Winter is over....

The weather has broken here, those cool winter day's with the highs reaching the low to mid 70's are over, the forecast for this coming week - Plenty O sunshine, highs in the mid 80's, lows in the upper 60's....March is definitely beach weather here!
Nick Dean started with Transmed this week. This is the 3rd different company that Nick has worked for/with me. At SYSCO St.Louis, Nick was one of our leading sales Reps while I was his District Manager. While I was Director over the state of Florida for Buckhead Beef, he was my Regional Rep. and did an excellent job there, now he has come to Dubai for hopefully a 3-peat of success. As they say here, In Shalla (loosely - As God wills it).
On the employee score board, there are now ten Account Executives reporting to me, all of them fitting in nicely. I have also already hired two more, Lauren and Haley, they start in late March and mid June. Have in the budget, additional reps in Abu Dhabi, The Northern Emirates, and the bordering Islamic Kingdom of Oman. Sales are really strong, February sales are approaching a record, I will of course let you know our record growth number next blog - In Shalla.
The Gulf Trade show starts this weekend here in Dubai. It is a very large event that all of the Mideast participates in. There are a lot of American Companies that are exhibiting, so I expect to see a few of my old friends from the states. Roy Mitchell (Buckhead Beef of Florida) a chef that I worked with for a year will be here. I will surely see more of my old friends. Richard is mainly responsible for the show, he is showing a little strain, fighting illness on the shows eve. Hani, Bob, Richard, Karim and I had dinner with two SYSCO executives last night (one of them former NFL player AL Kelso) at Sammach (Lebanese seafood restaurant).  Tonight Bob and I are having dinner with Sam Hodge (I worked with Sam at Buckhead Beef of Atlanta) at Al Jarmen (upscale Lebanese dining) at Dubai Mall. Tomorrow night McCain is hosting a nice dinner for us. Sunday night is our Customer apprecitation dinner at the Grand Habtoor Hotel. The set up for the show is in the morning with the show through Wednesday. Really stressful, busy week! I will have a picture taken of our current sales team at the show, and post it on Facebook. Then as I share stories, you may put faces with names. They say the funniest things in that translation becomes a part of, this week Ceren,(Our young lady from Turkey) was excitedly sharing with Kelly that we could sell dried grapes to one of her prospects. You might know dried grapes as Raisins...
Sorry, not much fun in this weeks blog, mom and dad and my brother Mike visit in 2 weeks, I am sure there will be things to share. I need to hop in the shower, and head to dinner! I will see you soon....In Shalla.
John