Temperatures will be dropping in Iowa next week, and it's going to be cold. Really cold, as in single-digit temperatures for overnight lows.
That's no concern for 800 employees at a Waterloo cabinet business, because they are heading south for a week-long Caribbean cruise that will paid by the company's president.
Bertch Cabinet president Gary Bertch told workers last week that since the company met its goal, they would be going on a cruise that included a stop in Cozumel, Mexico, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reported. Bertch had offered the cruise as an incentive earlier this year, the newspaper reported.
Bertch told the Courier that the company chartered four planes that will fly into Miami on Jan. 8. Employees will stay at "a nice five-star hotel" before boarding a cruise ship at PortMiami on Jan. 9. This cruise will last a week, and workers will return for work on Jan. 16.
It’s the first time since 2005 that Bertch has rewarded employees with a cruise. He began offering winter vacation incentives in 1989, the Courier reported.
“We went to Acapulco that time,” Bertch said. “We did several cruises to various locations, various ports. And we did Hawaii. That was probably our biggest trip.”
Now, after some lean years, the cruise is back on the company agenda.
“We finally got into the black again last year after we made it through the recession (that began in 2008),” Bertch told the Courier. “We were anticipating we’d have better sales again this year. We just tried to get all of our people pumped up a little more to achieve the various goals, both customer-oriented goals and financial goals.”
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