Every year, Eldridge holds a special company meeting with all employees to go over financial results for the past year and to give awards to high performing employees. This year’s company meeting was held on January 18th at our offices in Katy.
Chili Cook-off
In prior years, the event has been catered by one of our favorite local restaurants. However, we decided to spice up the meeting this year and have an employee chili cook-off. Nine employees decided to try their hand at chili cooking for the contest. There were three judges for the event that did blind taste testing.
Fred Mott was the winner of the contest by unanimous decision. The secret to his winning recipe was the smoked brisket meat that he used. Coming in second was Don Nelson and Chris Schell finished third.
Financial Results
Eldridge is very blessed to have a great base of customers. As a result, 2023 was one of the best in our 77-year history. We saw a balanced mix of business from our customers in the industrial, pipeline and offshore market segments. There was also a strong flow of business from our customers in the power and OEM markets. We are grateful for all customers that supported our business in 2023.
Employee Awards
The first award that we gave out was for the top salesperson in 2023 and that went to Fred Mott. In addition to the large base of customers that regularly purchase industrial air silencers from him, Fred had several large projects in 2023 that included rail car dryers and electric motor cooling systems.
Fred is an avid golfer and hits the links as often as his busy life allows. To honor his 2023 sales accomplishment, Eldridge commissioned a painting of Fred in the likeness of one of his favorite golfers, Payne Stewart.
The next award that was handed out was the Buffalo Culture Award. This one goes to the salesperson that best takes on the challenges brought to them by customers and produces a winning solution. This year the award went to Josh Janecek for his dedicated work supporting our customers in the industrial and pipeline markets.
The final award of the afternoon was a new one. We created the Servant Heart Award to honor the employee that best exemplifies our core value of Service to others. Anna Lucas received the award for 2023 for her dedication and support to the sales team. She made their jobs so much easier by doing things like creating packing lists and arranging shipments. But what really makes her servant’s heart special is that she always does her work with a smile and is never in a bad mood. We are so thank-full to have Anna in our Eldridge family!