Daily Archives: April 13, 2012

Big Sky Party Rentals to move to larger space of its own

April 13, 20124:06 p.m.

WICHITA — Big Sky Party Rentals soon will have big space, too.

Currently, the 3-year-old company is in 2,500 square feet in a storage facility near 13th and Oliver.

“In some ways it’s been good,” CEO Matthew Rupp says.

The business, which he says is the Midwest’s largest provider of licensed, inspected and insured inflatables, has been able to easily fluctuate the amount of storage it uses depending on its need.

Rupp says it’s not as convenient for customers, though.

“It’s just frustrating. Customers come looking for us, and they don’t know where to find us.”

So he’s moving to 4,000 square feet at 3220 S. West St., which is near the southeast corner of 31st Street South and West.

The new office should open by May 1.

Rupp says it’ll be “really nice to be out and be able to tell the world where we are.”

 

By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , Filed under Real estate, Retail, West side | Comments Off

You don’t say

April 13, 20122:20 p.m.

“All the Mobsters are enthusiastic and ready to mob.”

– Cash Mob Wichita organizer Jill Miller, who is planning a second mobbing, this time on April 21 at Indian Hills businesses

By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , Filed under Restaurants, Retail | Comments Off

Wichita Vending buys Wichita Canteen, becomes Compass Group franchisee

April 13, 20125:00 a.m.

WICHITA — The more than 50-year-old Wichita Canteen has sold to the 19-year-old Wichita Vending.

“Basically, it’s a merger as I see it,” says Wichita Vending owner and president Joe Hemmelgarn.

Wichita Canteen had been a franchise of North Carolina-based Compass Group. Now, Wichita Vending is.

Hemmelgarn says not much will change.

“We just get to use some of the corporate purchasing power,” he says.

Wichita Vending and Wichita Canteen both have offered a range of food services and vending.

“They’re much larger in the food service business,” Hemmelgarn says of Wichita Canteen.

The company offers food management, including the operation of cafeterias at businesses such as Cessna Aircraft; concession services, including those at Wichita State University and Century II; and inmate commissaries.

That’s what led Hemmelgarn to approach the company, which had been owned by the Grady family since 1959, with an offer. Food service also is what he wants to put an emphasis on now.

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By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , , , , , , , , Filed under Uncategorized | Comments Off