Inventory Trip Day 10 - Audubon, IA

Worthington Ag Parts - Tractor Parts, Combine Parts, Implement Parts providers to customers all over the world for 43 Years!  PARTS - Expect More from us!

We arrived in Audubon yesterday at 3:15 PM after a good inventory at Iowa Falls!  We didn't see much corn in the fields during the three hour drive.  Harvest is definitely in Iowa.  We spent part of the time on the truck phone planning advertising and shows for the new year along with operations stuff.  The question is what did we do before mobile phones?  How did all the work get done?  I'm sure it still got done but in this "NOW" world we live in, everyone wants action right now.

The weather was good so the crew walked the outside yard inventory late in the afternoon.  Sergeant Greg Clemens had them out the door and started in five minutes upon arrival.  They started inside for an hour and quit a little after 6PM.  Nick Moeller arrived about 5 PM and jumped right in.  We stayed in Carroll, Iowa last night which is about 30 miles north of Audubon.  After a quick bite to eat in the hotel bar everyone bolted for bed by nine leaving Randy Mittlestadt with the tab and no one to talk to!!  Nice guys we are!  Morning came early, you know it's a long night when you can hear the room next to you getting text messages at 2 AM.  I'm looking forward to sleeping in the same bed for two nights in a row tonight at the hotel in Worthington.  The guys were out the door at 8 AM starting on the standing combines.  You should see Terry Holmes our Sikeston, MO store manager he's bundled up with mittens while the rest of us have light jackets on!  He's not used to this cold weather, we are going to get some good natured ribbing mileage out of this one for time to come!!

The Audubon store looks good.  All the parts in the sales area are labeled with computer generated tags and displayed well for our customers.  It sounds like Libby and Derrick did most of the work on this project.  This is something we should do at all of our stores for product displayed in the show rooms!  Great job!  I know the guys in Goldsboro have one of the new cab cams on display operating behind the counter for walk in customers to see.  That's a creative job on their part as well.

I'd like to you to meet a few of our valued employees in Audubon!

This is Libby Mcdonald our office manager in Audubon.  Libby has been with the company for over 24 years.  She started her position in February 1983  and has ridden the changes and continued to a very good job.  I guarantee you if any paperwork is filled out wrong by the team at the store, Libby gives them a big whack with her stick!  She carry's a big one.  We were joking last night that we've almost worked together for two decades - stating it in that context makes the thought of 20 years frightening.  Time surely does fly!  Thanks Libby for all of your hard work and dedication.  Oh Yeah and thanks for the three apple pies, and wonderful lunch you prepared for the crew today!!!

  This is Wes Thygesen our store manager in Audubon!  Wes has been on the team for over 26 years!  He has been managing the Audubon store since February of 2006.  Prior to becoming manager Wes has consistently been one of the top salesman in Audubon and the company! You can see from this photo of Wes' office wall he has consistently won Sales Achievement and Service Awards every year since we implemented them in 2001!  I'm not sure about the wall paper but I like the fact he has them proudly displayed in his manager's office!  Email Wes with a click here!   

Meet Gene Nowatzke - Parts Specialist in Audubon.  Gene has done a variety of jobs for Worthington Ag Parts and has been a member of the team since April 1981 that's over 26 years too!  It doesn't matter whether the customer needs a tractor part, combine part, planter part or any other implement part Gene can find what you need.  Combine with Wes that gives us 52 years of parts experience on the counter at our Audubon store!  Keep up the good work Gene and congratulations on recently becoming a Grandpa!!  Send Gene a congratulatory email on becoming a grandpa with a click here!

Enough about the veteran countermen, meet the "up an comer" Derrick Rohe - Parts Specialist Audubon store.  Derrick's  been on the team since May of 2005.  If you can't find Derrick on the counter you might find him in shipping, getting the parts out the door in a timely fashion to our customers.  Derrick said he needs to keep moving, he barely made time for me to take a picture of him this morning!  A couple years learning everything from Gene and Wes and Derrick will have some hardware to show off!  Thanks Derrick, keep up the good work!

These are just a few of the faces on the team in Audubon.  We should wrap up here a little after lunch and load up the vehicles for the four hour drive to Worthington, MN.  This is the last stop on our annual pilgrimage and the largest.  That store has over $1 million of used inventory and it's a two day appraisal process.  The store was started in July of 1964 and continues to lead the industry in providing used parts to the farmer!  I'm sure I'm going to get a little nap in that four hour drive as long as the cell phone don't ring and there are no deer laying on the road - AGAIN!

Cheers,

Mike Winter