most
loyal readers.
On a more serious note,
the entire leader team needed a well deserved
break in order to re-energize and concentrate
on new ideas that will be taking effect in the
upcoming months.
So, after asking ourselves
the question of why change a winning formula,
we’ve decided to stick to our program to
bring you a variety of articles on our industry,
company, and personal insights about our tastes,
habits, and hobbies.
 In
this edition, in regards to our industry, we tell
you about our participation at Promat, Blickle’s
acquisition of a new stamping press, and Blickle’s
product number description. On Bleutec, we have
articles about Frederic’s promotion, new
telephone system, upcoming promotions, our 20th
anniversary, and unfortunately news about a price
increase to take effect at the end of April. Finally,
Philippe shares his views on football and corporate
advertising.
Signed,
Luc Turcotte
Editor
|
|
| Bleutec
: Already 20 years
 March
2007, already 20 years, and this month marks
the anniversary of a very important stage of
my professional life. Even after all these years,
I still distinctly remember that first trip
to Guitel in France for a 2-week product training.
 Today,
I am very proud of the results. If we have been
able to attain our objectives and have become
who we are, it is due to the confidence that
you, our customers, have given us, along with
all the work done by our team here that has
now become like a big family.
This family grew throughout
the years: Robert in 1989 for a few years; Linda
in March 1990; Karine in October 1992; Frank
in July 1994; Gilles in December 1995; Frederic
in January 1996; Robert’s return in February
1998; Andre in 1999; Nancy in 2001; Donald in
2002; and finally Philippe and Beth who joined
us in 2006. It’s very humbling to see
that so many have trusted us and have supported
us through these 20 years.
 Throughout
the year, we will be recapping the past years
with pictures and stories in the Leader, and
we are preparing some surprises for you to celebrate
Bleutec’s 20th anniversary.
Nancy
Allen
|
|
| Monthly
Cartoon
|
|
| New
stamping press at Blickle for manufacturing
wheels and casters
This past September, a
new 400 ton press was delivered to the headquarters
of Blickle Wheels & Casters in Rosenfeld.
Due to the permanent increase
in demand and the continuing necessity for rationalisation
and automation, Blickle has decided to expand
its press machinery so that their production
capacities can be enhanced. This huge investment
allows Blickle to further focus on the factory
in Rosenfeld to safeguard jobs in the long run.
Blickle
has again decided to purchase from a local (Swabian)
machine manufacturer. Special transportation
was arranged for an overnight delivery from
Weingarten to Rosenfeld along the motorway Stuttgart-Ulm.
With the aid of a 500 ton truck-mounted crane,
the press, with a weight of 73 tons, was put
up and inserted in the pressroom through the
opened roof.
With this investment Blickle
has enhanced its machine capability. Blickle
has now diverse ultra-modern computerised pressing
machines with press capacities from 100 to 630
tons.
Blickle
Räder+Rollen
GmbH u. Co. KG
Heinrich-Blickle-Straße 1
72348 Rosenfeld
Tel. 07428/932-0
Fax 07428/932-209
www.blickle.com
• info@blickle.com |
|
Blickle’s reference numbers.
Well,
our partnership with Blickle is a great journey
and the entire team is enthused by this ongoing
transition towards our customers’ satisfaction.
An important part of this positive transition
is about the new Blickle item numbers. We
must admit, the new product numbers have taken
a few additional spaces since the old Guitel
days….
As opposed to Guitel
who would only use numbers for their products,
Blickle uses a combination of letters and
numbers to identify more than 20,000 different
products. In order to help you make sense
of these item numbers, the following link
will take you to Blickle’s reference
number system:
Link
to page 81 of the G14 catalogue
What we found to be
interesting is how the first letter of certain
German words are used to describe, for example,
the bearing type, the caster type or the wheel
series:
For example, our part
# LK-ALST 160K:
The “L’’
comes from the German word “Lenkrolle’’
which means swivel caster
The “ALST’’
identifies the wheel series. ALST stands for
the following German words: Aluminium-Radkörper
mit Softhane-Laufbelag. This means aluminium
wheels centers with Softhane tread
"160" is the wheel's diameter
(160mm / 6’’)
The “K’’ stands
for ‘’kugellager’’
which means ball bearing.
Many of our popular
casters include “SB’’
in the part numbers. “SB’’
stands for spurlos blau, which means non-marking
blue.
I wish to thank our
customers for their comprehension in regards
to these new part numbers that can sometimes
cause minor set backs.
