Vertical with Vidir – Episode 3

February 21, 2021 | Podcasts



How Vidir Got to Vertical Storage and Inventory Management

How did a family company making storage solutions out of necessity grow to become a trusted leader in vertical storage and inventory management solutions? For answers, Vertical with Vidir went straight to the source. Ernest Rempel, CEO, and Peter Dueck, Co-Owner of Vidir, spoke about its evolution and growth during the past 35 years.

Dueck’s father-in-law started Vidir Solutions when he and his sons recognized the need for a better storage solution for their lumber business. Vidir began with a carousel storage product. “[He] was almost surprised at the market reception,” Dueck said. “When other distributors and flooring retailers saw the ease and efficiency with which this machine was handling carpet and vinyl, it became something that everyone wanted and needed.”

But one value that did not get left behind as the company grew was its commitment to its team. “One of the things I noticed very quickly when I joined (Vidir), and one of the things Mr. Dueck, the founder, mentioned to me on more than one occasion, was the value of the people that worked at Vidir,” Rempel said.

Partnering with people who could achieve the goals and mission of the company is what makes Vidir successful.

There is no “cannot do” at Vidir. Rempel said the company might choose not to do something, but there is no challenge worth doing that they feel they cannot accomplish.

“The desire to find that solution is what really gives us our biggest opportunity for growth,” Rempel said. “Our team believes we can solve any problem. We’ve evolved in our tech and our electronic capabilities, so it’s not just steel and motors anymore. We keep learning, and we keep designing, and that allows us to do things like the new VLM that we’re releasing.”

Podcast Transcript

Welcome to Vertical with Vidir, a podcast exploring the latest in vertical storage solutions.

Host (Daniel Litwin): Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of Vertical with Vidir, a Vidir Solutions podcast. I’m your host, Daniel Litwin, the voice of B2B, and folks, thanks so much for joining us on another episode of the show, we appreciate you listening along. As you’re doing so, and getting some great thought leadership from the podcast, make sure that you’re subscribing on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. There you’ll find a full catalog of previous episodes as well as notifications when we drop new ones. And you can also head to our website: storevertical.com. Again, storevertical.com for more information on solutions and services and other Vidir content.

So, on today’s episode, before we continue taking the podcast into deeper industry related news, trends and strategies territory, we wanted to use this episode of Vertical with Vidir to let our audience in on the Vidir mission and give some context on how the company has grown from its basic beginnings as a family company, making storage solutions out of necessity, to a trusted leader in vertical storage and inventory management solutions. So, with our conversation today, we’re going to break down the history of the company, how Vidir’s product line has grown, how it’s evolved and innovated, some challenges that Vidir has overcome, and how Vidir solutions match important progressions and needs in the industries that it serves. For insights today, I’m pleased to welcome two members of the Vidir leadership team, Ernest Rempel, CEO, and Peter Dueck, co-owner, both of Vidir. Ernest, Peter, great to have you both on. How are you all doing?

Guest (Peter Dueck): Very well, thank you. Thank you for having us.

Guest (Ernest Rempel): Doing great, Daniel. Glad to be here.

Host (Daniel Litwin): Great to have you on as well, Ernest and Peter, thank you to both of you. So let’s go ahead and jump right in. I’m really curious to unpack the history of Vidir and then use that to slowly get more insights on your direction as a company, your decisions to launch new products, how you strategize to do so, and just get some great leadership insight from y’all. So, like I said, I want to start by taking a time machine back to the 80s and trace some of the growth of your company over the years to understand how it’s become the company it is today. So Vidir is today an internationally recognized manufacturing company for its quality, reliability and innovation and has over 40,000 installations in over 40 countries. But in 1985, Vidir was just a custom solution for the Dueck brothers lumberyard. So, Peter, let’s start with you. How did Vidir’s initial carrousel solution get conceived? Can you break down that initial story for us?

