The Stahls’ Canada National Tour hit the road in May and June to bring heat printing to the people. With stops in 10 cities in 7 provinces, the whirlwind tour offered customers a chance to meet heat printing experts, learn the latest techniques, and to see, feel, and try new products. Stahls’ Canada Marketing Coordinator Dale Mouscos shares details of the sights seen, folks met, and topics discussed on the tour in part two of a three-part series. Read  part one and part two.

With the eastern leg of the National Tour and the Toronto Customer Appreciation Event successfully completed, Stahls’ Canada’s team of heat printing experts headed west for…

   The Western Leg of the National Tour

by Dale Mouscos, Stahls’ Canada

June 19^th & June 20^th

We started out with an early flight down to Vancouver.  After being directed by our GPS all over Surrey, we finally arrived at our destination at the Sheraton.  Our shipment had arrived safely and was waiting for us in the meeting room.  We set up the room featuring our heat presses, the new Heat Press Caddie™, the Roland^® GX-24 vinyl cutter, a few displays and of course, our samples of new products and literature.  I will have to say that people are quite punctual out west as most of our customers showed up even a few minutes before the initial start time.  No problem, we were ready.  With Spencer Ritchie, the new National Sales Manager for Stahls’ Canada, Anisah Singh, our dedicated sales representative for western Canada, Hong (John) Li, our Sales Representative/Asian Market Specialist, and me, I would say we had a pretty good team.

 

	Products on display in Vancouver.

Our customers seemed excited to know about our new Custom Embroidered Patch program and other new products including Custom Sport-Stitch^®, CAD-PRINTZ^® Perma-TWILL^® full colour digital transfers, Any Word. Any Way.™, and the Stahls’ Hotronix^® Heat Press Caddie™.  It was great to meet our customers face-to-face and get a better understanding of their businesses and how we help them to grow further.  I must say though, BC is known for their rain, and that was pretty much all we saw while we were down there.  Anisah stayed in the area to visit some more of our customers who couldn’t make it to the show.

 

 

June 21^st

The rain followed us over to Calgary, but in such excess to announce a state of emergency for Calgary and the surrounding areas.  Many cities were being evacuated and are still in need of repair.  With the Calgary Stampede going on now, we hope the sun holds out and assists with the clean-up.  We were lucky to be on higher ground but canceled the show on Friday in hopes that our customers and all Alberta residents made it to a safe location.  On behalf of Stahls’ Canada, we are truly sorry for the losses caused by this devastating disaster and hope that the recovery is swift.

We stayed in Calgary over the weekend and then headed over to Edmonton in our 26’ U-Haul.  Justin Akinsara, another Sales Representative for Stahls’ DMS, met us out there to take over in Anisah’s absence.

June 24^th & 25^th

	Justin Akinsara with one of Stahls’ DMS’ print/cut systems.

We set up our show at our new Edmonton warehouse on 5303-97^th Street and were ready for the morning.  Of course, the rain followed us, but that didn’t stop our customers from coming to see us.  I have to say, people out west are extremely friendly; it was a pleasure to speak to each and every one of them.  Our Sales Reps, Dave and Dennis Cranston were also a big help in meeting and greeting our customers as well as getting us around the city.  We held the show in Edmonton on both Monday and Tuesday with a pretty good turnout.  Some of our customers came out from Red Deer and further surrounding areas to see what was new and exciting.

I then headed back home to Toronto, but the rest of the team went on to visit with our customers in both Regina and Winnipeg.

After a job well done, our heroine returned home, but the National Tour kept rolling right along.  Spencer Ritchie, Stahls’ Canada National Sales Manager, took up the mantle of reporting on the final stops of the 2013 tour.

 

 

 

 

  The Home Stretch

by Spencer Ritchie, National Sales Manager, Stahls’ Canada

June 25^th, 26^th, 27^th

Our flight from Edmonton to Regina allowed us to arrive in the early evening and for once it wasn’t raining on us (that occurred later the next day).

The Queen City saw yet another friendly turnout and customers eager to meet with Anisah, Justin, and me to see “what’s new from Stahls’”.

As usual, heat presses and our digital media were big hits in Regina. Many of the customers took samples and swatches and a lot of interest seemed to be directed towards Stahls’ CAD-COLOUR^® ExpressPrint^® printable heat transfer material (after all, who doesn’t like ExpressPrint?). There was also strong interest in our new shoe platen and the many opportunities that particular piece of equipment offers. I also told customers that being good Canadians eh, we were investigating the possibility of printing skates, too.

	Unfortunately, we don’t have any pictures from the Regina or Winnipeg events, but please enjoy this photo of geese flying over Lake Winnipeg.

The next day saw us up bright and early at 3:30 am to catch our 5:15 am flight to Winnipeg and guess what? It was raining again. Nothing like consistent weather when the Stahls’ National Tour hits the west! The short flight found us in Winnipeg and at the wonderful Clarion Hotel before 9 am and we began to set up for the last show of this year’s tour. Indeed one customer was so keen to see us he showed up at 9:15 am, and we had to disappoint him until the show officially opened at 1:00 pm. Never fear – the gentleman bought a heat press package from Anisah and we had a nice start to the day.

 

Folks seemed to appreciate us making the trip to Winnipeg and were interested in our Custom Embroidered Patch program and Sport-Stitch, as well. We also learned that when in town and it is the CFL opening night,  in this case for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in their new stadium, you really need to cheer for the home team. The next day we winged our way back to Toronto and began to catch up after being away on the road for the Stahls National Tour, Western Canada.

Overall, it was a very successful trip and next year will be even bigger and better. Thank you to all of our customers who attended our National Tour!

 

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