Many people have built successful and longstanding careers working for their local Co-op. Tony Blazenko has had an incredible career with the Swan Valley Consumers Co-op (SVCC), which started with him working for Federated Co-operatives Limited (FCL). It was a career that he fell into by chance, but brought him back home to the Valley and in a career that he loves.
“I had aspirations to become a professional baseball player and was in Edmonton at the time,” said Blazenko. “I played fastball for the City of Edmonton and made the transition to Triple A baseball for a while, but the scouts never recruited me to Florida for tryouts for the pros.
“I saw an advertisement for a job with FCL and applied. The day I did the interview, I was offered the job. I had given notice and was packing up to leave. I decided to stop one last time at the local post office to cancel my post office box. I checked the mail one last time and there was a letter in there from FCL. I opened it up and it thanked me for applying for the job, however, I did not get it, and another candidate was hired. The letter stated it would keep my name on file for future employment opportunities.
“I kind of panicked because I had just quit my other job and packed up my apartment to leave for this new job,” said Blazenko. “I went to a phone booth and called the FCL office. I spoke to the person who hired me and asked if everything was ok and if my application was fine. They told me it was and they were expecting me on Monday morning for the job.
“I saved that letter from 1977 and still have it. I like to joke around that I have a letter that says I’m not really supposed to be working here.
“I went to FCL and started in October 1997. I was a farm boy in my early 20s, and worked dispatch for the Logistics Department,” said Blazenko. “I soon moved to Assistant Manager in Logistics for FCL. This launched my career there. I soon realized that the more work I did and accomplished, the more the regional manager delegated to me. I took on more and more duties, and ended up working in fuel and general merchandise as a result.”
During the course of Blazenko’s time at FCL, he gained experience in supply and demand, as well as cost-effective methods of shipping products to retail outlets.
“I set up retail stores with deliveries,” said Blazenko. “I communicated with general and department managers on coordinating shipping to the retail. More duties were assigned to me. At that time, there were three people in the industry: one with Imperial Oil, one with Shell and I for FCL. We did a liquid fuel exchange between refineries, not on dollars. We would send our lease operators to fill up at refineries and their operators would fill up at our refineries. The additives were added to the product at the refinery because each company had different specifications and the refineries knew everyone’s specs. Fuel is just fuel until you add the additives into it, then it makes it a certain brand of fuel, like Co-op’s.
“Then at the end of October at FCL year-end, we would try to zero our liquid exchange, so that we didn’t have to pay each other any money. It was an interesting job.
“I would start with hiring lease operators to service an area, like Swan River for groceries, lumber, fuel and then we started getting into general merchandise,” said Blazenko. “Hiring one was not enough, so I had to hire lease operators that would paint their truck and trailer with Co-op colours and haul our product to the specific retailers. I moved on to doing this more on a corporate level as opposed to an individual lease operator.
“FCL must have felt I was capable of doing things and let me go with it. I did very well there and spent nine years doing that.”
Blazenko wanted a change of scenery and to start working his way back home to the Valley. It was his move in Saskatchewan that led him to work with another staff member who would spend the majority of their career working for SVCC, like Tony has.
“I knew by working with FCL that I could transfer to any retail that I wanted,” said Blazenko. “My parents were still living in Swan River and as they got older, I wanted to be closer to them to help take care of them. I knew I wanted to get out of the city and work my way back into retail. I gave notification to FCL that I wanted to transition to retail. They tried to hang on to me at FCL and to stay at the head office.
“I wound up going into retail and moved to Pelly, Saskatchewan, as a branch manager. I wound up working there with Richard Stechyshyn, who was the food manager at that time. I stayed there for some years. Then one day I picked up the phone to the SVCC General Manager (at the time), Ron Nemetz, to see if I could get hired on there. My roots were here in the Swan Valley and I wanted to get on there to work, so I could help look after my parents as they got older.
“The general manager at the time said that I couldn’t have his job because he wasn’t going anywhere and that his department managers were long-standing and also weren’t going anywhere,” Blazenko. “He still agreed to hire me and was going to find a job for me.
