Aug 07

Weathered Ground Brewery breaks ground in Cool Ridge

By Jordan Nelson – Register-Herald Reporter – Aug 6, 2017

A good omen for groundbreaking day.

Weathered Ground Brewery, located on a high-country 30-acre farm in Cool Ridge, has been a brewery-in-planning for two years. Saturday, it officially opened its doors, offering that distinct craft beer taste to anticipating locals. A joint effort between husband and wife, Sam and Aryn Fonda decided they wanted to move back near Aryn’s childhood home of Daniels, and search for the craft beer business opportunity. “We had been living in Charlotte, N.C., for the past six years,” Aryn Fonda said. “We wanted to move back to where I grew up, and after having our daughter, Willa, we finally did so.”

Aryn said she and her husband found a farm in Cool Ridge, and decided not only to open up a brewery, but to live on the property as well. “Growing up here, I have a special connection with this place, and we wanted to bring something to southern West Virginia that we thought many people would love.” Aryn’s husband Sam worked at two breweries in Charlotte in the past, so they were able to transfer their knowledge of the subject into their own business. “We wanted to do our own thing, and this is something we have always been interested in,” she said. “We have wanted to grow organically for a number of years and use those items for our brews.”

With Winterplace Ski Resort just up the road from the brewery, both Sam and Aryn hope during the winter season Weathered Ground will be an attraction to tourists. “There are so many outdoor opportunities out within this area,” she said. “We are hoping to expand that even more with our brewery to not only locals, but to the people that come and visit the state.”

(Brad Davis/The Register-Herald) Patrons hang out in the main pub area during the grand opening celebration for the Weathered Ground Brewery Saturday afternoon in Cool Ridge.

Carter Lewis, of Charlotte, N.C., drove to Cool Ridge for the brewery opening. He said he did not want to miss out on the event. “I’ve heard that the brew master, one of the owners, is actually from Charlotte as well, so it’s really something to learn that he’s bringing his knowledge here,” Lewis said. “I think this will do something great for this small community,” he said, while sipping one of the many brews available at the facility. “So far, every one of the beers taste really good.”

Sam Fonda said the brewery plans to hire only local employees. “We want to provide opportunities for people around here, and we don’t want to stray away from that.” Sam said the idea for the name Weathered Ground came to him and Aryn once they learned of the history of the land. “A lot of animals were raised out here, and a couple of generations of families lived out here as well,” he said. “We believe the property is weathered by people and nature, and it was a name that stuck and had meaning.” Sam explained his nervousness about opening something new in the area, and said sometimes the anxiety sets in. “We have a few panic attacks every now and again,” he said with a laugh. “But we are confident in the beer we make, and we are confident in the type of people we are. All we really want to do is bring something cool to the area, and we really hope it works out.”

Within a barn-like building, the dining area of Weathered Ground houses spacious seating, high ceilings and a full-size bar on the back wall, offering several brews, coffee and other non-alcoholic beverages. During the grand opening Saturday, local musical favorite The Kind Thieves, along with Vessel, a band based out of Louisville, Ky., performed to customers outdoors at the back fields of the brewery, where picnic tables are placed all around. Customers were able to enjoy a cold brew indoors, or take their brew outdoors to enjoy music and company.

Aryn said she and her husband found a farm in Cool Ridge, and decided not only to open up a brewery, but to live on the property as well.

Christina Wright, of Oak Hill, said she had heard some buzzing about the new brewery and wanted to come check it out for herself. “I’m highly impressed,” Wright said. “There’s breweries in the Fayetteville and Lewisburg area, but they’re all usually closed off to the public, nothing like this.” Wright said she thinks Weathered Grounds will be a big plus to not just the Cool Ridge area, but throughout the state as a whole. “I really enjoy these types of venues, and I will definitely continue to come back.”

Aryn said since they have just opened, their food menu will be based on simple, more snack-related items. “We have some really good snacks people will want to try out, though,” she said. “We’re going to have chicken salad sliders, pepperoni rolls, just a lot of finger foods.” She said if the brewery progresses and expands as she and Sam hope, they will expand their menu with more lunch and dinner items.

For now, hours for Weathered Ground are Thursday from 4 to 9 p.m., Friday from 4 to 10 p.m., Saturday from noon to 10 p.m., and Sunday from 1 to 6 p.m. Aryn said those hours might expand as more staff becomes available. “We’re just really excited to finally be open, and we hope it’s a big hit.”

