Getting to Know our Advertisers #4- Judson

[Mikey P]

Ok Les, drop em!


- I think about your dad quite a bit these days. I'm sure you do as well.Was he proud of all you have accomplished since returning to the Cleaning end of the vacuum industry a few years ago?

-Did he play any part in the development of your line of chemicals? Did your brother Dick?

-Tell us more about how the Florida division is ran and about how many TMs they produce down there and who is buying them..

- if ....IF.. let say for example Unclean and Sapphire came up with a prespray and truckmount so good/powerful/popular/cheap and totally wiped out your sales online, what would you want to do to make ends meAt (are you still vegetarian?) or could you survive on store front sales?

-Speaking of Storefront sales, how many come through the door each week and what are the buying? Do you have competition in your area?

-I understand that you are making the move into foreign markets with chems and TMs, care to comment at this point?

-How responsible is Bob Foster for your current level of success?

-What do you consider to be the second best pre spray and rinse on the market?

-What TM do you recommend to people who just will not deal with Propane? Slide In and PTO/CDS

-If the Iraqi Dinar would to re value tomorrow how would your life change?

-Tell us about your dogs.

-What part did you play in developing the Mytee and Nordic1 ETMs?

-and last but not least, what do you want said about you at your funeral or written on your tombstone?

 

[Leslie Judson Jones]

Ok Les, drop em!


- I think about your dad quite a bit these days. I'm sure you do as well.Was he proud of all you have accomplished since returning to the Cleaning end of the vacuum industry a few years ago?

Yes, Judd was always proud of Dick and I for always being honest and fair with our customers.
For instance, we would never take 10 year old lamb blowers and put stickers on them and claim that they were new and advanced custom made just for us.
He really liked the way that we would never make statements like our competition don't care anything about their customers.

When you are honest and always do the right thing, you never have to make up lies or pump yourself up to make yourself look good.

-Did he play any part in the development of your line of chemicals? Did your brother Dick?


Yes. When I developed my relationship with the Dupont chemist, Jud was able to get my foot in the door with them. Back in the early 70's Jud went to Dupont and took their product called Teflon that was at the time, developed for carpet mfg process and brought it into our industry as a product to spray on the carpet after it has been cleaned.

My brother Dick, is the one that developed our relationship with the now retired Dr. Harris, who is retired from the raw mat'l mfg. of raw materials. Dr. Harris is our main in-house chemist.


-Tell us more about how the Florida division is ran and about how many TMs they produce down there and who is buying them..


The Florida operation is where we assemble our truckmounts. All we mfg. in Florida is base units. Once our units are sent to our distributors, the distributor supplies the accessories, like hoses, wands, reels, etc. This year has been a slow year for Judson. I don't think we are going to sell more than 60 units this year.
Who is buying the Judson Units? It seems to be mostly people that are trying to stay in business running heat exchangers. They have realized that to stay in business, they have to have a truckmount that runs. Having a unit with lots of wires, relays, limit switches, exhaust diverters, and basically custom made parts that can't be found local. One of the big advantages of Judson is that we do not require specially trained mechanics to keep our units running. Usually it is a quick phone call to me personally and a quick trip locally to grab some parts.

- if ....IF.. let say for example Unclean and Sapphire came up with a prespray and truckmount so good/powerful/popular/cheap and totally wiped out your sales online, what would you want to do to make ends meAt (are you still vegetarian?) or could you survive on store front sales?

Joyce and I are not worried about it. We are the only mfg. in the industry with the overhead of a cool aid stand. We all know that we have lost at least 5 truckmount mfg in the last few years. It's all about overhead, that determines your survival. Joyce and I lover animals more than most people and we have a chicken slaughter house in town that has tractor trailors delivering chickens all the time. They are in cages, exposed, stacked. Ond day Joyce and I are going to sabbatage the truck and release all of the chickens.
Joyce and I tried 100% vegetarian for a long time now and we have slipped a little by eating shrimp and salmon and due to the last few years dealing with my Dad's cancer traveling under this situation their is just not a lot of choices so yes we have slipped some, but we do love animals.

-Speaking of Storefront sales, how many come through the door each week and what are the buying? Do you have competition in your area?

There is about 75 carpet cleaners in Greenville. I guess all of them do business with us. As far as competition, when Blueline stabbed us in the back, and beat us out of a lot of money, they made a local carpet cleaner a distributor. I'm not sure how much business that they are doing, but it does not seem to affect me.
What customers are buying when they come here are the Judson chemcial line. We also sell CTI. We offer an advanced service repair center for truckmounts and modifications. One popular modification that we offer is simplifying heat exchangers. Increasing the heat performance and decreasing the operating cost and extending the life of the unit by converting to LP.

-I understand that you are making the move into foreign markets with chems and TMs, care to comment at this point?


This is a top secret operation, that if I reveal right now, it will be compromised.

-How responsible is Bob Foster for your current level of success?


If it was not for Bob Foster, Judson would be out of business by now. Bob has been a very good friend and a very good adviser on strategies and tactics.

-What do you consider to be the second best pre spray and rinse on the market?

I've always liked Prochem Ultra Pak. As far as rinse, just use a couple of bottles of acetic acid.


-What TM do you recommend to people who just will not deal with Propane? Slide In and PTO/CDS


The only truckmount that I would own other than a Judson is a Prochem 805. Even if I had to buy a used one and completely rebuild it. Make sure it is not fuel injected.

-If the Iraqi Dinar would to re value tomorrow how would your life change?


I don't know what that is. If it is from Iraqi it is probably worthless.

-Tell us about your dogs.


We have 7 dogs, 3 cats and 2 groundhogs. Just last night we had 3 in the back yard get in a fight. One of the dogs required medical attention, but everything is ok now.

-What part did you play in developing the Mytee and Nordic1 ETMs?


Both units use my power conversion system that I designed back in the early 80's. This system converts two 110 volt circuits and converts the voltage to 220.

-and last but not least, what do you want said about you at your funeral or written on your tombstone?

Les Jones had very high moral values and did not take any shit off anyone.

 

[Mikey P]

Nice job buddy.



Why the 805?

 

[John Olson]

Great read Les not so sure about that veggie thing...Mikey is a fruit loop so I get it but you? What the hell man...go get a big ass Rib Eye and cure yourself of that sickness

 

[floorguy]

I want to know if you can take components from 1 machine and put them on a waste tank????

like my Everest parts....