Cover Story
(May 2008)Cover Story
(May 2008)While modest about his accomplishments, this Florida operator is dedicated to his business and contributes to the industry he loves.
For someone who says he “backed into” the amusement industry, Phil Juckem of All Brands Vending in Tampa, Fla., has made considerable forward progress in a career that has spanned 35 years.
Currently,
his company concentrates mainly on digital jukeboxes, pool tables, cranes, touch
screen video, and tournament golf and bowling. The staff at All Brands Vending
is long-term, and includes three full-time employees and two part-time
employees. The company name came from a cigarette route purchased in 1981, and
was a perfect fit.
Early years
Phil was born in Davenport, Iowa, and grew up a mere two blocks from the Mississippi River. His family moved to Ohio during his high school years, and Phil began college at Case Western Reserve University majoring in automotive engineering. Coincidentally, Dale Lazar of H. Lazar & Son, a fellow AMOA member, attended Case Western at the same time, although they never met.
Pictured
on left:
Phil at his desk
A move back to Iowa coincided with Phil’s change of course study, and while he was an accounting student at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, he applied for a job as a bookkeeper for the local Servomation, which handled the vending needs of factories.
Phil quipped, “What they really wanted was a warehouse person. I was a bookkeeper until they needed help in the warehouse. I learned the vending business from the warehouse up.”
He remained with Servomation after graduation, as a bookkeeper for the Quad Cities and for a branch in Des Moines. In 1978, Phil decided that computers were the future and took a post with a distribution company that handled heavy-duty truck parts.
Pictured
on the right:
Angel Portugues Jr.
who handles the cigarette route
“I was given the opportunity to implement the accounting side of the computer systems, which was kind of fun,” said the technically-minded Phil. “There was all this new information that you could capture that was never available before. It was exciting. Companies had large warehouses and there was no way to track what was sitting on shelves. The computer changed all that.”
Phil was destined to re-connect with the coin-op world. His new computer post took him to Atlanta, Ga., where he later learned he had lived around the corner from Steve Bodenstein of Cousin’s Amusement, another fellow AMOA member.
Pictured
on the left:
Tomas Cisar,
part-time technician
Another Servomation alumni, Larry Rosenquist, had changed paths as well and landed in Tampa, Fla., where he was creating a vending machine division for the Eli Witt Co., which was a large distributor of tobacco products.
In May 1980, Rosenquist offered Phil a new challenge: to be the Controller for that division. In time, they created vending branches and ran that business for five years. Then, in 1985, Eli Witt elected to focus solely on the wholesale side, and Larry and Phil had an opportunity to buy the vending business.
Pictured
on the right:
angel Portugues III in the office
“The business we purchased then was primarily a cigarette operation with a reasonable amount of vending,” said Phil. “As the years went on, we had the opportunity to sell the cigarette business and target markets where we could grow the vending business, including Asheville, N.C., Jacksonville, Fla., and Mobile, Ala.”
While their backgrounds were in vending, Phil and Larry gradually added amusements, until in 2000 the focus shifted to amusements. “I don’t have to tell you how the cigarette business has gone over the last 20 years,” said Phil.
Phil and Larry narrowed the business down to two, vending and amusements, and after Larry retired in 2006, Phil sold the vending side to his friend and fellow AMOA member Howard Cole of Cole Vending in North Carolina.
Pictured on the left:
Full-time technician
Jason Miskimon in the shop
It was a win-win situation. Phil commented, “Howard felt that expanding into snack and beverage vending would be good for his business. I wanted to focus on amusements and exit vending.”
Education programs
Phil is a Vice President in the Amusement and Music Operators Association (AMOA), and serves on numerous committees, including the Notre Dame Program Committee (he is Chairman), the Trade Show Enhancement Committee, and the AMOA Expo Seminar Committee. He is a strong believer in continuing education and graduated from the AMOA Notre Dame Program Class 11. Phil is also a member of the Club Lucky Group of operators deeply committed to promotions.
Phil can’t say enough good things about the Notre Dame Program experience. “AMOA and education go hand in hand,” he said. “We all say we are in the best class. We form close relationships. When you go to school for accounting, you always look for continuing education. Signing up for the Notre Dame Program was a no-brainer. It’s a great deal. And now we have the Masters Program.”
In his opinion, one of the best classes covers the multi-generational workforce. “You learn about the difference among veterans, baby boomers, generations X and Y, and the new millennial generation,” said Phil. “Each generation has a different approach to their jobs. And don’t forget: our customers are multigenerational too.”
He added, “You don’t have to be in a big business to benefit; this program is absolutely for everyone.” He put in an unabashed plug for the program, mentioning that a new class forms Oct. 17. “I would encourage all operators to attend,” he said, “it’s a four-day weekend twice a year.”
Tradeshows
Phil strives to be involved in any education initiatives, such as the AMOA International Expo Seminar Program. That’s one of the important parts of any trade show.
Pictured
on the left:
At an AMOA meeting, (l-r):
Jerry Johnston of amusements Unlimited, and Phil
What does Phil say to those who don’t attend industry tradeshows, and say they can see everything at a distributor open house later? “With all due respect to distributors, an open house can’t hold a candle to what the AMOA Expo does for you,” he said. “Consider the educational opportunities, the access, and the scale. The AMOA Expo is a must-attend event. Then you come home and go to your distributor’s open house and follow up with what you learned at the Expo.”
One of Phil’s mantras is: “Keep those lines of communication open at all times. We are always communicating with our customers.” He added, “When locations ask about machines, we always tell them that September is our show, when we see all the new products. They tell us to come back after the show and tell them what’s new and different. You have to put the time into it.”