Links: Website, Facebook, Instagram, Video

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Sep 21

Master’s student building libraries, bringing resources to Uganda

An MBA candidate created an organization to increase literacy in Uganda.

by Kimberly Burton, 20 September 2016

St. Mugaga Secondary School library is one of the nine libraries the Literate Earth Project has opened throughout rural districts of Uganda since 2013, with two more openings slated for this year.

St. Mugaga Secondary School library is one of the nine libraries the Literate Earth Project has opened throughout rural districts of Uganda since 2013, with two more openings slated for this year.

During a service trip Jeff Fonda took to Uganda, he worked in a school with no textbooks. Instead, every student was given a hand-written version of a textbook for their classes.  “It’s a crazy process, they actually hand copied each book over and over again,” Fonda said. “It was great they had the text, but they had no formalized pictures or graphs.”

Fonda, a first-year master’s of business administration student, was inspired by his experiences in Uganda to found the nonprofit called The Literate Earth Project, an organization that helps Ugandan children get access to books and increase literacy.  Other than the hand-copied textbooks, students had no books to read for pleasure. Fonda soon discovered the school’s headmaster had approximately 15 books in his office and decided to show them to the students.  “With these books and atlas, they were seeing pictures of new people, trees, buildings, things they had never seen before,” Fonda said.

Information about sports in particular were of interest to them, Fonda added.  “They were asking things like, ‘What is this sport?’ They had never seen tennis before. ‘What is this racket for?’” he said.  This is when his revelation occurred, he said.  “You could see the wheels were going in their heads,” Fonda said. “That experience of seeing the real need for knowledge and how it spurred these other thoughts and conversations was amazing.”

Ugandan Vice President Edward Ssekandi and LEP Founder Jeff Fonda

Ugandan Vice President Edward Ssekandi and LEP Founder Jeff Fonda

The Literate Earth Project was officially formed in 2011. In 2013, Fonda and his organization opened their first library in Uganda. In that same year, they also received a LEAP grant from BetterWorldBooks. LEAP grants are given to organizations with “game-changing” ideas to “help advance a compelling literacy project,” according to its website.  “We watched [the first library] for a year and half to see it’s successes and failures,” he said.

After Fonda and other individuals from the organization saw the library was working, they began to open more libraries throughout the country in 2014.  In the past two and a half years, The Literate Earth Project has opened nine libraries in areas like the Rakai, Masaka and Wakiso districts of Uganda. The organization will also open two more this year.  “As long as we are able to keep up funding, we’re actually on pace to open four to six libraries per year and we would like to continue at that pace,” said Alex Moore, project’s chief operating officer.

The need for books in Uganda is evident through the requests for the organization’s libraries. The Literate Earth Project has a list of about 50 schools that have been okayed to receive libraries, but hundreds have made requests.  To ensure success, the organization has a vetting process where staff visit the school to assess its needs. They make sure the teachers and community are going to get involved, and that the books will actually be used by the students.

In the past, to raise awareness for the program, Fonda has met with Uganda’s Vice President, H. E. Edward Ssekandi. Ssekandi has implemented policy to aid in increasing literacy in Uganda.  Fonda said he hopes to expand the program to the many schools on their waitlist, but the organization doesn’t have money for the books themselves. By applying for grants, starting college clubs and hosting events like the Let’s Get Literate 5K Run, they have started to raise more money for their efforts.  “We’re constantly looking for new partnerships so that we can kind of work together with other organizations that might provide solar energy or computers to schools,” Moore said.

Fonda, who is interested in eventually starting a club on Main Campus connected to his nonprofit, hopes to continue focusing on Uganda due to the serious demand for libraries.  “I’d like to say we can change the whole world, but right now our goal is to change Uganda,” Fonda said. “The demand is insatiable [there].”

Kimberly Burton can be reached at kimberly.burton@temple.edu.