Frederic Lagace
|
|
|
Promat
2007
Bleutec once again exhibited at the past Promat
Show in Chicago in January. We were lucky to
have Mr. Blickle (President of Blickle Rader
& Rollen) and Mr. Paetzold (Blickle Export
Manager for Latin America) from Rosenfeld to
join Luc, Frederic, and myself at our booth.
Mr. Blickle personally met our visitors and
customers, and the opportunity to be at Promat
gave him a good perspective of the North American
market.
Promat gave us the opportunity to showcase our
new heavy duty casters, as well as promote the
Softhane® polyurethane caster (as can be
seen in the Modern Materials Handling magazine).
Bleutec also took the
opportunity during Promat to hold a reception
to celebrate our 20th anniversary with our customers,
who got to meet the entire Bleutec team while
enjoying food and drink. We thank all of you
who attended, and for making our evening a most
enjoyable one.
So, 2007 has started
on a busy note with our first show of the year,
and thanks to all who stopped in to see us,
we anticipate having a 20th anniversary year
that will keep Bleutec bustling the whole year
through with our continuous introduction
of Blickle casters in North America.
Nancy
Allen
|
|
2007
prices
Just a note to advise you that we are
obliged to slightly increase our prices
for the following reasons : higher costs
in raw material, principally steel ;  increase
in transport costs due to the higher price
of fuel; and the fluctuation of exchange
rates incurred over the past few months.
This increase will take effect April 1st,
2007. You will receive in the next week
or so revised price lists for 2007.
Frederic
Lagace
|
|
|
New
role for Frederic
We are very pleased and
proud to inform you that Mr. Frederic Lagace has
become the new Sales Director for Bleutec Wheels
& Casters.
 Frederic’s
10-year experience with our company has provided
him with all the knowledge about our customers,
our market, and Bleutec’s mission. His passion
about the industry along with his desire to surpass
his objectives make Frederic the ideal person
for this position. This is a new experience both
for Frederic and Bleutec, therefore there is a
lot of structuring to be done.
We sincerely believe that
Frederic’s passion for wheels and casters
will translate itself into our sales team, making
our sales team even more performance-driven and
very attentive to our customers’ satisfaction.
Luc
Turcotte
|
|
|
New
telephone system
at Bleutec
As you may
already have noticed, Bleutec has installed
a new telephone system.
 The
objective of this new system is to direct
the call to the appropriate person in the quickest
way possible.
If you have called recently,
and didn’t retain the extension of your
contact person, the following list will help
you:
Inside Sales
: Robert Hamelin, # 229
Customer Service, Front Desk:
Linda Bertrand, # 221
Administration : Karine Piché,
# 226
General Manager
: Luc Turcotte, # 228
Sales Director : Frédéric
Lagacé, # 232
Eastern Quebec Sales : Gilles
Drouin, # 301
Western Quebec Sales : Philippe
Raptis, # 223
Ontario and USA
: Nancy Allen, # 234
Inside Sales : Ontario and
USA : Berthe Rezende, # 225
Warehouse
: Frank Paré, Donald Pelletier et
André Plante, # 224
 We
understand that this new system is an adaptation
for us all, and we hope that you will feel free
to let us know your comments and suggestions.
Karine
Piché |
|
| Upcoming
promotion
Winter took a little longer
to arrive this year. Let's hope that spring
will arrive on time! We are particularly anxious
to see the arrival of spring because we are
getting ready to put into place our first promotion
of the year.
Be
attentive in order to benefit from our upcoming
promotion that will introduce our unique thick
tread polyurethane caster from Blickle.
Frederic
Lagace |
|
| Philippe’s
thoughts…
 On
February 4, there are probably many of you who
watched the Indianapolis Colts beat the Chicago
Bears in the 41st Super Bowl held in Miami.
It’s not a game that will go down in history
as being exciting, but it was still a good game.
With over
1 billion viewers across the world, this major
sporting event has always been a dream advertising
opportunity. Companies pay millions for a 30-second
spot. Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser) and GM buy
about 5 to 6 publicity spots and pay approximately
2.6 million dollars per spot.  Some
may think that this is money thrown out the
window, but I see it as money well invested
that lets companies set themselves apart from
the competition and reinforce their corporate
image with customers.
Who
hasn’t once dreamt about seeing their
company associated to such an event? I do let
myself dream about it, but just thinking about
the huge budgets that global corporations spend
to increase their notoriety, I will continue
to dream about. It doesn’t cost anything
to dream!
Philippe Raptis |
|
|
DON'T FORGET TO WRITE US...
 |
|
Setup and design of The Leader.Com by Karine
|
LEADER.COM