Jim Vachter Email & Phone Number

www.siteone.com

Portland, Oregon Area

I feel that during my employment at Horizon I had become one of the top sales people in the Oregon Market. I increased my sales every year with the accounts that I had been asked to call on in both sales and gross margin. I feel that I had great relationships and respect among customers, competitors, and vendors. I became a leader and a mentor with my co-workers, and received very high ratings from them in all of my annual reviews at Horizon. I was an active member in the OLCA functions that took place, and have offered numerous hours of volunteer work. I have been a judge at the CLT Testing Day for OLCA. I was a major part of the OLCA Landscape Expo Committee, which is one of the biggest landscape trade show in the Northwest, and the major revenue producer for the organization. I earned numerous awards from Horizon, but the one that stands out the most is my “2006 Outstanding Sales Achievement by an Individual”. This award was only given to the top five salesman in GM$ growth. While at Horizon I was also awarded the "Trailblazer" award from Hunter Industries 3 times in my 10 yr. tenure.

Oregon Market

I was given the opportunity to come over to Familian Northwest in a position that I was trying to work into at H.D Fowler. Dave Snell, who was my manager at H.D. Fowler for 6-1/2 years, had just hired on to Familian two months prior. He had expressed how he would like me to help him head up the sales effort at Familian NW, and hired me on as an Outside Sales Representative. I was asked to start an account base from zero, since this was Familian’s first try into the irrigation market. I grew my account base to a sales level just shy of $1,000,000. This doesn’t sound like much, but when you didn’t really have a major line, and the support system that was in place behind you was not up to speed with the green industry, you can respect and appreciate these numbers. After 3-1/2 years at Familian NW I was the only person left in the Oregon Market. My manager Dave Snell had left, along with the other two salesmen working alongside of me.

I started out in the warehouse trying to learn as much as possible about an industry that I grew up around. I worked my way out of the warehouse and up to the counter as a customer service representative and earned an award for exceptional service. I then was asked to take on the task of becoming the buyer for the Oregon market. I proceeded to reduce the bad stock in those stores and turned the inventory around. When H.D. Fowler decided to go to a Central Buying Program, I was asked to watch 5 major lines for the company in addition to buying everything for Oregon’s two locations.