Guest (Peter Dueck): There’s an old saying that necessity is the mother of invention. And my father-in-law, who started Vidir Solutions, he and his older sons owned a lumber yard and they were selling carpet and vinyl flooring, off the floor. They realized very, very quickly that that isn’t an ideal way to sell flooring, certainly not efficient, and by no means easy on backs. And so, my father-in-law conceived of the carousel that would make all of that easier and make the display of the product better as well. And so, after that first carousel, I guess the rest is history.

Host (Daniel Litwin): Now, what was the impact of that initial carrousel solution on the market? How was it received, especially since it was conceived as just more of an internal necessity than something that was initially conceived as being a, you know, an enterprise level product?

Guest (Peter Dueck): I think my father-in-law was almost surprised at the market reception when other distributors and flooring retailers saw the ease and the efficiency with which this machine was handling carpet and vinyl. It just became something that everyone wanted and everyone needed.

Host (Daniel Litwin): I want to open it up now to both of y’all, Peter and Ernest. Once you had a viable solution that was turning heads in the industry, Vidir obviously had to become more than just a product. It had to become a company with a mission and a goal for continuing to produce and ideate more inventive storage solutions. So, what values and mission were the company founded on, and why? How did you take that vision of a product and turn it into a company with a full set of values and a clear mission statement?

Guest (Peter Dueck): I think for my father-in-law, one thing that was required is that it had to be efficient. It had to be efficient to produce, also efficient to use, efficient to transport and move and set up. Affordability was a big deal. The roots were a farming community, we made due with what we had, and so whatever we produced had to be affordable, it’d have to save the customer money in the final end. And in order for something to be efficient and affordable both, it has to be innovative, and so those were some of the values that the company was founded on and the roots from which we grew.

Guest (Ernest Rempel): And I think to add to that, one of the things that I noticed very quickly when I joined and actually one of the things that Mr. Dueck, the founder, mentioned to me on more than one occasion, was that the value of the people that worked at Vidir and worked with him and worked with the crew, he’s often said that he didn’t know much about steel, but he was able to partner with people that did know, and were able to build the products that we needed to sell. And that has been very evident since my day one.

Host (Daniel Litwin): Ernest, I want to pivot over to you here for a second. Can you give us some context on when you joined the company and what captured your attention about Vidir in the first place?

Guest (Ernest Rempel): My first stint was in 2003. I did take a year off to finish college in 2004, and then came back in 2005. Really, for me, the exciting part was that it was a company with a lot of promise. There was a lot of potential for growth still. I love the lifestyle, so basically a lot of opportunity. You stepped in the door and immediately the value on the person was evident, and it’s nice to work for a company that operates that way.

Host (Daniel Litwin): So, since you’ve become CEO of the company, Ernest, how have you seen the Vidir vision evolve and to what effect? Talk a little bit about some of the natural growth that matches the vision or vision evolution of the company, and also some of the strategies that you’ve employed as CEO to continue to grow said vision.

Guest (Ernest Rempel): I think that’s a very good, very broad question. The belief that our group has in the company and the product is probably our biggest factor to our success, so far. It’s rare that we say, “no, we can’t do it.” We might decide against doing something, but we usually have the skill set and the opportunity to do it. I think just the desire really to find that solution is what really gives us our biggest opportunity for growth. Strategies for growth, I mean, we try and make sure that it is stable, that it’s planned and isn’t just a flash in the pan, and I think we’ve proved that over the last 30-35 years. Our team believes that we can create a solution to any problem. We’ve evolved in our tech and our electronic capabilities, so it’s not just steel and motors anymore, but we just keep learning, and we keep designing, and that allows us to do things like the new VLM that we’re releasing.

Host (Daniel Litwin): And we’ll get into that VLM product here in a little bit, thanks for bringing that up. Let’s before we do that, try to better track the growth of Vidir’s product line. So the company is around 35 years old now and has consistently grown its footprint with more industry specific products, trying to find solutions that meet industry needs. So, can we break down that growth? What were some of the key products after the initial vertical carousel that helped Vidir grow, and why were said products so consequential?

