More than 50 Prochem distributors, corporate accounts, and major vendors representing the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Australia and the United Kingdom joined Prochem and Castle Rock Industries (Prochem's parent company) February 7-9 in Tempe, Ariz., for the 2001 Prochem Dealer Meeting.

The slogan for the event, "Double Teaming with Prochem," emphasized the teamwork approach Prochem and Castle Rock share with their distributors. Former Harlem Globetrotter superstar Meadowlark Lemon delivered the keynote address, which played out the basketball theme.

Prochem dealers heard from the new management team of: Jim Sherbert, CEO; Ken Barnaby, Executive V.P.; David Ritterling, V.P. Sales & Marketing; Tom Fielding, Production Mgr.; John Rapacz, Product Mgr.-Chemical Div; Don Rush, Product Mgr.-Equipment Div.; Gay Barwald, Corporate Accounts; and the regional sales managers Rich Shakarjian, Pat Gaab and Tim Baker. Each spoke of the many upgrades in production and customer service that have been put into action and/or are coming as a result of the acquisition by Castle Rock, and their commitment to their dealer force and ultimately their end-user customers in the professional carpet cleaning and restoration industry.

The meeting concluded with an awards banquet, which was highlighted by the first James R. Roden Industry Excellence Award honoring ICS columnist Lee Pemberton, Pembertons Cleaning & Restoration Resource Center, McKeesport, Pa.