|
Feb 20, 2009 - This year marks the 10 year
mark of the relationship between driver Dave Connelly and Maple
Leaf Foods. Not a small accomplishment in this day and
age.
"10
years is a long time" stated Dave Connelly. "Maple Leaf
started out in 1999 as my smallest sponsor on my Formula 1200 car
which was sponsored by Procter and Gamble with the Sunny Delight
brand. We did a BBQ fundraiser alongside our displays and it
worked great - I think around 2004 was the first year that they
came on as my primary sponsor - we started the Fuel for Kids
program the following year - and it was a huge success. It's
funny - it's very easy for me to see why a company is successful
from my side of the fence. They've got great people - I've
worked with Martin Lafreniere of Maple Leaf for 8 of my 10 years,
and time and time again you talk to sales reps as we travel who
have been with them 30 plus years, that says a lot about the
quality of a company when their retention rate for staff is that
high"
"I'm
still working with Martin - but my direct contact is with Dave
Bellamy who i worked with for years at Loblaws and who for the last
few years has been working with Maple Leaf Foods."
"I've
been very lucky to have had a relationship with a company as long
as I have, it does happen; Peter Gibbons had it with Canadian Tire
and DJ Kennington with Castrol but it's still rare."
"Last year we switched over to the Schneiders brand of
products, specifically Lunch Mates, Hot Rod's, and this year will
have Red Hot's as well - it's a good fit with our Fuel for Kids
program. We're hoping to hit the $90,000 mark this
year."
"We're focused on track solely on the Lucas Oil Sportsman
Cup, we finished 3rd last year with a few 2nd place finishes -
Sauble we missed the win by about 2 inches. That was hard to
take. I think we'll be pretty strong this year, it'll be our
2nd year working closely with Kenyon Racing on our set-ups and
we've got a new motor program this year which should find us some
more horsepower. I'll take a little extra luck if that can
be found somewhere." laughed Dave. "Sometimes it's
better to be lucky then fast"
|