Guest (Peter Dueck): One of the next products after the first carousel was the carpet cutting and rolling machines, product that can unroll, reroll and measure and cut flooring, and we developed significant partnership with Accu-Cut International. That became a huge product and something that was well received in the market. Also, another stepping stone, certainly was the bicycle merchandising system for Walmart. And of course, we know that for those type of customers who are international established customers, they’re looking for something that is innovative, but it has to be practical, and it has to be efficient. And I think that that really stems back again to our roots, where my father-in-law was adamant that it had to be practical, had to be efficient, and usually that requires innovation.

Guest (Ernest Rempel): And not to under undersell the carousels, because they keep evolving on their own, and so that first carousel for carpet and vinyl really turned into anything for rolled goods, and then it moved into a shelf that we could put boxes and parts on, and then it moved into a carousel that we could store tires on. So basically, again, any industry that is moving material as part of their process, we probably have a carousel that’s used in that space to help make the process more efficient, help remove some of the bottlenecks or roadblocks, and help our customers make their product and do their thing that they’re good at.

Guest (Peter Dueck): I think Ernest is exactly correct. In some ways, the products we produce are not really specific. They’re quite generic. But then our design teams put features into the machines that apply to all kinds of very specific applications, and so it looks like an industry specific answer and solution because of the design team and how they think and how they can put features in. A carousel is a carousel. But then you start adding features and it becomes something that might be used very specifically in a car dealership or a flooring store or an electronics center or wherever. So it’s a generic product with very, very specific applications and features, and I think, as Ernest mentioned earlier, that stems from us being hesitant to ever say no to a customer. When we see a need, we like to develop something that will address that specific need.

Guest (Ernest Rempel): I think also for an important point, for the growth aspect, that the growth part of the conversation, being able to not only supply our customer like Home Depot or a customer like Walmart, that also now means that you need to be able to service and support your product for years after the sale. And so, one of the keys to our growth has been developing that service network across North America to make sure that we can take care of our product after it’s installed and make sure that it keeps running for a long time. Once that’s in place, that also allows us then to focus on, you know, customers like a car dealership or like electronics warehouse or something like that, and still have that support close by that we can address any service needs five years after it’s purchased, because we’ve still got our techs that are still in the area and are still trained and ready to support that product.

Host (Daniel Litwin): Love that, thanks for all that specific breakdown of your product line. Now, with all of that in mind, like I mentioned earlier, a lot of your growing footprint of products over the years has really been tied to specific industries and meeting their growing needs and trying to match products to how various industrial and enterprise use cases just continue to evolve, naturally. So, as you tried to expand Vidir’s product footprint, why did you focus so much on building solutions that were so industry specific? And what were some learning lessons that you took away from innovating on products that were for specific industries?

Guest (Ernest Rempel): And I think we’ve ended up in some specific industries with some larger use products, but I don’t know that we’ve ever targeted specifically an industry. Every industry uses inventory, every industry moves material. And our goal really has been to provide equipment that manages that task of material flow, so that you as the customer, you can focus on the secret sauce of your business 100%. It’s kind of, our niche is where we try and help you not have to worry about “how do we manage the material flow from one station to the next, or from warehouse to supply,” or whatever it is. There’s something that you’re really good at, and if you can focus on that, we can help remove some of the focus on the mundane day to day, “How do we move material?” That’s what we’re good at. And so, I think really that’s been our focus, and we ended up in some larger industries that way.

Host (Daniel Litwin): As your products have evolved or gone from sort of general inventory management to finding some more specific industry use cases, how do you find that the solutions have had to change or have had to slightly refine their functionalities or integrations to match any more specific inventory needs across different industries?

Guest (Ernest Rempel): I think safety has been one of the biggest changes in the last 30-35 years across North America. Equipment that is being used in close proximity to human beings has to meet a certain standard, so that we’re not hurting people. And so that has been probably the biggest change and requirement for change for sensors, electronics, and light curtains software to make sure that the machine is doing what it’s supposed to do.