Also see: Literate Earth Project, Books for Africa

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Dec 17

BHS Yearbook Production Now A Popular Class

By Christi Boortz, Curriculum & Professional Development Department
Posted on December 16, 2015

FSDB1Blind and visually impaired high school students were excited when a new class showed up on the FSDB course schedule for the fall semester, among the usual listings. Technically “Journalism 1,” the class focuses on Yearbook Production, and is taught by English and Language Arts instructor Melissa Fonda. The class has a strong literacy component integrating technology and the visual arts. Students learn writing and listening skills, as well as the aesthetics of photography and layout design. They use email to schedule interviews, fact check, and submit assignments via computer. Also, they use the Memory Book website to upload photos and create copy and layouts. Fonda has many good memories from participating in yearbook production as a student back in her early years—she “enjoyed the technical and creative aspects of making layouts and writing features,” Fonda received state of the art technology and equipment to implement the class, in the form of a giant Apple screen display unit with wireless keyboard and mouse, and two high quality Canon cameras. The class is composed of juniors and seniors, which is just fine by Fonda since “older students have had time to develop their writing skills, they know who people in the high school are, and they have a sense of the extracurricular activities that everyone is engaged in – more maturity overall.” Fonda is also pleased with the cross section of students who signed on, which includes athletes, musicians, artists, and Student Council members. Initially six students signed up, but three more added the class after they heard it was fun. Word travels fast in BHS!

Bryce Cothron plans to be a novelist in adulthood, so he especially enjoys writing snippets for the yearbook. He also expressed appreciation for learning about the various elements of photography, such as composition and positioning. He summed up, “It’s interesting to see how it all comes out. Good stuff.” Jonathan Moran asked himself, “Why not?” and showed up for class. He cites editing as one of his favorite activities. Ditto for student Aaliyah Gisondi, who loves being a copy editor. She admitted with a smile, “I get to tell anyone when they have made errors. It might sound funny but that makes me happy.” Gisondi also took the class so she could work with “Ms. Fonda,” one of her favorite BHS instructors. Roque Moran, brother to Johnathan, took the class partly because it fit his schedule and partly because he felt it would be interesting. The class has met his expectations. Among other things, he has learned “taking good pictures requires accuracy.” And he enthusiastically endorsed the instructor, saying “Ms. Fonda’s teaching is awesome.”

FSDB2Emmitt Johnson enjoys writing and “running around the school to take photos of events.” He has learned, in terms of formatting, what to do and what not to do. Nick Thompson favors design and layout, but explained that he additionally does “odd jobs, like getting photo permissions.” Vanessa Coleman had a professional take on the “soft skills” she has been learning through the course, stressing that one should “always follow up and stay on task.” She shared her former problems with procrastination and explained “As soon as you get a task to do, you better get on it right away!” Quinn Delong took the course on the advice of Assistant Principal Charlie Crozier. Delong already had some accumulated knowledge from working with Fonda on the yearbook last year. He feels the course has added to his skill set in media, from technical aspects of layout to the softer skills of working in teams effectively, and sharing knowledge with his classmates. He has some advice to offer: “Do what you love, love what you do.” Apple Polonia is the editor of the club section in the yearbook, and through an email interview, shared that she is learning cooperation and interviewing skills. She highly recommends the class as a good learning experience for those who enjoy design and communication. She suggests that her peers should “try as many different things as possible, because knows that thing might turn into an interest and then maybe a passion.”

About FSDB

Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind (FSDB) is a fully accredited state public school and outreach center available tuition-free to eligible pre-K and K-12 deaf/hard of hearing and blind/visually impaired students. Comprehensive educational services at FSDB are individualized, specific to the unique communication and accessibility needs of each student for independence and lifelong success. FSDB gratefully accepts private donations to support vital programs that directly benefit students and are not paid by state general revenue funds. To visit the school or to learn more about eligibility for enrollment, contact 1-800-344-3732. For more information, visit www.fsdb.k12.fl.us.

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Jun 18

Jihadi Jane

janefonda061515Personal Liberty, Posted on June 17, 2015 by John Myers

Actress Jane Fonda is still raking in money despite the fact she has been ridden hard and put away wet. The 77-year-old is now featured in the Netflix comedy “Grace and Frankie” — the very same Hanoi Jane who was making the lives worse for Americans fighting for their life in the jungles of Vietnam 45 years ago.

Last Saturday, Fonda was not far from my neck of the woods. She spoke in Vancouver, Canada, at a Greenpeace Canada rally, Toast the Coast. It was launched to demonstrate against oil sands development, tanker traffic and future Arctic oil drilling.

Fonda said: “I feel totally committed with every ounce of my being to stopping Big Oil from doing what they’re doing — both drilling in the Arctic and piping tar sand oil across the land into this coast, which is so pristine.”

I cannot figure out Fonda’s economic platform. But it seems to highlight North American energy insecurity, future gas lines and sky-high oil prices that will be dictated by the Middle East oil producers, like Saudi Arabia, which quietly finance the world’s worst jihadists. It is only logical because shutting down Arctic exploration and stopping the transportation of Canadian oil along the West Coast would be dangerous geopolitically for the United States and would throw the county further toward energy instability while creating a massive recession for energy workers.

