Chapter 53

Hans, Gerta, and Mama arrived in Birmingham before noon. I was at the office meeting with Kyle and his crew, trying to flesh out the details of his planned campaign to open as many new convenience outlets for our vending product expansion.

Kyle had objected to calling the snacks vending product, saying it seemed to confuse the route people and the store owners and managers. He preferred Quick Snacks as a name, and had begun referring to them as that. I liked the name as well. Convenience and quick seemed to go together well.

There was already a definite trending towards fast, convenient, living. People were getting used to doing everything on the run. Using drive through windows to buy their take out food, do their banking, and even drop off and pick up their dry cleaning and laundry.

Kyle had put together a team of nine salesmen for the greater Birmingham area. It was a pilot program, solely for the purpose of seeing what sort of market penetration we could get attempting to aggressively open new accounts.

Kyle was planning on opening at least fifty new accounts per day with his crew, and would be out in the field with them every day, monitoring their performance. Part of his program involved passing out awards and incentives for top performers. I had authorized advancing him five thousand dollars to make purchases for these awards and prizes. The money was going to be recovered from the funds he charged purchasers of the sales routes he'd be creating.

Of course, he couldn't sell them until after they had been opened and developed. I didn't try to change anything about his optimism and enthusiasm. His can do attitude was exactly what I was hoping to see spread throughout our Southern operations.

Joyce had already begun with her reminders to me about how important it was to our expansion plans that Kyle succeed with his method of creating steady demand for our vending snack production. It was these higher margin sales that were needed to continue to fuel our ambitious Southern expansion plans. Joyce had told me, at breakfast, that she had pencilled in an increase in gross vending sales of one million dollars per month, beginning with the first of the upcoming year.

That number translated into opening a huge number of new outlets every month. More than Kyle could achieve with the sales force he was planning to have out in the field. I wanted to get him thinking about multiplying his efforts, but I didn't want to throw out numbers so large that they would frighten him, or cause him to have doubts. It was a fine line I had to be walking with him.

Preliminary product re-order figures from the convenience stores were pointing to each outlet averaging about two hundred fifty dollars a month in gross wholesale terms to us. This was figured on the thirty cents per unit that we were getting. To add a million dollars in sales a month, we'd have to open four thousand new accounts. Kyle's people were planning on working five day weeks, so that was going to be approximately a quarter of what our minimum goal needed to be. We had two months to prove Kyle's program a success and quadruple his sales force. The problem was going to be with hiring and training good local sales people.

"We need to bring in some of our personnel people, and our sales training staff, to help you get this program off the ground, Kyle. We need to be opening two or three hundred new outlets a day, not fifty. I think we need to spin off the whole route driver account sales program for someone else to handle. Who do you know that would be good at training new route drivers?"

"Kenny, there aren't that many places we can open around here to get that many new accounts. What you're asking for can't be done. Route people aren't going to be paying for a route that's a hundred miles from here. It can't be done."

"I wasn't talking about just around here. I meant all over this area, from Texas to Florida, and as far north as Oklahoma and South Carolina. We've got to get teams hired and trained, then set them to opening up new routes for us to sell. Birmingham is only a pilot program to prove that your program really works."

"You don't mean right away though, right? We're going to set this up first, then branch out from here?"

"We can take it slow if you want to, Kyle, as long as we're opening at least two hundred and fifty new accounts a day by the end of the year. Remember now, I already told you we'll do the hiring and training of the new sales crew to put out opening new territories. All you need to do is work out the best way to open up the new accounts."

Kyle didn't say anything to me, but I could tell he felt somewhat overwhelmed by what I'd just told him. We wrapped up our meeting right after that, with me telling Kyle I wanted daily performance reports on my desk before he left for the day. He nodded that he'd heard me, but I was a little worried that I had thrown his world out of balance. This would be a good test of his resilience. I'd give it until the end of the week to see how he managed adapting to my surprising new demands. Joyce had been trying to light a fire under me, and I needed to pass the flame along to Kyle.

After the meeting, I called Gene at his house, trying to find out if he had any special schedule or order in mind for me to work him and his two brothers back into the workplace. We spoke for awhile, and it became obvious that he had already heard about my health situation. He asked me questions that demonstrated his worry.

"Look, Gene, I'm only one guy in a really big company. My Dad has three or four people he could send down here to take over for me if it was needed. This isn't going to be any big problem for Macklinson's Bakeries. I'm already scheduling tests to find out what the problem is. When we find out, we'll deal with it. I don't want to waste my time speculating about it. So, who do you think I should bring in to interview with me first, you, Phil or Larry?"

"Maybe it would work for the best if you brought Phil back first, Kenny. Then, maybe me, and save Larry for the last. I know Larry's very interested in hearing, from your own lips, that he doesn't have to answer to anyone but you."

"Okay, that makes sense. Should I call Phil myself, or do you want to be the one to tell him he should come in and talk with me?"

"I think it would be better if you called him, Kenny. There's still that thing about none of us having to report to one of the others. If Phil is going to be your man, he should be called back by you."

I got off the phone shaking my head. These were all grown men in their mid to late forties at least. I shouldn't have to play these kinds of games with them. It would be a lot more efficient to call them all in together and just have the one meeting. I stopped myself, again, realizing that was only my way. I'd learned my lesson already, that my way didn't work with these men. It was time I tried something that might work. I picked my phone back up and dialed Phil's number. He answered me on the first ring, like he'd been waiting right by the phone. I took that as a good sign.

