John Derrick has been given a Lifetime Achievement Award for 35 outstanding years in the vending industry. The award was presented to Derrick at the New England Spring Meeting by 2014 meeting Chairman Jeff Terban of Burdette Beckmann.
Derrick began his vending career in 1975 as a warehouse manager at Superior Coffee and Tea Co. He soon moved to route sales, and found his chosen career. In 1983, he joined a vending distributor, then called Vendors Supply of America. His territory was Connecticut, Rhode Island, Western Massachusetts and Vermont, an area he served for more than 35 years. In 1985 he went to work at Automatic Products of America as account executive – vending sales. In 1997, Derrick went to Harold Young Co., a vend brokerage firm in Natick, MA. From 2007 until 2014, he was a senior account executive at BBI. He retired earlier this year.
“I’ve always said – despite the old saying ‘there’s no friends in business,’ without friends there wouldn’t be any business,” Derrick told VendingMarketWatch. “A lot of my customers have become my friends over the years.”
Massachusetts Vending Association hosted this year’s NE Spring Meeting, which took place at Newport Harbor Hotel and Marina May 30 to June 1, 2014.
