Company Barbecue – 6/28/2013

SJF Barbecue Summer, 2013
Ed & Eric (would you trust these guys with your food?)
Ed & Eric (would you trust these guys with your food?)

To kick off the summer, SJF held a company barbecue in the parking lot last week.  Hamburgers, Brats & Hot Dogs & even some Venison (Deer) were expertly grilled by our very own Eric Moen and Ed Salonek.

We even busted out our custom made SJF grill made from material handling components left over from various projects in the production shop.

All of the employees enjoyed their lunch and then played a little hoops before returning to work for the rest of the day.

Photos from “100 Best” Dinner

MN Business Magazine 100 Best Companies to Work for in MN - 2013

As mentioned before in this blog SJF was nominated as one of the 100 best companies to work for in MN by MN Business Magazine.  This past Thursday night, the dinner and awards ceremony was held at The Depot in downtown Minneapolis.

Several of SJF’s employees enjoyed an evening of food, drinks, and excellent conversation as well as a very nice slideshow put together by MN Business Magazine.

Once again, SJF management would like to thank all of our employees for making this possible.

Enjoy the Photos!

Photos from 100 Best Dinner

Summer Fishing Contest (2013)

Catch & Release Contest

SJF just announced the start of the summer 2013 fishing contest.  All employees and their immediate families are invited to participate in this catch & release contest.  The contest runs from May – October and will feature monthly as well as overall contest winners.

Winners will be determined using a point system based on the length & species of fish caught per month and over the entire time period.  In other words, you may not win a specific month, however you can still win by having the most points at the end of the contest.

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Featured Client: Kelly-Moss Motorsports

Kelly-Moss Motorsports Racking

Kelly-Moss Motorsports offers maintenance, performance tuning and enhancement, parts sales and much more to race teams all across the USA.  Kelly-Moss is a complete full service auto facility, working on both customer race cars and general automotive maintenance in their street shop.  The complex also houses the Level Five Motorsports racing team. With over 22 years of experience with all major car brands, Kelly-Moss is proud to make racers’ dreams come true.

Kelly-Moss utilizes SJF’s pallet racking to store and organize cars for clients, keeping them professionally maintained in their new 50,000 square foot facility, located just hours from Chicago and Milwaukee.

Additional Photos

SJF is honored to help Kelly-Moss store these beautiful cars safely and efficiently.

SJF Among 100 Best Companies to Work for in MN

MN Business 100 Best Businesses to Work For in 2013

SJF is honored to be named on the 100 Best Companies to Work for in MN for 2013.  This list is compiled by Minnesota Business Magazine based out of Minneapolis, MN.

About the Nomination (From MN Business Magazine)

[this award salutes] Minnesota organizations setting the standard for employee well-being. The 100 Best are chosen using data gathered from an anonymous employee satisfaction survey administered by an independent research group. Only the top Minnesotan companies, as judged in areas such as work environment, employee benefits, employee happiness, and leadership, are selected for inclusion in the list.

There will be an award ceremony to honor all of the companies on the list on Thursday, June 6th.

Thanks, MN Business Magazine and thank you SJF employees for making this possible!

You can view the full list of nominees here.

Material Handling Myths, Monsters & Secrets

Rhonda Remer

Hello, my name is Rhonda Remer, and being the newest addition to the SJF project sales team, I’d like to offer some inside perspective from the trenches. I have worked in online sales & support for 6 years and just recently started working in client project sales about four months ago. In my short time in direct sales, I have uncovered 2 simple truths. The first one, I had to learn. The second is a truth that I’d like my customers to learn.

First and foremost though, project sales is harder than it looks. And by hard, I mean time consuming. Don’t get me wrong, the lead opportunities are great at SJF. There’s no shortage of customer interest & quote requests. Whether it’s by phone or email, when I do speak with customers they don’t always know how to put into words what they envision in their minds. The back and forth translation of needs & wants takes a lot of time. There are days where I feel like a child on an Easter egg hunt with an eye patch and a broken hip. It’s not that we don’t have the equipment, (we have loads of equipment!) it’s just that with used equipment, having the exact material at the exact time a customer needs it can be a challenge.

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Featured Client: Modern Molding

Custom Blue Pallet Racking

Modern Molding, Inc. (MMI) of Delano, Minnesota, provides custom-made thermoplastic injection molded parts to the worldwide market with complete solutions for engineers, project managers, and purchasing agents. With unsurpassed technical support, Modern Molding helps manufacturers and engineers find the right solutions for any injection molding or tooling need.

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Featured Client: Tetra Pak

Vertical Carousels

Tetra Pak is a multinational food packaging and food processing company of Swedish origin. Operating in more than 170 countries and with over 22,000 employees, Tetra Pak is currently the largest food packaging company in the world (measured in sales). The companies head offices are in Lund, Sweden and Lausanne, Switzerland.

Tetra Pak offers packaging solutions including  filling machines and processing solutions for dairy, beverages, cheese, ice-cream and prepared food.It’s products line include accumulators, cap applicators, conveyors, crate packers, film wrappers, line controllers, straw applicators and more.

Tetra Pak currently has 2 divisions in Winsted, MN. where they manufacture equipment for the company’s food processing operations. SJF has worked closely with Tetra Pak from it’s early days in the Winsted area. Over the years SJF has provided Tetra Pak with a wide range of equipment ranging from static cantilever & pallet racking to automated carousels, controls & automation software.

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