EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT
SHAWN MacKENZIE SERVICE MANAGER

Shawn is our Service Manager, working out of our new Technical Sales Office in Vaughan. Shawn joined Curtis in June of 2002, with a background of 32 years in Commercial Refrigeration, working in both installation and service. This makes him the go to person at Curtis for technical and electrical assistance for both staff and customers.

Shawn holds an Interprovincial seal on his Certificate of Qualification in Refrigeration and is also a member of RSES. He started in the trade in 1975 along side his father, Harry, who has over 50 years of service in refrigeration.

In addition to Shawn's duties with the Service and Warranty Department, he attends refrigeration and electrical seminars to keep current on the latest changes in the field. This has helped Shawn prepare, write and implement the Curtis Installation Service Manual, in 2003.

Shawn and his wife Shea live in Toronto with their two teenage children.

Shawn can be found driving the kids to cadets and bagpipe lessons with the 48 th Highlanders of Canada. Shawn enjoys spending time on the golf course with the sales reps and suppliers and attended the RSES Golf Tournament in Bolton. He likes to spend time with his son (who wants to be an electrician) attending auto shows and test driving new car models. When not at the office, Shawn and family can be found at the ballpark taking in a baseball game. Shawn has traveled to many different ballparks over the years and prefers the old open air parks.


 
 
EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT
ACHIM REINING
WALK-IN DEPARTMENT SUPERVISOR

On May 9 th , 1972 Achim Reining started the only job he has ever had at Canadian Curtis Refrigeration. Achims Dad Dick was an existing employee so Achim and for a while his brother made a threesome in a little company that in those times was as many as 25 people or down to as few as 8.

Achim admits to being a sports nut from his earliest days. His support of the Montreal Canadians was instilled in him by the husband of the couple who looked after him for a few hours when he came home from school and before his parents arrived home from work.

But in 1972, the year he joined Curtis, the Dallas Cowboys were America's team and went on to win the Superbowl by the score of 24 to 3 over the Miami Dolphins.

Achim and wife Chris raised a millionaire's family of a boy and a girl; Zachary now 12 and Nicole now 11. Both children actively participate in Karate and Achim shows them increasing respect.


At work in the 1970's Achim was hard at work in the second addition to the Leaside Ave plant busily producing 1 panel at a time using an old foam machine that could only shoot one shot at a time. Nowadays we shoot foam into as many as 20+ panels at a time and Achim's personal workload is now mostly in his brain and not his brawn.

His favourite occasion was moving to the new Arvin Ave plant in 2001 after his two plus decades of the hot, low ceilinged old fashioned layout of the old plant where there was as much polyurethane foam on the floor as there was in the panels.

Achim also loves his cars and keeps his Chryslers immaculate and after five years at the new plant keeps his foam shop just about as good.

Notice the slogan on the sign with Achim. Achims knowledge and experience attests that only the bestwork here. It is the last thing that our plant employees see as they leave after work and we believe that the slogan applies to all of them.

 
EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT
PETER CUNTI

We are pleased to spotlight one of our top salesmen, Peter Cunti. Peter joined Curtis over 15 years ago in November of 1989. Peter, prior to joining us, served his time with the food store fixture dealers that Peter now calls on and prior to that was employed in the steel industry with a steel distributor. Peter’s winning personality and charm and his knowledge of our industry has made it easy for his clientele to do business with Curtis.

Born in Toronto of Italian heritage, he has lived in the increasingly traffic snarled City of Toronto all of his life. Peter’s small family consists of wife Fern, a career businesswoman in her own right, and four-year-old son Sebastian. Peter gardens in his North Toronto home but he also enjoys fishing and cooking, and collecting and eventually drinking fine wines.

Peter works hard for his customers and his big release of the year is to travel for two weeks to Italy each summer with his family and spend time exploring and savouring that Italian heritage with his Canadian and Italian family and friends.

Peter, Fern and Sebastian travel to a little village with a population of 500 called Statigliano. Located between the main cities of Rome and Naples, Statigliano is nestled up in the hills on a winding road between the towns of Latina and Pietramelera with all of the area being the domain of the Romans. The Romans probably came here because there was no Industry and no pollution. Guess what, that still attracts tourists from Rome and Naples as well as Peter and family from smoggy summertime Toronto.
 
 
EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT
ROGER STICKLAND

Roger, at nearly 35 years, is the longest serving Employee at Curtis and his cheerful and positive disposition is a joy to behold every workday. Roger LOVES to come to work. On Jan 23rd, 1970, Roger joined Canadian Curtis for the princely sum of about 2 dollars an hour. For most of his career at Curtis he has been the Supervisor of our Sheet Metal Department.

