The following article will appear in the November-December print issue of Professional Distributor. To subscribe to Professional Distributor, click here.
Mac Tools distributor Stacey Bleile has been successful not only with his route, but with the addition of two other Calgary-based routes. His brother, Jim Blelie, has been running a route for two years. He recently brought on long-time friend Dwyane Melnyk to take on a third route.
Jim had previously worked as a welder before he had been laid off from the job.
Dwayne got into the business after 27 years as a mechanic – a similar background to Stacey. He started his route in May 2014. Dwayne and Stacey have known each other for 15 years.
“I went for a ride for a day with Stacey and we ran around to various places. I thought, this is something I could probably do,” said Dwyane. “Most of the people that you deal with are the same people that I worked with for 27 years. So, I can relate to them a little bit.”
Bleile keeps tabs on his other two trucks, and will take time every once and awhile to review the truck and shelves.
“Me and my wife go over there every two or three months and organize his truck, go through some stuff and I’ll just take it. If he has too many of one thing, or stuff I don’t like, I’ll just take it. I’ll put it on my truck or throw it in my discount bin and clear it out.”
Bleile explained that each truck has a separate account, which Bleile pays and keeps track of. All three routes are part of the same franchise.
“When they get home, same as me, they’ll do their orders,” said Bleile.
“I monitor them. I go online at the end of the day and I can see everything they’ve done, monitor everything that they’ve ordered.”
“I’m the owner, so every week I pay each truck account, and I keep track of it, so I can see everything their doing,” said Bleile.
Jim and Dwayne both receive a paycheck every two weeks, and an additional bonus for sales. “I pay them on what they collect, not what they sell,” said Stacey.
“They both are great. They’re both hard workers. They wouldn’t be working for me if they weren’t,” said Bleile.