In her 1995 book “My Life So Far,” Fonda complained about ex-husbands Ted Turner and Roger Vadim. She wrote that Vadim dominated her and made her have threesomes with him and other women. All this suffering, and today she is down to her last $120 million. I doubt Fonda has ever been worth much less than $5 million and has lived only in mansions and driven only gas-guzzlers. I’ll bet she doesn’t have the least understanding what Americans need in a job.

Fonda never had to worry whether her famous actor father was going to make enough money to keep the family going. I am certain that as she marches toward age 80 while continuing her social protests, she has zero understanding of how critical North American oil is to the United States as a nation and to the people who need those jobs.

Green Jane is still the one and same Hanoi Jane who made radio broadcasts to discourage drafted American GI’s, who were already hurting and fighting in a war just to stay alive. Yet she was a willing, attractive and, some may even say, convincing actress in her peacenik patronage of North Vietnam, including having her picture taken manning an anti-aircraft battery whose sole purpose was to shoot down American flyers.

Mr. Conservative stated:

What Jane Fonda did was traitorous. In fact, it’s a shame that she that she got away with committing treason because it made some of her fellow travelers on the Left realize that there is no price to be paid for encouraging people to hate their own country.

Unfortunately for Fonda, there are still a lot of Americans who love their country and they haven’t forgotten or forgiven her for betraying it.

So, periodically, Fonda gives insincere apologies for her despicable actions.

Here’s the latest one that she gave to Oprah Winfrey.

“I made one unforgivable mistake when I was in North Vietnam, and I will go to my grave with this. I don’t know if I was set up or not,” she said. “I was an adult. I take responsibility for my actions. And I was laughing and clapping, and there were pictures taken.”

She was “laughing and clapping” while Americans were dying. She was “laughing and clapping” while Americans were rotting away in POW camps. She was “laughing and clapping” with her new pals who she knew were torturing American soldiers.
Given the fight Fonda now has against North American oil discovery and transportation, she has once again aided and abetted the enemy: Islamic oil producers.

And while President Barack Obama may insist that Saudi Arabia is one of America’s closest allies, he and his fervent liberal and ultra-rich followers should pay attention to the fact that high-ranking members in the Saudi government carried out 9/11 with Saudi agents. But 14 years later, Saudi Arabia still dictates the price of world crude oil.

With oil prices just over half of what they fetched a year ago, domestic oil discovery, production and transportation industries are in a depression. Poor families up and down the west coast are trying desperately to hang on to jobs in an industry that was expected to be a major power source to the United States for the next several decades.

It seems Jihadi Jane neither understands how her actions are viewed by the enemy (major Muslim oil exporters, some of whose core members want to see the destruction of the United States) nor how these anti-jobs protests impact hundreds of thousands of North American families.

That North American oil can be competitively and safely produced doesn’t seem to be a thought that runs through Fonda’s head. Nor does she seem to understand that people’s biggest problems aren’t orgies and drug parties with former husbands but rather just keeping food on the table for the kids and a furnace going.

Fonda will never admit she doesn’t understand the working class — just as another pro-feminist, anti-Vietnam war female contemporary will never make that admission: Hillary Clinton, who is making her second bid for the U.S. presidency.

While Fonda was spending her time on the west coast Friday protesting oil, Clinton was launching her campaign across the country on New York City’s Roosevelt Island. She spoke to the audience about how she knew of tough times because her parents went through the Great Depression. Fonda knows how hard it was just to stay alive during the Dust Bowl because her father gave an outstanding performance in the much acclaimed 1940 movie “The Grapes of Wrath.”

Over the years, my dad told me how at 12 he was driving a wagon team with a team of eight horses across the prairie, sometimes to be caught up in a winter blizzard or deterred by a lame horse. His stories made me shiver. But despite the fact he had done it, I didn’t have the slightest clue as to how such an endeavor would even begin.

Fonda seems to believe that playing a starring role in the movie “The China Syndrome” makes her an expert on energy policy. Another aged hippie, Clinton, told us that same day that she understands tough times for the working class because her parents went through the Depression. I guarantee neither have faced tough times nor were worried where their next meal was coming from.

