Ken Grenda with employees Joe Zammit, John Thomas, and Rangi Reihana yesterday. 76611
By Lilly O’Gorman
PAKENHAM bus drivers shared in $15 million worth of bonuses given by the south-east bus company Grenda Transit last week.
Fifty-five-year-old Rangi Reihana’s starts his school run from the Pakenham Cardinia Transit depot every morning and has been working for Grenda for 15 years.
He said when he checked his bank account last Tuesday, he thought there must’ve been a mistake.
The Cranbourne North man received a $5500 bonus after tax and said he will use the bonus to treat his wife to a holiday to the Philippines to see her family.
“It is a marvellous company, you couldn’t get any better than Grenda’s,” he said.
“It’s a family. What Ken has achieved in 66 years … he has done a marvellous job to get the company where it is today.
“It has been a tremendous pleasure to work for Ken and his family. I wish it didn’t have to come to an end.”
Director Ken Grenda said he and his family wanted to ensure employees were thanked accordingly for their efforts, following the sale of Grenda Transit to Melbourne operator Ventura late last year after operating for nearly seven decades.
“I guess we’re a Dandenong company; we started in Dandenong and because of the growth we have been lucky to grow with Dandenong and the surrounding area,” Mr Genda said.
“We have expanded, bought other companies and diversified, but we’ve only been able to do that because had very good people the entire time.
“So our thinking was, they have contributed to the development of this business, it’s not all our money, part of it is theirs. The Volgren Group get their bonuses this coming Friday.
George Grenda started Grenda Transit in 1945 and covered bus routes in Oakleigh, Dandenong, Berwick and Cheltenham.
Volgren was established in 1977 as the manufacturing arm of Grenda and became the market leader in body assembly in Australia, with plants in Dandenong, Perth, Brisbane and Newcastle.
Together they employ about 3000 people.
In a fitting farewell from the City of Greater Dandenong, Mr Grenda was named Corporate Citizen of the Year during local Australia Day celebrations.
He said it was terribly sad to say goodbye.
“I have been in it for 66 years,” he said.
“It started in our family home and everybody that works here are my friends, so there are going to be a lot of tears on the last day.”
Grenda bus driver Alex Politis has worked for the company for 18 years, and said the Grenda family would be a tough act to follow.
“It’s not really a company it’s a family,” he said. “My dad passed away two years ago the first person to call me was Ken Grenda.
“To have the owner of a company phone you up to give his condolences and give you time off…you wouldn’t get that anywhere else. The change of ownership has put a dampener on things because you don’t know what the new owners are going to be like, if they’re going to be the same as the Grenda boys were.”
But the generous bonus has gone some way to lessening the blow.
“I thought it was a joke like everyone else, but then I came in on Wednesday and found out it was a bonus.
“I have two little girls so it helps a lot,” he said.
“We’ll spend it on a holiday.”
