Getting Back to My Reynolds Routes

I started my Reynolds journey over 40 years ago as a field engineer in Albany, NY. In that role, I spent six years traveling the highways and byways of New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire to visit customers, install Reynolds solutions, and fix issues. This was back when I had hair; if you can imagine. In January, I got to relive my youth and take a walk down memory lane with a trip to New England for some customer visits and a drive up to Canada for the Montreal Auto Show.

New England welcomed me with some frigid temperatures and plenty of snow.

One of the highlights of this trip was reconnecting with a customer I installed in the late 80s—Brian Bedard, owner of Bedard Brothers Auto Sales in Cheshire, MA. Brian’s been working at the dealership since 1977 and is still active. I enjoyed dinner with Quinn Dawson (our local Reynolds account manager), Brian, and Steven, Brian’s son. Steven’s the general manager at Bedard Brothers and represents the third generation to be part of the family business.

It was great to reminisce with Brian about the business and how the automotive industry has changed over the years. I’m sure some of the things Brian and I talked about from “the good old days” were completely foreign to someone Steven’s age. There have been a lot of changes in technology since I started back in 1983. And the pace of change is accelerating faster. After purchasing from places like Amazon, customers have different expectations. Reynolds is here to help dealers be more successful by allowing them to operate differently and meet the demands of modern consumers.

Before making my way back to Dayton, I headed up north for a special VIP event at the Montreal Auto Show with some key members of our Canadian team. The cars were amazing and we had some excellent conversations with a few Quebec dealers and the OEMs represented at the show. I must admit my French was a little rusty so I relied on the expertise of the Reynolds team to help me translate.

Returning to my old stomping grounds was a timely reminder of just how far we’ve come since my field engineer days. Everything has evolved. Reynolds. The automotive industry. Technology. And the Bedard Bros family. The fourth generation—Andrew and Chad Bedard—are already active in the business. It was truly special to reconnect with Brian and it was a great first trip of 2024. My next stop was in Las Vegas for my 23rd NADA. (Stay tuned to read more about how that went.) I’m looking forward to more dealership visits across the country this year, so don’t be surprised if I drop by your neighborhood!