“In 1991, I made the move to SVCC and kicked around between departments such as grocery, hardware, lumber and went wherever staff was needed. I floated around until SVCC purchased Johnston Ventures in 1997. That year, I came over to that department to transition it over.”
Blazenko helped transition an acquisition for the SVCC into a profitable and growing ag department. It led to the SVCC expanding into territory further north.
“The staff from Johnston Ventures stayed, and I was the only new staff member from the SVCC,” said Blazenko. “I was bound and determined to increase the sales by aligning the products with the customers’ demands. I created my own position.
“Once we had things going, we created a feed department at SVCC and I took on that. We expanded the sheds and put up racks for feed. We brought in all the animal health accessories to fill the sales floor. From there, we proceeded to get into farm equipment. In order for SVCC to make a go of it, and at the time, I didn’t have the staff to do that, I aligned with Gilbert Plains Co-op. Gilbert Plains Co-op and SVCC entered into a working relationship on providing bins and augers to our local producers.
“I thought it was just going to be a few sales here and there,” said Blazenko. “It turned out to be, at most, $4.5 million in sales for bins and augers. That was overwhelming for Gilbert Plains Co-op because all of a sudden, I was selling as much as they were. It was all based on demand. Whatever producers wanted, they would come and see me, and I would bring it in. From there, we established a feed, an equipment, an animal health and pet food sections, along with other ag-related features.
“I spent my next few years establishing this department, which was something that the members in the area needed and kept them shopping in the Valley.
“Because I was in feed sales, I started selling outside of my trading area,” said Blazenko. “I started selling feed up to The Pas. We would tour The Pas every month, and then people from The Pas started coming here too for their feed and pet food needs. Before I knew it, I was selling bins up there and other things. There was a need there that created an opportunity for the SVCC to establish a presence in The Pas. Now we have an ag department set up with employees there that service the area.”
Blazenko noted that a lot has changed since he first started with the SVCC in the ag department. Things have grown tremendously and so have the producers’ needs in the Valley.
“When I first came here, I was given the keys for Johnston Ventures and had to learn as I went,” said Blazenko. “I had to jump on the skid steer and load fertilizer out of the shed into a bucket for all the trucks coming to get it. I couldn’t drive that skid steer fast enough. Pretty soon, the trucks started getting bigger and bigger, and the lineup of trucks got longer.
“We went through times where we needed to make changes to the ag department to accommodate our service. Thanks to the SVCC Board of Directors and Management for seeing that we needed to enhance our service delivery by using a volumetric system, which we added.
“Over time, that wasn’t quick enough to meet the supply and demand needs, and resulted in the building of a new fertilizer shed,” Blazenko. “Now it’s someone operating it at an incredible speed, to load a semi in just seven minutes. That would have taken so many buckets if we had continued to do it the way it was done when I first started here.”
Blazenko feels there is a good career and future for people to work at their local Co-op. It not only provides lots of learning and training opportunities, but also a chance to be a part of building something great in the community.
“I think that there are young people who are in the retail Co-op market and I tell them that the opportunities provided while working at a Co-op will allow you to be who you want to be and go into whatever department you want to enter into, providing you do a good job,” said Blazenko. “I think that young people have a great opportunity in finding a career with federated co-ops and staying with the system.
“When working in retail, one has to work harder to be successful at it. You have to be willing to do what you are asking others to do that work there, to show by example. There are times when people can be extremely price-conscious, but I’ve always believed that money doesn’t replace good service. If you have really good service, why would someone go anywhere else just to save a few dollars and not receive good service?
“I learned a lot about this through my time working at FCL in the Logistics Department,” said Blazenko. “You have to use your knowledge and experience when bringing in the products. It also requires one to know what customers want and to bring it in ahead of the demand. You have to focus on a section and really dedicate the effort to that section. You can’t be all over the place and be everything.
“Customers recognize the efforts that are put in and that leads to whether or not they are lined up at the door to buy what you have to offer.
“We provide good customer service from excellent staff and that makes me proud to work here,” said Blazenko. “I look forward to one day retiring and knowing that there was an accomplishment that happened here and had provided a valuable service to the Valley.”