Flaman Rentals Blog

Flaman's Annual Rental Meeting in Phoenix: Fun and Learning in the Sun!

Posted by Flaman Dec 20, 2013

Rental dealers from all across the prairies including BC and even Montana all gathered at the Arizona Grand Resort in Phoenix, AZ on Nov 27 - Dec 1

There were just over 100 of us for this year's meeting trip. We were also proud to have in attendance some of our top suppliers and business partners such as Riteway Mfg, Schulte, Haukaas, Wheatheart, Calidon Leasing, National Leasing.

Also attending was 3 of our new SK and MB dealers!

The trip was a great escape from our tough winter conditions and the overall experience was very positive.  While some areas had slight decreases in revenue this year, everyone agreed that the current economic situation in Western Canada is very favourable and with a lot of hard work and a little luck in the way of weather, we will plan for a very strong year coming up.  The goal of our annual meeting is to bring all of our rental dealers together to share information to continue to grow our business.  The mingling of dealers, suppliers, and staff allows us to keep moving forward and strengthening the business and personal relationships that are so important and somewhat rare in this digital world.  We still believe that face time spent together is the best way to build a successful business and that is what the annual dealer meeting is all about.

Highlights included:

Golf, golf, golf. Many dealers took advantage of the beautiful course and golfed daily while the ladies shopped, shopped, shopped

NHL game sat night with the Blackhawks in town! Was an exciting game and experience

ATV tour - about 15 dealers went on a quad tour in the desert! Was a blast. Someone (Scott from Riteway) got a little carried away and may have injured his tailbone as his quad did a backflip

Steve Whittington, Flaman’s VP of Marketing and Communications took us on a detailed journey of his trip up Mount Everest.

Awards night gala presenting top dealers in each territory and top new dealer and community service awards

Meeting topics discussed included:

Introduction of new dealers
New dealer agreements
COOP advertising improvements
Advertising plan for 2014
Tips on increasing rental revenue
Introducing the new corporate stores (Lethbridge, Medicine Hat)
Year in review both corporate level and rental dealers
Flaman Foundation
Booking program introduction for Alberta and improvements
New products and equipment
New rental rates 2014
GPS for tracking acre counts

I would like to thank all rental dealers who attended the meeting for your support and hard work that goes into our business every year.  Thank you to the key suppliers that joined our meeting and helped sponsor the cost of the meeting to keep the costs down to dealers who attended.  Thanks to the Flaman staff who came and helped keep everyone looked after and entertained.  Thanks to Wayne, Ken and Kelsey for helping to organize the meetings and events. A very big thank you to Wayne Beckett who came up with the idea to have the meeting in Phoenix and did most of the work organizing the venue and travel arrangements.  And last, but not least, thanks to Rocky Amson and Frank Flaman for allowing us to organize these meetings for rental dealers and to give us the means to keep building this business.

Parrish Kondra

2013 Flaman Rental Dealer Awards

Top New Dealer – Interlake Rentals – Arborg, MB
Community Service Award (Sask/Man) – MarDee Enterprises – Brandon, MB
Community Service Award (Alberta/BC/USA) – Nanton Rentals – Nanton, AB
Top Retail Sales (Sask/Man) – Triple D & P Farms – Birsay, SK
Top Retail Sales (AB/BC/USA) – Smoky River Equipment Sales and Rentals – Falher, AB

Top 5 Dealers (Sask/Man)

#5 – Ike Friesen – Morden, MB
#4 – B & D Rentals – Cutknife, SK
#3 – Brendonn Holdings – Russell, MB
#2 – B & A Petroleum – Swift Current, SK
#1 – Reliant Sales and Rentals – Windthorst, SK

Top 5 (Alberta, BC, USA)

#5 – Wetaskiwin Bulk Sales – Wetaskiwin, AB
#4 – Koch Fuels – Carstairs, AB
#3 – Ray Agro & Petroleum – Barrhead, AB
#2 – Will’s Welding – Ponoka, AB
#1 – Keddie’s Rentals – Grande Prairie, AB

Exciting experiences at rental dealer meeting in Cuba

Posted by Flaman Jan 09, 2013

Cuba… oh boy where do I start? It was a fun filled week mixed with both business and a little pleasure. I was rather excited about this trip, as this was my first full dealer get together. I was rather nervous and not sure what to expect, especially with 100 of us crazy Canadians down in Cuba.

We're proud to be an ABEX finalist!

Posted by Jennifer Thompson Oct 04, 2012

As a project manager for Flaman’s marketing team, I am proud and excited to announce we’ve once again been nominated for a Marketing Award. Flaman Group of Companies was named a finalist in the 2012 Achievement in Business Excellence (ABEX) Awards in the Marketing category.

