Plenty of food and fun on hand as
Coburn’s shares thanks with State
BY MARY JO MARTIN
Editorial director
For photos and video footage of the event, please click here.
The roots of Coburn Supply Co. are in Louisiana, and it seems that the spirit of New Orleans — “Let the Good Times Roll” — is embodied throughout its leadership and management team. It is simply impossible not to have a great time when you’re with this group, so when they invited me to come along as they set out on a very special trip to Ashland City, Tenn., my answer was a resounding “YES!”
Coburn’s is based in Beaumont, Texas, and has branches in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. On December 9, the Coburn’s executive management team brought a taste of Louisiana to the 1,400 employees of State Water Heaters in Ashland City, Tenn. Coburn’s is well known for their cooking prowess, having put on countless special events for customers over the past 20 years. One of their specialties is jambalaya, a Cajun favorite. Believe me when I tell you that if these guys ever decided to get out of wholesale distribution, they could have phenomenal success as caterers.
And just as I had suspected, the day was filled with fun, laughter and camaraderie, not to mention a mouth-watering menu of jambalaya, salad, bread and cookies.
Turning the tables
While most often the vendor is the one serving as host for their customers, Coburn’s wanted instead to do something to thank all of the people at State — not only for building a quality product, but for the relationship that the two companies have built since their partnership began in 2007. Additionally, last summer State presented Coburn’s with a replica of their original 1934 Ford V-8 stake bed delivery truck for the company’s 75th anniversary — which was featured on the cover of the October issue of The Wholesaler. Jim Margoni, vice president-sales for State Water Heaters, noted, “We were excited to be involved in the co-op program that provided the restored pickup truck to Coburn’s for their anniversary and look forward to a continued partnership.”
Coburn’s management wanted to bring the truck to the plant for all the State employees to see in person, which led to the idea of bringing lunch to State’s employees. Coburn’s vice president-sales and marketing Jim Fuller ran the idea by Margoni, who was understandably blown away by their generous offer. And, thus, the plans began to come together.
“We coordinated everybody’s schedules and picked a date,” explained Coburn’s marketing manager Michael Maloney. “Fortunately, cooking for large groups of people is not new to us, although 1,400 is more than we’ve ever served in the past. Truly, though, once it gets past 100, it’s all kind of the same. If you can multiply, you can work with any recipe.”
In addition to Fuller and Maloney, among the 14 from Coburn’s who journeyed to Ashland City were key executives including president Don Maloney; executive vice president A.J. Maloney; vice presidents Trey Berlin, Danny St. Pierre, Clodile Romero, Bill Geyser, Darren Tramel, Jim Dinser; general manager Larry O’Neal; plumbing purchasing manager David Frazier; commercial/PVF manager Thomas Chamblee; and kitchen and bath manager Russell Atchetee. They were joined by State regional manager David Thames and three of State’s reps, Mike Parham (Pepco Sales) and Jeremy Sharpe and NAME (Woolf-Harris).
The night before the event, executives from State welcomed the Coburn’s group with dinner at a local steakhouse. Several toasts were made, and it was evident from all those in attendance that these two organizations have formed a strong partnership based on mutual respect — and really enjoy each others’ company. In fact, Ajita Rajendra, State Industries president, took a break from a corporate board meeting in Milwaukee to fly back to Ashland City for a day to be part of this special event.
“In my career, I’ve never seen anything like this done before,” Rajendra said. “When I told the board members in Milwaukee why I needed to leave the meetings for a day, they couldn’t believe it. Having a customer go to such great lengths for our entire organization is really special.”
Rajendra noted that when he first met with the Coburn’s management several years ago as the two companies sealed their partnership, executive vice president A.J. Maloney had given him this piece of advice: “Don’t ever treat us like a customer. Treat us like a prospect.” And the people at State have really taken that to heart.
But even more than that, as VP/GM Bill Geiser noted, is State’s longer reach: “It’s not just about what a manufacturer does for Coburn Supply. It’s what they do for the industry as a whole and for the plumbers that matters to us. And in my book, State can’t be beat.”