Clinton may do far more damage to the country if elected president, but both women make promises that they have no intention of keeping. The winner for tease of the month is Fonda for what she told The Vancouver Sun:

If I have to tie myself to some rig or if I have to lie down in front of a truck, I’ll do it. I’ve lived a good life. I’m willing to do that.
I, too, am willing for her to do the right thing rather than flying around the world in Gulfstream private jets, protesting the very crude oil that keeps her aloft. And as far as I am concerned, it wouldn’t do any great harm to America for Fonda to take Clinton down with her.

Yours in good times and bad,

–John Myers

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Mar 20

Distributor Profile: John Day Company

Thu, 03/19/2015 – 8:00am
Mike Hockett, Associate Editor

From left, John Day Co. Outside Sales Manager Steve Regan, President & CFO Nancy Kurtenbach, CEO John Fonda, and Inside Sales Manager & COO Duane Chamberlain.

From left, John Day Co. Outside Sales Manager Steve Regan, President & CFO Nancy Kurtenbach, CEO John Fonda, and Inside Sales Manager & COO Duane Chamberlain.

If there’s one word that describes what has allowed John Day Company to remain a successful, family-owned company for 106 years, it’s stability.

That comes from the Omaha, NE-based industrial and agricultural supplier’s management, where its top four members have a combined 144 years of experience with the company. CEO John Fonda, great grandson of founder John Day Sr., has been there for 35 years, 20 of those as president. Current president and CFO, Nancy Kurtenbach, has been there 29 years. COO and Inside Sales Manager Duane Chamberlain is 37 years in, while Outside Sales Manager Steve Regan is at 43 years.

That wealth of experience is what drives success at John Day today.

“It’s our level of technical support and our knowledge base,” says Kurtenbach. “We have a lot of long-term employees who have been in the business and the industry. Someone can call one of them and they won’t need a part number. We know our products. We know where to get products. There’s a lot of depth and resources there that really set us apart.”

“We’re 106 years old, and none of us look that age,” Fonda says with a laugh. “I think it’s given us a really strong base in our region. We’ve build a good reputation out here. Our customers know who the John Day Company is and we’re going to stand by the products that we sell.”

The Personal Touch

Being an independent company of around 100 employees, many have to wear multiple hats for JDC to provide its myriad of services besides just product supply. Given the rapid escalation of merger and acquisition activity in the market, the company says its stability is what has attracted new hires. “I think a lot of people – they work for someone who gets bought and they get laid off, and maybe hired back – I think our applicants see John Day Company as a very stable company, and family-oriented,” says Kurtenbach.

Part of the appeal of working at JDC is also its accessibility. With many employees taking on multiple roles, they get to see and touch and have a hand in many operations. That, and they can contact Nancy by just stopping by her office when need be. That’s a luxury most wholesale chains can’t offer. “They know who Nancy is as the president of the company. She’s there every day,” Fonda says. “If you’re working for XYZ and at a branch, you may never meet the president. Our employees have developed personal relationships with all of the management team over time, and it’s a value that they can talk to anybody at any time about pretty much any subject.”

A look inside John Day Co.'s industrial warehouse space.

A look inside John Day Co.’s industrial warehouse space.

Value-Added

John Day Company can technically be classified as a distributor, but that wouldn’t give justice to what the company is really about. JDC is just as invested, if not arguably more, in its value-added services. It’s those services – nearly two dozen that the company promotes – that make JDC stand out from other independents, as well as their wholesale competitors.

Some of JDC’s most well-known services include power tool repair, hose fabrication, bandsaw welding, chain sling fabrication, and tool regrind, along with a number of safety solution audits, inspections, and product training.

A look inside John Day Co.’s industrial warehouse space.
“We have continued to make ourselves known and unique enough in the marketplace to be different than the catalogue houses,” Fonda says. “When you see the large corporate-managed distributors, they have a huge amount of resources to decide one day they want to get into this, into that – things that 2-3 years later may not be the focus of where they’re going. I think the things we’re doing we believe are going to be long-term in nature for our customers. The things we continue to support were not built on a whim.”

JDC has been offering many of those services for 15 years or more. Step in the tool repair department and you’ll find specialist Jim Katzer at work on something, a service he has led for 10 years. In the re-grind room, JDC can drastically extend the life of something like a carbide steel gear cutting hob by sharpening it 16-20 times. Regan estimates a brand new high-quality hob can cost between $2,500-4,000 – whereas JDC charges only $250-300 per re-sharpen. That makes such a service extremely valuable.

Fonda says JDC initially got into power tool repairing when customers said it was taking 9 months for them to get some tools back that they sent for repairs to other sources. JDC does it within a month.