Third Time's A Charm

Posted by Jennifer Thompson Jun 26, 2012

For the third year in a row, Flaman Rentals in Saskatoon has been named a Consumer Choice Award Winner. This division of Flaman rents out enclosed and flat deck trailers, along with agricultural equipment like discs, land rollers or mowers.

I recently attended the Consumer Choice Award ceremony with our marketing VP Steve Whittington at the beautiful Delta Bessborough in Saskatoon. We got to sip champagne and rub elbows with a lot of great business owners in the city, and of course, celebrate our own success!

This award is special because the winners are picked by our customers. It means a lot to us that people recognize our efforts to offer great customer service. We were also very pleased to win a Consumer Choice Award three years in a row. This means our team is consistent taking care of our customers’ needs. And we’re proud of that!

What’s great is that the Consumer Choice Award is becoming a trusted name in the Saskatoon area. Looking at the other winners gathered in the room that night, we knew we were in good company amongst other top businesses in Saskatoon.

A big “thank you!” is due to our rental team in Saskatoon for all their efforts and hard work every day and to our customers for continuing to choose Flaman Rentals.

Award Winning Customers

Posted by Steve Whittington Jun 12, 2012

Good companies often win awards but what about their customers? Shouldn’t they be recognized? Are they not part of the reason for the award? At Flaman Group of Companies this year we have won two awards: Consumer Choice Award and SABEX Marketing Award.

With both of these awards, it would be easy to position the employee efforts as the reason for the awards. Certainly the Consumer Choice Award is directly correlated to outstanding customer service by the staff and a marketing award is due the creative efforts of the marketing team.While both of these facts are true, there is more to each story.

Let’s start with the Consumer Choice Award. Obviously customer service is an important factor, but so is customer convenience and variety of choice for product offerings. Customer Service is the number one value of Flaman Group of Companies (FGC) so we will take credit for that, but how did the other two factors, convenience and variety of choice evolve?

The other two evolved by listening to loyal, engaged customers – customers who asked for more from FGC: more hours of operation, more product choice. It is these award-winning customers who pushed us to be better and by meeting their needs we ended up serving more people, more effectively. Without these loyal customers we would not have won the Consumer Choice Award.

But how do customers influence marketing? Is not marketing self serving for a company, designed solely to convince customers to buy product? Advertising can be, but The Great Stuck in Muck Photo Contest and Sled’N Snap contest are both examples of customers coming to Flaman Group of Companies with an idea. FGC then took the idea and marketed it because we have the resources. Additionally, both contests rely on user generated content to make them come alive. So in the case of these marketing contests all FGC did was build the ball park,so to speak. It was our customers that showed up and played a great game that drew in the crowds, some of whom purchased our products.

In 2012 FGC won two awards. The staff worked hard and deserved to be recognized for their efforts, but our customers worked hard and should be recognized as well.

Celebrating our marketing success

Posted by Jennifer Thompson May 18, 2012

On May 17, I had the honour of attending the Saskatoon Awards for Business Excellence (SABEX) ceremony. Flaman was named a finalist in the Marketing award category.

This was a very exciting nomination for us. The SABEX awards honour businesses in Saskatoon and area in a variety of categories, such as Marketing, Customer Service, New Business and Business of the Year. Winners are selected from the finalists by a group of their peers. It meant a lot to us that we were recognized for our efforts by business leaders in our community.

This was the first time Flaman was named a finalist for a SABEX award.The ceremony was held at Prairieland Park, which had been decorated in a glamorous 1950s theme. After a delicious supper, the awards began, and I have to say I sat on the edge of my seat until our category was announced. We were up against three other great local businesses, so I was pretty nervous. When they announced the winner of the Marketing award was Flaman Group of Companies, I couldn’t have been happier! Our tables clapped and cheered as Steve Whittington, our VP of Marketing, accepted our award.

This award means so much to us. As a member of the marketing team, I know firsthand how much work goes into our marketing programs. We handle marketing for multiple stores, in many diverse divisions like fitness, trailers, grain cleaning and ag. Along with traditional advertising and marketing, I feel that Flaman is leading the way with things like our websites and online community building.  

The goal of our marketing department is to give our customers what they want and create content that is engaging and interesting. To me this is exemplified in our “Great Stuck in the Muck” photo contest. This contest was created as a way for farmers to share photos and stories about getting stuck, which is a universal problem for anyone working outside. This contest quickly grew to be much more than just a photo site. It’s now known as “Facebook for Farmers” across Western Canada. This site was a way we could give back to our customers and I think it worked. The website regularly gets thousands of visitors each month and many more when voting is happening.

I am so proud of our team! Along with those from our Saskatoon office, we have a strong team of marketers and web designers from all our locations. It truly was an honour to be named a finalist and of course we are so thrilled to be recognized as a leader in the business community. Thank you to the Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce and all those in the company that contribute to our success.