Making it happen
Trey Berlin, vice president/general manager of Coburn’s Baton Rouge region, served as “top chef.” Berlin has perfected this jambalaya recipe over the years; in fact, his local Kiwanis group actually sells the dry mix that includes the rice and all seasonings as part of their fund raising efforts. Berlin also coordinated logistical efforts to get all the ingredients, cookware and service items to Ashland City. He actually loaded 75-gallon and 25-gallon pots, along with a 100-gallon propane tank, onto his truck and drove them all the way from Baton Rouge to Ashland City. A separate hauler brought in the replica 1934 truck and all the meat and rice.
Berlin split Team Coburn into several groups, each of whom was assigned a series of responsibilities. The first group arrived at the plant at 5:00 a.m. to set up a makeshift kitchen on the floor of the plant and start cooking the meat. Meanwhile, another group went to two local Sam’s Clubs to pick up the fresh lettuce and other last-minute fixin’s for the feast.
Included on Coburn’s shopping list were:
- 500 pounds of cubed pork, chicken and Boudin sausage
- 180 pounds of rice
- 12 cases of salad
- 5 gallons of salad dressing
- 200 loaves of bread
- 3,000 cookies.
To mark the event, State had 2,000 t-shirts made up for their employees, with the phrase “Good Things Cookin’ at State…Cajun Cookout.”
“Trey ran the show for this event,” Maloney explained. “He let everybody know what they needed to do. We’re all pretty versatile and can pinch hit wherever we’re needed, so we figured everything would run pretty smoothly. It’s a layered process with the jambalaya, it’s almost like a concert. You add a little at a time and it all comes together at the end. To serve that many people we had to start really early.”
A third group from Coburn’s came in a few hours later to help with the remainder of the food preparation, set up and service. A number of the guys took turns stirring first the meat, and then the full jambalaya pot after the water and rice was added. Adding the water in itself was quite a process. Numerous buckets of water had to be carted in and poured into the 100-gallon pot, followed by bags and bags of the rice mixture. And then chef Berlin added his special ingredient, “Magic Swamp Dust,” to give it that authentic Cajun flavor. As the rice expanded it almost looked as though it was going to spill over the sides, but they had measured it just perfectly to fill every square inch of the massive pot.
Meanwhile, others worked on salads, making homemade dressing and adding their signature olives; while still others set up the serving lines with plates, napkins and plastic utensils, and got the bread and cookies ready.
Three serving lines ensured that none of the employees had a long wait and were really able to enjoy their lunch time. All hands were on deck for serving, with three Coburn’s team members assigned to each station and the others acting as runners to make sure the stations were continuously stocked with food and service ware. As the employees came through the lines, the Coburn’s executives personally thanked each one and engaged in warm conversations. All together, they fed three shifts of employees, panning and putting the leftovers in warmers in the plant kitchen after the first two shifts, and making a fresh, smaller batch of jambalaya midway through the day.
Among the comments that State employees shared with me were:
- “We had heard they were going to do this, but had no idea how they were going to pull it off! But this was really great!”
- “We knew it was going to be good, because we could smell it all morning in parts of the plant!”
- “I couldn’t believe the size of that pot!”
- “This was the best jambalaya I’ve ever had…I’m going back for more!”
- “I can’t believe they went to all the trouble to do this for us. We’ve never had anything like this happen before by a customer. It was a really nice thing for Coburn’s to do!”
While this was a big endeavor on the part of Coburn’s, Michael Maloney said this type of hospitality is really just part of their culture.
“It sounds cliché, but we’ve been doing things like this for our customers since the company started,” he said. “It is great for building relationships and showing how much you care. It comes from the heart; this isn’t done for show. Our executive team really wants to be there on the front line. And in this case, they really wanted to meet the people who make the product. We’re fortunate to have a great group of people at Coburn’s who love to cook, have fun and aren’t afraid of new challenges. And when you share that with customers or vendors that you really enjoy, it makes it even better.”
For more information, visit www.coburns.com or www.statewaterheaters.com.