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As a young boy, Jeff Valaska moved around the country with his family, and this provided the young man with a variety of life experiences. Throughout his young adulthood, he put that experience to good use as he navigated his way through life, eventually arriving at the wonderful world of indoor tanning, where he found a home. Once there, his travels weren’t over – it took him a while to finally arrive at his current place as General Manager of Parts and Service for distributor Heartland Tanning, Inc. In addition to the immense amount of satisfaction he gets from his work, Jeff is also happy doing everything from gardening to being a grandpa.

He’s “The Parts Guru”
In the indoor tanning industry, Jeff Valaska is affectionately known as “The Parts Guru.” Even though he can’t remember who originally gave him that name, it certainly stuck and for good reason – Jeff has an unsurpassed knowledge of what makes tanning units tick and where to locate the sometimes obscure, hard-to-find replacement parts for them. His reputation as “The Parts Guru” is so well known that, during the average business day, he picks up at least 10 new clients who are referred to him from other tanning distribution companies across the country. And Jeff will locate that part, too; even if he has to go as far away as England, Germany or even Turkey to get it! “When I got started in this industry 21 years ago, the majority of the tanning units were made in Europe and those manufacturers didn’t always sell a lot of spare parts to the U.S. distributors,” Jeff recalled. “That got me thinking about stocking parts because I knew that clients were going to need them.” Since this was a time before the advent of the Internet, Jeff got on the phone and called every tanning bed manufacturer in Europe, as well as all the companies that serviced these manufacturers, and began buying up as many replacement parts as he could. Jeff’s foresight quickly earned him a reputation as tanning’s go-to guy when it comes to parts.

The beginning of Jeff’s love affair with parts began when he was just 16 years old. That was when he tore apart the engine of his 1967 Pontiac GTO in order to fix some shot bearings. After seeing the hundreds of components of his son’s car scattered around the garage floor, Jeff’s father shook his head and said, “You’ll never get that thing back together!” The young Jeff proved that he was more than just a teenage grease monkey when he defied his father’s expectations and got the hot rod up and running, much better than before. This marked a pivotal point in the life of the man who would become known in the tanning industry as “The Parts Guru”.

Movin’ Around
Jeff Valaska was born to Victor and Jeanne Valaska in Detroit, MI, although he and his family didn’t stay there long. In fact, the Valaskas – mom, dad, Jeff and his sister, Joanne – didn’t stay in any one place too long. “My father worked as a manager in the foundry industry, and this caused us to move around a lot because he would either get transferred to another foundry, or the place where he worked would go out of business and he’d have to find another job,” said Jeff. “Before I was 20, we moved from Michigan to Texas, Ohio, Illinois and Pennsylvania.” The Valaskas stayed the longest in Columbus, OH, where they lived from Jeff’s seventh-grade year until he was 24. Frequent relocation taught young Jeff how to be versatile and adapt to any situation – skills that would be very valuable throughout his life.

Jeff experienced a lot of change during his 20s. While living with friends on the campus of Ohio State University, he took a job as a cook at a restaurant in downtown Columbus. “This was a very high-class restaurant; it was not out of the ordinary to have about 300 people come in for lunch in one day,” Jeff commented. “I was earning about $400 a week, which was very good money in 1971.” During this time, Jeff met a young woman from the Columbus area and was married at the age of 23. His wife’s family owned a plastics company and Jeff went to work there as a foreman. After a while, his in-laws decided to sell the factory and retire to work their farm in Urbana, OH, so Jeff, his wife and their two daughters – Melissa and Jennifer – packed up and joined them, taking Jeff from being a cook to a company foreman and finally, a farmer. “When I say they had a farm, I mean it was really a farm!” he exclaimed. “They had 600 acres where they grew alfalfa, hay, corn and soybeans, and kept 150 horses.” Although he had never been a farmer before in his life, Jeff quickly adapted to the role.

When Jeff Met Tanning
Jeff Valaska still remembers exactly when he became part of the indoor tanning industry. “It was December 1984,” he recalled. “During the 1980s, the farming industry began to drastically suffer and many farms entered a government program that would subsidize them if they quit growing crops, and that’s what my wife’s family decided to do. Well, during the winter, there’s not much to do on a farm except feed the horses and sit around watching TV, and I quickly became bored with that.” Urbana is a small town where everyone knows each other, and sensing he needed the sort of self satisfaction that comes from doing something you love, he decided to accept a job opportunity presented by a friend – selling and delivering tanning equipment. “While the farming industry might have been suffering, indoor tanning was on its way up, and I liked that,” Jeff said. “Plus, I had a family to take care of.”
Jeff’s history in the tanning industry is a long and storied one. With his expertise in such a highly specialized field, his talents, abilities and services were always in demand. During his 21 years in the industry, