This is the story of a bell. It is indicative of a way of doing business but its story is mostly about some wonderful people with a sense of history, a great work ethic and the desire and ability to work as a team.

Happy Christmas to all of my friends at Brandon/Brady

Twenty-five years ago when we started Coventry Manufacturing Co which became Brandon International we installed a small sales bell in the hall. One of our rituals was that the sales department would ring the bell every time we got an order. Rituals were an important part of our management process. We got the idea for the sales bell from Dan Sandel the driving force behind Sandel Medical Industries. As the company grew and moved to a larger building the small bell could no longer be heard in the entire factory.

My memory is a little fuzzy but I think that one year for Christmas in the late 1980’s the staff bought me a new and much larger bell. We installed it in the Attic and ran a rope and pulley system down to the hall to ring it. And the bell kept ringing and the company grew and when we sold it to Brady in 2003 the bell went with the deal.

Imagine my surprise when last spring the bell arrived in very large package from Brandon/Brady. It had been in the attic at Brandon for at least 15 years ringing in the orders unseen but heard. I spent a few hours this summer cleaning up the bell and installing it on my patio.

This picture shows the bell installed and ready to ring every time I get an order for beverage.

This is the tile that the bell rope ran through down to the hall. It was signed by many of the people who I worked with all of those years. The tile was sent to me with the bell and is now memorialized on this site.