Rogers ability in remembering previously produced sheet metal parts is incredible and he can probably, from memory, give you the shear size for virtually any piece that we regularly produce. The machinery that Roger supervises and operates has been much improved in the last 34 years, and he is eagerly awaiting the delivery and installation of our latest piece of sheet metal equipment, an automated computer driven punching and roll forming line.

When the planning was being done to move to 881 Arvin from our Leaside Avenue location he played a very significant role in the planning of the new manufacturing facility at Arvin Avenue.

Roger is always enthusiastic and has a very strong work ethic. He thrives when Curtis is busy and hates when work is slow.

While Roger is a teatotaler and does not smoke, he does have one small vice. He loves buying new pick up trucks and is an aficionado of almost anything on wheels.

He has lived in the Niagara Peninsula for most of his life and presently resides in Smithville with his wife Joan, who is a capable horticulturist. They are both dog lovers and have a beautiful brown Husky who can sometimes be seen running around the Curtis Plant at the end of the day.

On January 23rd, 2005 we will have a presentation to Roger and hope that we can have the same thing after 50 years in 2020.

 
 
EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT
PETER KACHMAR

Peter, smiling when photographed at one of his favourite coffee outlets, is a Superstar in our Sales Department. Our Superstar joined Curtis in September 1983 and has been a big part of our Sales Growth in 21 years. The little company Peter joined is virtually unrecognizable, but the tradition of giving the Customer what the Customer wants, when the Customer wants it and how the Customer wants it, continues. As Peter says, "Curtis is a Customer driven organization".

Peter was born and raised in the Hamilton area and still lives in Ancaster with his Hamilton born and raised wife Kathy. They have 3 teenagers who are all active and in the winter he enjoys skiing with Cory 15, Darren 14 and Ashley 17.

His career in our Industry started with a degree in Air Conditioning and Refrigeration. He was immediately hired by KeepRite Refrigeration where he acquired much refrigeration engineering experience. Rumour has it that Curtis is now KeepRite's biggest O.E.M. customer and it is in big part thanks to Peter. After KeepRite, a stint at running a Dairy Queen consortium in Edmonton was terminated by Peter after a late night hold up on the way to the Night Deposit.

He puts in a long workweek and it is not unusual for his voice mail to be full. But he maintains his great sense of humour particularly when HE is telling the story!

Peter is always very busy and has formed a very capable support team around him so that he can maximize his time with the customer. The customer is in good hands with Peter. He has years of experience and if he hasn't seen it all, he has seen most of it.
 
 
EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT
MARY KAUS

Mary is our Parts Dept, as well as our receptionist and our Health and Safety Officer, and she has been serving Parts Customers for almost a year. However, she has been an employee at Curtis since 1988, and has worked in most areas of the plant. Her nearly two decades of work has seen her build doors and frames, work in building panels in the Walk-In Dept. and also as an assembler in the Reach-In Dept. This versatile knowledge really helps our service parts customers get the right part the first time. Mary has an enviable record as she supplies over 90 % of parts orders inside 4 hours.

Mary's enthusiastic voice is usually the first voice you hear when you phone us and she helps all of us in perking up our day.

Mary is also the first person that new employees see when they start their first day at Curtis, as she acclimatizes them to the Plant Work and Safety Rules and the WHMIS hazardous materials legislation and the hazardous chemicals they may have to deal with at Curtis. For many years Mary was a worker rep on the Health and Safety Committee.

On the personal side, Mary is a longtime Hamilton Resident with her husband who works for Taylor Steel, an important supplier to Curtis. They are both big sports fans with a recently married daughter who was a Hamilton Tiger Cat Cheerleader in the Tiger Cats' better days when there was more to cheer about.

 
 
 

DEALER SPOTLIGHT
Windsor Regional Hospital

Over the past several months Windsor Regional Hospital has implemented extensive food service upgrades. This includes a new style cafeteria in the front of the house with major Food Storage Refrigeration, Walk in Coolers and Freezers at the back of the house. Rob Williams of Williams Food Equipment was the Kitchen Equipment Contactor for this project. Rob was involved in all aspects of this project including demolition of existing equipment, building structural floor modifications, final plumbing and electrical connections. His hard work paid off, as this project was successful and everyone at Windsor Regional Hospital is very satisfied.

For more information about Windsor Regional Hospital