Host (Daniel Litwin): OK. So, if your products were conceived more as a general industry solution, then at the very least, at least from what I can tell with going through your website and looking at the various breakdown of your products, to some degree, they have slowly refined themselves into meeting more specific industry related inventory management needs, right? Because inventory management in one industry might be different than another. So, how have the products had to adapt to meet some of those more specific needs that are unique to each industry’s inventory needs?

Guest (Ernest Rempel): I think probably the biggest, would be safety. That’s obviously changed a lot over the last 35 years, and as our product has reached more people using the product, obviously, we have to make sure that we’re designing and programming software that anyone using it, it remains safe while they’re using it. And so that’s been one of the biggest changes. I think also just each industry, they want their product in different ways. Somebody wants to handle it with a forklift, somebody wants to handle it with people using their hands to take stuff off a shelf. So, going from across the spectrum of how you can interact with the product and designing it specifically for that, has also been a big change in how we’ve progressed.

Guest (Peter Dueck): The progression, I think, is interesting to follow, because from our first few machines that addressed the flooring store industry to currently, where our product may be in aerospace centers, it has had to adapt so that certainly the safety, the efficiency, the reliability, are all there.

Guest (Ernest Rempel): Yeah, absolutely.

Host (Daniel Litwin): OK, now what I want to do is take this product growth and external facing growth and try to connect it with how Vidir has evolved internally, and how it has tried to best support the expansion of its product footprint. So, to support this expansion, did your strategy include expanding the quality of your staff, the size of your staff, on expanding the kinds of supportive technologies and innovations that impact your products? Did it involve expanding your manufacturing capacity? Basically, what were some learning lessons you took away from growing Vidir to match this vision you had for the company? And what did those changes and evolutions look like internally for the company?

Guest (Peter Dueck): One thing that comes to my mind is, and again, I would give the credit to my father-in-law, who is still alive at age 97, by the way, and doing well. But he was an incredibly entrepreneurial person. He was very intuitive and also very practical. But one thing he always kept on telling me is hire people smarter than yourself. And I guess he was humble as well. So that’s one of the things I think that Vidir has done well, is we’ve always hired people who were capable, we have high talent density at all levels of the corporation. An environment where everyone has a contribution to make and everyone can speak and everyone can give their suggestions.

Guest (Ernest Rempel): Yeah, that was where my mind went to is, again with Mr. Dueck, over and over talking about the people that he would work with to make sure that we had the best knowledge that we could get. And I don’t know that that has changed much. It is still a group of people that cares very deeply about what we do every day. As a result of that, we get to take care of the customer and you’re not going to grow, if the customer is not happy. So really, that’s what it has allowed us to focus on. And then that in turn, allows us to cycle back to again, making sure that we are working with high talent, high quality, and really, it’s just it’s a growth cycle that supports itself, right?

Host (Daniel Litwin): I want to take a second to hone in on the manufacturing capacity aspect of this as you’ve grown as a company and had to develop a wider portfolio of products, reach more industries and just expand your footprint in general. How have you strategized to grow your manufacturing capacity to match those needs in that evolution, and have there been any challenges that you faced in said growth that you overcame in a unique way, anything to share there?

Guest (Peter Dueck): In terms of strategy, I think one of the important things is to remember your roots, remember the values that you started with, and that was with the entrepreneurial spirit, with practicality and innovation. And so largely those values are still incredibly important as we continue to develop and strategize for the future, because whatever we do, we’re going to have to be entrepreneurial to be able to pivot, adapt, and we have to produce products that are going to be practical and will be needed in all the different types of industries.

Guest (Ernest Rempel): And I think in terms of physical growth, whether that’s footprint or equipment, we have tried, again, to be innovative and make sure that we’re efficient in our process. And so, we are making sure that we’re current on our manufacturing technology, that we are using efficient methods, and that allows us to put through more and more product with being careful how we expand.