While he knows his customers appreciate those services, they still tend to be thankless jobs. “They really enjoyed that when it happened, and kind of forget it over time,” he says. “They just sort of expect it in the future. Then we have to meet those standards.”

Kurtenbach says a lot of the positive feedback the value-added services get aren’t so much from the end user, but from the managers of customers who want to see their associates do what they do best and have a resource to have tools repaired, or made. “A lot of manufacturers – the maintenance people like to do these things, but you see their upper management say, ‘no, you’re busy keeping our equipment up and running. Let’s outsource some of these services to John Day,’” she says. “I think the feedback we’re getting sometimes is at a higher level.”

What’s New?

Fonda and Kurtenbach emphasized that JDC always has a project on the table to increase the company’s efficiencies. Two years ago it purchased new software that was needed to move ahead in its e-content. JDC has a full e-commerce website and is in the process of revamping it to improve its content. “Customers who use it are giving us feedback. We realized there are areas for improvement and that’s why we’re tackling it,” says Chamberlain. Less than 5 percent of JDC’s sales came through e-commerce in 2014, but Chamberlain noted that would be a narrow definition of the company’s online orders since it doesn’t account for EDI sales, of which all of JDC’s integrated supply sites use.

Speaking of EDI, John Day is working on improving automation payables, aiming to allow invoices from vendors to come in EDI right through its ERP system. Kurtenbach says that will eventually help eliminate overhead in the accounts payable department, and make transactions more accurate.

On the CRM front, JDC finished implementing Android Tablets at the end of 2014 for its outside salespeople. The tablets can be operated audibly and transcribe spoken dialogue making it easy to update customer information and call reports. The devices and the CRM software speed up and simplify when the salesperson needs to pull up customer quotes, open orders, and product information.

Fighting the Independent Fight

The Omaha region certainly hasn’t been immune to the industrial distribution merger & acquisition landscape. Midwest Industrial Tool was acquired by DGI Supply in April 2011, and Fuchs Machinery was bought by Blackhawk Industrial one month later. Now, John Day is left as one of the few independents left in the area.

“At one point you’re used to competing with other independents that have a select group of suppliers, and some of those suppliers crossed over and some didn’t. So you each had some uniqueness back in the day,” says Fonda. “Somebody had Greenfield (Manufacturing), one would have 3M, one would have Norton. So we were the last of the Mohicans.”

Suddenly having to compete with DGI and Blackhawk made Fonda and JDC re-examine its role in the industrial business. Along with developing a management team, Kurtenbach took over Fonda’s role as president in June 2014. Fonda says his focus today is more on vendor relations and marketing in the area.

Overall, the focus for JDC, now more than ever, has been on how it can leverage its value-added services to set itself apart. “How does John Day Company now go into a marketplace when you have MSC, DGI, Grainger – those who have everything, and then ask how you are going to stand out?” Fonda says. “The new focus for us has to be to add value to the suppliers we determine are going to help make our future tomorrow.”

As one of the region’s last independent distributors, JDC has partnered closely with its top suppliers. Fonda said JDC has been determining what key suppliers it wants to market with, and hopes customers can see the difference between a company like John Day as opposed to a large wholesaler.

“I think, really, the suppliers do see us as a business partner,” Kurtenbach says. “Even on the customer side, they are more open to working with us and our suppliers because of the long-term relationships.”

Kurtenbach notes how at larger companies, there are still a lot of local employees who have always been there, but buyouts have deteriorated the relationships with customers that John Day maintains. A lot of the business relationships JDC currently has go back 50 or 60 years – the same companies John’s dad and grandfather worked with.

So has Fonda and John Day Company been approached to be acquired? Indeed. Fonda said some of the wholesalers who have contacted JDC are ones mentioned above. But given the history of JDC, he has no intention of giving in. Fonda says he relishes the unique opportunities that being an independent offers – like flexibility, having resources in-house and always ready, and not being tied down to having to work with someone in different locations for different projects.

“We’ve always been a family-owned business,” Fonda says. “We have a hundred associates, and my dad used to always say you could take that times four, so there’s 400 people out there we’re feeding. And we have a good legacy in this marketplace of 106 years.”

Fonda also has some words of wisdom for independent distributors who may be in the same boat as JDC.

“You can’t be looking over your shoulder at what everyone else is doing,” he says. “You see the capabilities that the major players have today – they certainly outweigh what you can do. So you have to figure out what you can be good at, what is your core business, and what you are able to have your people focus on. And then you have to run your own race.”

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