"Hey, Phil. Kenny Parsons here. The reason I'm calling is to let you know that all of the boys are back at work now, and to say I'm very sorry about that mix up about Jesse from before. We've gotten it all settled now though, and they're all back here. It's working out well for all of us."

"Well, that's good to hear. All those boys need to have something to do. I wanted to thank you about Billy Ray too. He's really happy that you went and found something he could do to be a part of the company again. I hope he does a good job for you. If he doesn't, you let me know and I'll give him some sparks to light him up again."

"No worries about Billy Ray. I'd have to say, of all the Macklinson boys, that Billy Ray and Kyle are my two most valuable workers. I get a lot more work done with Billy Ray in here helping me. The other thing I called to talk to you about was to ask you if it might be possible for the two of us to meet, and get our own situation settled. I'm making some changes in two of the Consolidated plants right now, and I'd like to have some equipment input from someone who knows his way around an oven. We're planning on reopening the Nashville plant right away, and I need to think about sending my equipment maintenance guy back to our Delaware plant. They've been missing him a lot."

"I'd be willing to discuss it with you, but, of course, it would depend on what you needed done, and who I'd have to be working with." Phil was already making it known to me that he had changes he'd want from how it used to be. I hoped he meant not having to listen to Larry and Gene, and not something else that I might not be able to give him.

"Well, we can talk, and you can tell me what you'd need. I'm a reasonable man, I think, and I already know you can make these ovens and machines keep working. Jerry Davis, that's the man I brought here from Dover? He found us a whole slew of replacement parts for our old equipment. Maybe, if you come down, you and he could take a look at what he got for us. It would give you a better idea of what you'd have to work with."

We agreed on a time when he would come to the plant later that afternoon. I had Jerry paged and brought him up to my office. I told him that Phil was coming in to talk, and asked him to show him the spare equipment room so he could see all the spare parts we now had.

"Does that mean I finally get to fucking go back home, Kenny? This whole fucking area is the shit's. I can't fucking understand half of what these fucking people are saying. It's like they're fucking talking with their fucking mouths full." Jerry was smiling, pleased with himself and the knowledge that he could soon get back to his Delaware crew and equipment.

"It might mean that, by next week. There's still the matter of your brother. How are you going to fix it so that Phil wants to keep him on? Do you think Jim is good enough at what he does?"

"I hope you're fucking diddling me with that kind of question. I know you can't be fucking asking it seriously. Fucking Jim knows more about this shit than fucking anyone. Except for me, of course. If he stays off the fucking sauce, he'll be all right. If he doesn't, then fuck him. He got his chance, and that's all I fucking promised him."

"I'm going to be needing someone really good at our Consolidated plant back in Texas. We're going to be putting in all new equipment, most of it highly automated. The equipment factory's will help us train the maintenance crew before the new equipment goes in. I'd be willing to send Jim and two or three of the old Consolidated guys for that training, but I need to have a pretty good idea that he wants this kind of job and responsibility more than he wants to go back to drinking. Do you think I can depend on him?"

"Fuck, you don't ask for much, do you? What do you expect me to tell you, Kenny? This is my brother. I can tell you he hasn't been drinking since he got here, and that he understands that the booze has cost him just about everything he cared anything about. What I can't do is tell you that he won't start drinking again."

"Well, I've already decided to take a chance on him. I want you to think of it as a big part of the bonus you earned by coming down here and holding this place together for me. I appreciate it. Try not to fuck things up for me with Phil when he comes in to see you. I want you to tell Jim that he really needs to behave if he wants to keep this shot you've gotten for him. I'm giving him the chance you asked me for, but I won't hesitate a minute to throw him out if he takes another drink of booze. He has to know that up front, because he didn't come to me with a clean slate. You think he might get back with his family if he ends up back in Texas?"

"I hear him on the phone with Shannon and the kids four or five nights a week. He sends them every penny he has. She hasn't quit on him yet, and I hear him sweet talking her most nights. If she wasn't still interested, she wouldn't listen to him telling her what he does. I think she's just waiting to see if he takes care of this job or not, and whether he keeps himself off the sauce for a while longer. I know she was happy when he sent that big check to her. It let her get all caught up on things, and that was half their problem, the money."

"I'd hate to see him mess this up, Jerry. I don't know him that well, but he seems like a hard worker to me. I'd give him one chance, but that's about it. I hope he's ready this time."

"Well, nothing we can do but hope. If he isn't ready, then he probably won't ever be. I think he is though. He doesn't have any physical cravings now, so if he goes back to it, then he's just mental. Can't do anything when somebody's mental."

"Okay, time to go back to work and earn all that money we're paying you. Remember, if Phil doesn't hire back on, you'll be here until after the first of the year. Treat him gently."

I laughed when Jerry flipped me the bird. I was going to miss having him around. He was a calming influence on me. People on the baking floor were in awe of the way he spoke and did things. Jerry didn't work in half measures, and he didn't do anything quietly. There was a difference in tempo when he was running around on the floor.

Things must have gone well with Jerry and Phil, because he had a smile on his face when he came through the open door of my office. The first thing he did was stop to speak with Billy Ray, who was busy with my trade reconciliations. Billy took him through an explanation of what he was doing in a period of less than five minutes. I could see that Phil was impressed with the ease that Billy Ray sifted through the data he had inputted to his computer. It looked quite impressive to someone unused to computers.