39 years ago, Ted began his career with John Deere in Swan River, Manitoba. 12 years later, he found himself packing up his family and moving out west. His children were passionate about skiing and hockey and they knew that Alberta was where they needed to be. Before they even left – Ted already knew where he wanted to work when he arrived – Martin Farm Equipment.
Chances are – you have crossed paths with Ted at some point during his time at Martin Deerline, as within his time here he has worked at four of our branch locations! He started his career as an Ag Salesman for Martin Farm Equipment in Edmonton where he spent the majority of his days out on the road visiting clients. In fact, some of Ted’s fondest memories come from working with the team at the former dealership on 156 Street.
He then transitioned to the Mayerthorpe branch, where he found one piece of lawn and garden equipment on his first day or work! However, under Ted’s reign sales took off and he spent the next 13 years as the primary Lawn and Garden Salesman in that location. From there, Ted spent some time back at our West Edmonton dealership, a few years in Westlock and now you will find him at our South Edmonton store, still selling John Deere lawn mowers, Gators and compact utility tractors.
When asked how his coworkers would describe him, Ted answered “probably as having one of the messiest desks in the organization! But it’s organized chaos. My manager would call me when I was out on the road looking for something on my desk and I would tell him ‘It’s in the right-hand pile about 14 pages down’ and sure enough, there it was!”
Ted has seen a lot of change during his time at Martin Deerline – and his favorite piece of John Deere equipment has also changed, “over the years it was the 40 Series ag tractors and now it’s the X500 lawn tractor!”
In his spare time, Ted loves spending time with his family – especially his kids or any of his 10 grandchildren. Whether it be out on the boat or hitting the links with either of his two sons (who happen to be golf pros) – “any time spent golfing with my boys is a great day.”
Ted ended our chat by noting: “if everybody had someone like the Martin’s as a boss, the world would be a much better place to go to work.”
Thank you, Ted, for your years of service, your flexibility to help out wherever we need your expertise the most and your dedication to the entire team at Martin Deerline!