Association value
Phil first became interested in serving on the AMOA Board of Directors in 2003 when fellow AMOA member Phil McBride of T&G Music in Florida said the association was looking for industry members who would like to serve as directors. He had met many other Florida operators in AMOA, such as Manley Lawson, a Past President.
Pictured
on the right:
Phil (l) with Howard Cole of Cole Vending
At that time, Phil’s business was moving more toward amusements than vending. “It’s a great way to learn more about the business,” said Phil. “The most rewarding part is how much you learn from other people and from participating in all the activities. It strengthens you as a person and as a businessman. You learn to think collectively in the committee process, and you have different resources available.
“In addition, if you listen to other people, you get different perspectives, and it forces you to think in a forward fashion. The friendships are incredible, and because of those friendships you learn more. You can commiserate with them, and you can give and receive good advice. You get great insight. The main thing is that the whole process allows you to think forward with more than one mind.”
Family tree
Phil met his wife of 25 years, Dagmar, while working at Eli Witt. A fellow accountant, she originally trained as a midwife in her home country, what is now the Czech Republic. Because her education records were lost, she had to pursue another career.
Pictured
on the left:
Phil and his wife Dagmar
at a plant nursery among the poinsettias.
However, Dagmar’s love for medicine never wavered, and on Phil’s urging, she studied to become a surgical technologist. Now she helps deliver babies at Tampa General Hospital three nights a week.
The couple have three sons: Tyler, a certified public accountant (CPA) who is married and lives in Indianapolis with his wife Leslie and son Adam (the first grandchild); Garth, who is pursing a career in marketing; and Kyle, a pre-accounting major.
Pictured
on the right:
Phil and Dagmar in the Snow
Since the generational issue is important in our industry, we asked Phil if any of his sons are contemplating entering the coin machine industry. Phil responded, "I've encouraged my boys to get an education and be the best they could be. At the present time they are not looking at the coin machine business, which may change, but I do have someone who has worked for me for a long time who is really dedicated to the business, and that's Angel Portugues III. I expect him to follow in my footsteps. He's currently attending Notre Dame Class 13."
Pictured
on the left:
Son Tyler and his wife Leslie,
who live in Indianapolis, Ind.
Phil believes in giving back, whether it’s to the AMOA or his community. He was heavily involved in youth soccer when his sons were growing up. Phil, who served as Team Manager, remembered: “The coach was a great man and we had a good group of boys and parents. These boys did incredible things. We literally traveled the world with them. All the boys went to college and played soccer on that level; several received scholarships. It was a very rewarding experience. When that ended, I starting putting my time into the AMOA.”
Pictured
on right:
Phil and Dagmar's first grandchild, Adam
Regarding the job of Team Manager, Phil quipped, “I was the one who coordinated getting 18 boys to Holland and back without losing any of them.”
Promotions
Phil joined the Club Lucky Group in the second wave of operators who believed in its goals. Phil explained, “I recognized that I had become very interested in promotions and bringing added value to my location owners. With my accounting background, I had come to focus on promotions and what more could be done at the customer level. I knew that Club Lucky was heading in that direction: setting up good promotional programs. I knew that Jeff and Kama Reed of B.J. Novelty in Kentucky were involved, and I talked with them.”
Pictured
on the right:
Phil (r) with sons Kyle (l) and Garth
He continued, “With Club Lucky I can go into locations with professional-looking promotion materials. Customers are winning prizes, which gives them another reason to play and find success. Promotions boost interest at the customer level. I was looking to be much more of a promoter, and realized I had limited resources personally. When you want to start running contests with advertising and prize fulfillment, there is a big learning curve. In that respect Club Lucky is fantastic; it really delivers a quality product.”
Membership in Club Lucky is another way that Phil has met even more operators in the coin machine community. “It’s another way to stretch yourself,” he said.
Phil isn’t shy about asking questions. “I always find that if you talk to the right people, they are receptive to listening. That applies to all tiers of the industry.”
Important issues
When asked what he feels are three important issues facing operators in 2008, Phil was quick to answer. “First, is attitude,” he said, “turn off the TV and the radio. Read the news to get the whole story, not what the media thinks sells or sounds good. We can’t find out what is going on in the world in sound bites. We need to read all the information for ourselves.”
He added, “The glass is half full, and getting fuller. You owe it to yourself to get the complete story, not only part of it.”
Pictured
on the right:
Phil by the Wurlitzer Princess in his home.
The second issue: “Operators need to pay attention to bringing recognizable value to the location owner and being professional,” said Phil. “If you bring value, they recognize you and your business and they have a better attitude. It’s not just about ‘this machine made me money.’ There has to be more to the equation.
“We all share the same economic issues, such as keeping employees on the payroll, providing benefits and security. The operator and the location have more in common than you might think. The bottom line: The more professional we are, the better it is for everyone’s business.”
The third issue: “Operators need to keep up with change,” said Phil. “We’ve got some really great products that were thoughtfully designed. Maybe they are different from the games of yesterday. They may be aimed at something that is going to happen tomorrow. We have good equipment; we should make the best use of it.”
Pictured
on the left:
Phil, third from left,
on the ski slopes with relatives in the Czech Republic
With his half-full approach, Phil related a story: “We had a great opportunity yesterday. One of our customers, a location owner, made an inquiry about connecting an iPod to a jukebox. We turned that into an opportunity to explain how mytouchtunes.com works. The location owner said, ‘I never knew that!’ We lost count of how many times he said it. That’s an example of keeping up with change.
“We demonstrated what the digital downloading jukebox was capable of doing, and everyone was amazed. Get the product out there!”