Host (Daniel Litwin): Now, playing into this manufacturing capacity comes which kinds of clients and partners you have to be manufacturing for. And a major part of Vidir’s growth has been building relationships with many national accounts. First big one was Home Depot, but that portfolio has expanded to national accounts like GM, Honda, Goodyear, Nike, and that’s just naming a few. So, what has been your strategy for securing these partnerships, both external facing strategy and also internal operational strategy? And why are said partnerships important for Vidir?

Guest (Ernest Rempel): Well, I think it’s no secret that if you can sell a product to a head office for multiple locations, it’s quite a bit easier than selling the same product to multiple locations individually. And so, that’s really part of the strategy, is that you can increase your volume that way. And it also allows us to then set up that service network and maintain that service network that we can follow up and go sell to those multiple locations individually and still support our product. Again, once it’s done, even the head office doesn’t want to hear if there are issues. You need to be able to make sure that you are servicing and taking care of your accounts at the storefront level, that your machines are doing what you promised they would do. It’s always a good testimonial for us if you’re working with a large chain customer for a long period of time. And so, I mean, we’ve worked with Walmart for, I think almost 30 years. So that’s always a nice feature to be able to say.

Guest (Peter Dueck): We’re very, very proud of the longstanding relationships we have with large, large international customers. And in some ways, maybe people would be disappointed to hear how simple the strategy really is. I think, as Ernest mentioned, of course, if you can repeat, and if you can do multiple installations for a single customer, that is the efficient way to do it. I think it starts back of that even. And our relationships have been honed and have been built on the foundation of honesty, hard work and reliability. A friend of mine used to say that the easiest way to make money is the hard way, and I think we do that every day. We do it with our honesty, with our hard work, with reliability. It comes down to really the golden rule, treat people the way you would want to be treated, and we’re very fortunate that industry responds to that. They appreciate that.

Host (Daniel Litwin): When you’re pitching your services to a head office like a Home Depot or a Honda or a Nike, what are these high-profile multinational partners looking for in their industrial equipment solutions, both in the technology itself, as in what kind of functionalities are just sort of a baseline necessity for that level of production, but also what are they looking for in the companies that they source these products from, which I’m sure they also factor into their decisions?

Guest (Ernest Rempel): We’re going to keep sounding, I think, like a broken record because it comes back down to that, number one reliability.

Host (Daniel Litwin): Right, sure.

Guest (Ernest Rempel): If your equipment does not do what you’ve said it will do, you’re not going to be in the business for long. And so, number one for a large company and for a smaller company, for an individual location, it really is the same thing. This is what we asked for, and does it do what we asked for? And so focusing on that really drives that repeat business of, OK, this company is trustworthy, they did what they said they would do, that the product works like they said it would, and so let’s add another one or let’s fill out another location. Really, I think they want it to be able to be used by the people that are in their organization that will be interacting with the machine. So, it’s got to be ease of use for whatever they’re doing. It can’t be complicated. It can’t take a long time to set up and figure out with new employees as they hire new staff, and so that ease of use is also very, very important.

Guest (Peter Dueck): I’m always fascinated, the technology, the software, the electronics on our equipment is absolutely rocket science, it’s so sophisticated and specialized. And yet when you see the machine and you put it in front of an operator, it is so simple. It’s easier to operate a than a smartphone, although it is supported by the best software and electronics behind the curtain.

Guest (Ernest Rempel): Yeah, absolutely.

Host (Daniel Litwin): Now, you’ve both mentioned reliability a lot. And I agree. I think that is an important baseline for product success. If it works, it works, right? Now, how do you make sure that Vidir’s products are reliable? What sort of efficacy is in place and what sort of product testing have you built into the design and manufacturing process to make sure that you meet those standards of reliability and make sure that you meet them for all of your solutions?

Guest (Ernest Rempel): One of the first questions that I’ll ask myself, if I’m looking at a new product or I’m walking through loading and looking at something we’re putting on a truck would be, “would I pay for this?” If I was the customer, is this something that I would want in my facility? And we try very hard to make sure that we are building in a way that it’s not borderline, it’s not, you know, “we think it’ll make it”. That it is absolutely, like Peter said, rock solid and it is going to do what we promised that it would do. One of the things that we will often hear at trade shows is, “wow, this looks like it was built in North America. It doesn’t look like it’s knocked down for weight, so you can ship it across the ocean. It looks like it was built to last a long time.” And that’s something we’re very proud of.

