Visit to Gripple USAGLIDE Award Visit July 2015

Virgin Atlantic from Manchester on an early Sunday morning………

arriving to a hot and humid Sunday in Chicago several hours later

Checked in at the Hotel Baker, which sits on the side of the beautiful Fox River running through the town of St Charles.

The Hotel Baker was first opened in 1928 and is a registered historic building of the USA

Visited the Gripple USA facility in Auroro, Illinois, approx. 1 hours drive out of Chicago

Officially opened by Hugh Facey &Roger Hall in December 2008

Gripple USA is certainly colourful and has some great paintings hung around the walls, and even, actually painted on the walls

….what a great idea!

With the GLIDE values written all over the walls and some great product feature points, a lot of thought has obviously gone in to the work environment….

…and a massage chair is something we could definitely use at PMS from time to time. A great ‘GLIDEA’ as Lionel would say!

The following day we travelled down to the South….Atlanta, Georgia.

To visit the new home of the Atlanta Falcons that is now under construction……

……and using some Gripple products that started life at PMS

The new stadium is being built next to the old stadium and is an incredible size!

….and then it was back in to Lee’s pick up truck, (nice number plate!) to go to the next site, a new Walmart store.

Yellow is very fashionable these days on construction sites around the world….

….but it does then allow you to see the Gripples in action.

From Rotherham to Atlanta via Sheffield if I am not mistaken!

…and then it was off to the forests to find some wire that needed testing.

Elise and Lee convinced me that my life was not in danger…

but they didn’t tell me that my hat wasn’t on straight (not the best of ‘looks’ I know!)

…the things you have to do to test a Gripple!

….actually this was ‘high wire’ zip lining through the Atlanta forests and no, they weren’t Gripples……..not yet at least…….but we did try to sell them some bracing products for the trees (don’t forget the PMS commission!)

I checked first to make sure that Gordon hadn’t made these,….and then I took the jump!

…with a fellow Englishman now living in the US and now unfortunately nicknamed ‘Horizontal Brian’ due to his strange rappelling technique…..(no he is not dead in these photos!)

and not forgetting Gripple regional sales manager….Lee ‘U-Turn’ Christian, who kindly drove us around and organised a great visit to Atlanta

….Thanks Lee!

He will be displaying his skills at the next Gripple exhibition apparently….and don’t worry everyone, he is certainly not a Yorkshire man!

Finally had some great food at a famous Atlanta restaurant called Paschal’s, together with Lionel Gatinet of Gripple EU. The restaurant was apparently often frequented by Atlanta’s famous son, Martin Luther King himself!

This is not exactly a quick ‘fried chicken sandwich’ in my book, but it was delicious washed down with Iced Tea and Lemonade (also delicious!!)

Then it was off back to Chicago for a tour of the ‘Windy City’….

..where nothing can exactly be described as small!

A boat trip down the river and out on to Lake Michigan

………for some spectacular views of the city!

Then it was time to stop for a proper Chicago deep pan pizza

…and that meant eating all of it!

Finally a trip up to the top of the 2nd tallest building in the city…

Hancock tower….where we actually found some Grippleshanging the sound system can you believe!

In the end it was time for me to say goodbye after a fantastic week, together with Lionel from France.

We were both extremely well looked after and we both learned a lot about our American colleagues and the efforts they make on our behalf every day.

Thanks to all the team at Gripple USA, too many people to mention I am afraid, but special praise and A VERY BIG THANK YOU should go to Head of Marketing, Elise Balsamo, who truly lives and breathes our GLIDE values. She went above and beyond to ensure our trip was both memorable and worthwhile!

If you see this lady buy her a beer! (and she will drink it believe me!)

..and yes Elise you were right……….

ELISE BALSAMO

America is AWESOME!

Thanks to the GLIDE Board for organising thetrip and good luck to the next lucky winners,you will have a great time believe me!