suited for sales than carpen- try.” His father agreed. “I’m a very social person and my eldest brother was bang right on, so my life as a salesman began,” recalled Blunden. “I went on the road around the Halifax area, sell- ing building materials to home builders for a couple of years.” Later, Blunden had a “burn- ing desire to do something entrepreneurial on my own,” so he started a teen disco with his best friend. “We had a lot of fun and learned a lot about business. We were hugely successful for several months and then hugely unsuccessful shortly thereafter. That’s when I learned that you win some and you lose some – business is ever changing. We paid off all of our debts and moved on.” Blunden learned valuable lessons and indeed, he did move on. “It was during the wrap-up of my first entre- preneurial adventure when I met my future wife, Marge, in Halifax when she was fin- ishing her business degree at Saint Mary’s University. She was soon to move to her home town of Sydney, NS, to work in her family business so I chased my bride to Cape Breton, accepted a job offer to work with her and her father’s housing development business, and later the family laundry machinery business.” It was another good move in his personal development. “Marge’s father, Ted Latimer, became a great mentor to me. He was a natural salesman. He developed his businesses because he saw a need and knew how he could fill it. He taught me to surround myself with good people, good qual- ity products and good service, and the rest would follow. He was right.”
A HONEYMOON AND A CLEAN SHOW
Married in 1981, Blunden and Marge honeymooned in the Bahamas and attended the Clean Show in Atlanta, GA, on their way home. Trade shows became a way of life for them. “We have been to sev- eral European Expo Detergos, both in Frankfurt and Milan, plus every Clean Canada show and every Clean Show since 1981.”
One of his specialties is installing on-premise laun-
dries; he rises to any challenge. “Our most challenging installation to date would have to be the removal of a complete laundry, including a tunnel washing system with ironers, folders and dryers and so on,” Blunden said. “This installation required removal through the centre of a hos- pital, without scratching the floor, the removal of windows and craning two stories up to load trucks to haul 250 miles, place equipment in storage and then rebuild all of the equipment two years later and re-install it into a new facility in Cape Breton, and make it 100% operational.”
EAST COAST SUCCESS Servicing all of Atlantic Can- ada is a challenge in itself. “We have a small popu- lation base of only 2.6 mil- lion in Atlantic Canada,” he explained. “It’s a territory separated by water,
islands
and isthmuses that can take one to two days to drive from one end to another. Our sales and service departments drive many hundreds of thousands of miles every year.”
East Coast has five factory- trained service technicians with extensively stocked ser- vice vehicles, enabling them to fix most problems when they arrive, using parts from the truck. East Coast also has two parts advisors, three sales persons and two office staff, for a total of 12 experienced employees, most with more than 15 years, some with 30-plus years.
Until recently, East Coast, which already represents sev- eral major equipment manu- facturers (including Pellerin Milnor, Huebsch Originators, Chicago Dryer, Energenics, Forenta, Hoffman/New York- er, Metropolitan Wire and Techstar Carts – most for over 40 years), focused all of its business to serving Canada’s four Atlantic provinces. “Growth for every company is essential. If you’re not grow- ing, you’re shrinking,” Blund- en said. “We have approached growth with both vertical and horizontal integration plans. More than 25 years ago we added dry cleaning to our laundry equipment business. “Our biggest and most aggressive market develop- ment is our expansion of our distribution geographically,”
Above: At Clean Canada 2012, at right, Greg and his father Peter Blun- den at the Canadian Cleaners and Launderers Allied Trades Association (CLATA) reception at the Toronto Congress Centre.
Right: Peter Blunden chats with delegate Kevin Turnbull at the 13th annual educational conference and tradeshow of the former Atlantic Support Services Association (ASSA) at the Crowne Plaza, Moncton, NB in 2010.
he said. “With the addition of good experienced smart salesper- sons, Greg Blunden and Kory Orchard have enabled me to take on this huge expansion plan to take East Coast Laundry Systems from ‘Coast to Coast’ all across Canada.” Business, and life, has been good to Peter Blunden. “This industry has been extremely kind to us and our family. We have met so many wonderful people and have travelled to so many places over the years. We have also been fortunate enough to experience many sales promotional and development travel trips for sales awards with various manufacturers. This enabled us to make ‘friends for life’ from our business associates and our customers.”
MORE THAN STAYING AFLOAT
Away from the office, Blunden’s passion is sailing, which he learned from his father-in-law and from his wife Marge. “Ted was an avid sailor all his life,” said Blunden. “His father was a lighthouse keeper and he grew up on an island and sailed back and forth to school. He passed his passion for sailing on to his three girls and then on to me.” Blunden, in turn, has passed his love of sailing on to his two sons.
Blunden is a past Vice-Commodore of the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron and recipient of the Cruiser of the Year award for 2017. “Sailboat racing is like life, you win some and you lose some but you always do your best, adjust your sails to steer your course and have fun.
“I mostly cruise,” he concludes. “You know the definition of cruising is ‘fixing your boat in exotic places with no parts.’ Sometimes it sounds just like laundry service in a remote outpost in Atlantic Canada.” n
Photographed with the East Coast Laundry Systems staff are, at back row from left, Greg Blunden, his parents, Marge and Peter Blunden, and brother James Blunden, second from right in front row. Kory Orchard, operations manager for over 10 years, is at far right in back row.
2017 November/December FABRICARE CANADA 11
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