Guest (Peter Dueck): One thing we work hard at is that it is going to be practical, reliable, safe, affordable, and simple to use. In many ways, it’s a plug and play. Set it up, and it’s ready for you to use.

Host (Daniel Litwin): All right. With all this context in mind, earlier you mentioned a new product that really showcases Vidir’s mission, Vidir’s growth and commitment to reliable products, so I want to go ahead and highlight that now. We have the recent launch of Vidir’s new vertical lift module, or VLM product, which hit the markets recently. This combines intelligent software and functionality with automated storage and density maximization. So I want to go and break this product down and try to connect some of the dots with your vision as a company, your growth as a company, and all the various factors we’ve broken down that showcase Vidir’s commitment to reliability and quality. So again, let’s break down this VLM. Why was this a solution you wanted to introduce to the market in the first place?

Guest (Ernest Rempel): For us, it was really the next step in our product line offering. If we’re talking about moving material through a process or through a flow, there’s our carousels and our other products that we build, they do a lot of that already, and this one kind of completes that puzzle and fits into a place that we weren’t able to put carousels, you kind of needed a different design. And so it’s been something that has been forefront for a couple of years that we need this, and we need to make sure that we design it properly. So that’s really where that came from.

Guest (Peter Dueck): One of the things that, again, kind of coincidentally motivated it is that we needed a solution in our own facility, we needed the capacity that these VLMs offer. And so you look at what’s available, and then you decide, well, with today’s technology and today’s products, there’s better ways of doing things. There are better ways of designing this. And the VLM, I notice is something that’s just got a fresh look, its a fresh feel, there’s better material. And in the market available now, to slide, to move the shelves, to lift, and our design team didn’t just go back to say, well, what’s been done in the past, they look at it and say, well, there’s an opportunity here. There’s something that can be fresh, that can be better, that wasn’t available 20 years ago.

Guest (Ernest Rempel): Peter, when you mention that, it brings to mind two items that I think are worth highlighting, and the first thing that we did differently is using servo drives on the product, and immediately we’re improving the reliability, repeatability and really modernizing what has been available for a while and putting it into a VLM. Our precision for tray movement is exactly that, it is precise every time. One of the biggest benefits that we’re offering is the weight capacity in the tray movement speeds or the retrieval speeds of the unit, they’re for real. We don’t ask you to trade off once you pick one. If you want to store larger and heavier parts, it will move at the speed that we advertised it as. Sometimes you’re asked to trade off for weight capacity. If you want to lift something heavier, it’s going to move a little bit slower. If you want to go faster, than you’re limited to a few hundred pounds. The Vidir VLM will give you full weight at full advertised speeds, which really is important for the purchase decision because the VLM, if you haven’t had a VLM before, it’s one of those disrupting technologies that you buy for a certain purpose, and you realize that you can add them to more places than you thought initially, once you start using one. And so, if you buy one based on speed and realize that, oh, I’d like to store a little bit more weight, well, now you’re kind of out of luck, and you need to reconfigure. Whereas with the Vidir VLM, it is as advertised, and it’ll do the full load at the advertised speed, even after you buy it and change how you’re using it.

Host (Daniel Litwin): And how do you both see the vertical lift module solution playing into some of the expanded inventory needs that are shaping inventory management today, especially when we look at some of the major shifts in ecommerce, in delivery infrastructure, and fulfillment needs as COVID has continue to reshape the retail landscape, and that’s just one example of how inventory management continues to shift and expand. So, yeah, in that context, how does the VLM fit in, and how do you see it playing into those strategies?

Guest (Ernest Rempel): Probably the most immediate way that it fits in is the technology we’ve developed for the VLM and the software that we developed for the VLM, has allowed us to go backwards into some of our other products and move, with our carrousel, move into the buy online, pick-up on-site programs. And so even for curbside pickup, for grocery shopping and that sort of thing, has allowed us to move into those areas, and offer really good solutions that help manage the flow of those orders in the store, and in the warehouse, so that the store can put out more orders, can serve more of their customers, Especially in today’s world, where we’re trying to stay out of the stores, but we still need to pick up stuff, right? And so, that’s probably one of the most immediate growth things outside of the VLM, that it has helped us to do. In terms of the VLM, we fully expect that it will be, again, multi-industry. The different connection options that we can offer for the software into your software and your ERP should allow us to move into those different industries and get that high density material handling, whereas before, it might have just been static racking and we can definitely improve the efficiency of that organization.

Host (Daniel Litwin): All right, Peter, Ernest, that about does it for our conversation today. I’ve just got one last set of questions here for you to look ahead and postulate a little bit on how Vidir is going to continue to grow and expand its vision and its footprint. So how is Vidir taking both its history and its most recent line of products and mapping out a holistic vision for the company’s future? What is on the horizon for Vidir?

Guest (Peter Dueck): I think the way that the company will be successful is to look at our roots. Reminds me of the Cars 2 movie where they say,” turn left to turn right.” With Vidir, the ability to continually adapt, to pivot on a dime, to meet the needs as they arise, that’s going to be what we will need in the future, just like it was when we first started. Always with an open mind, always with the ability to listen to the customer, to hear what it is that their concerns are, what their pain points are, and be able to address those pain points.

Guest (Ernest Rempel): I don’t know if there’s anything I can add to that. That was a very good summary and a very good ending.

Host (Daniel Litwin): And if you had to take that strategy, then and turn it into some advice for other leadership in business, either in a similar industry or otherwise, based on what’s helped you lead Vidir to success, what advice do you have for others that are in a similar situation, that are looking to expand their footprint much like Vidir?

Guest (Ernest Rempel): I think I would say keep an open mind, and stay close and stay connected with your current customers. They will usually let you know what’s important to them and if you satisfy that, then you’ve got a long-term business. And ultimately, again, it just comes back to people. If they feel that they are creating something meaningful and valuable, and they bring their skills and talents to Vidir, then Vidir will continue to be successful. And let me tell you, it’s a lot of fun standing shoulder to shoulder, looking at the new product, the first VLM that we put up in R&D and taking a look back at everyone that was involved in putting that together and making that happen, from cutting the steel, to designing the product, to coming up with the software, and just celebrate that we can do something like this together, it’s a good feeling, and it makes you want to come back to work again the next day.

Host (Daniel Litwin): All right. I think that does it for our leadership conversation today. I want to thank both of you for joining us and digging into your past experiences and your strategies as leaders to give us more context on Vidir’s vision, Vidir’s products and how Vidir wants to continue to play in the markets that it serves. So, again, big thanks to our two guests today, Ernest Rempel, CEO of Vidir, and Peter Dueck, co-owner of Vidir. Ernest, Peter, thanks again. If folks want to find out more about Vidir’s product line or potentially get in touch, learn more about your strategies, how can they do so?

Guest (Ernest Rempel): Absolutely Daniel, thank you for the conversation. And our website is a great place to start storevertical.com. It’s got a good breakdown of the different industries and product lines that we offer, and the phone numbers are there as well, and we love taking phone calls and chatting through what we can do to help for your solution, and make it more effective and more efficient as well.

Host (Daniel Litwin): Fantastic Ernest, Peter, thanks again for joining us.

Guest (Ernest Rempel): Thank you.

Guest (Peter Dueck): Thank you.

Host (Daniel Litwin): And thank you, everyone, for listening to today’s episode of Vertical with Vidir, a Vidir Solutions podcast. If you like what you heard and want to listen to previous episodes, make sure that you subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. And for more information on Vidir, go to our website storevertical.com. I’m your host, Daniel Litwin, the voice of B2B, until next time.

Vertical Lift Module

Revolutionary new inventory management solution

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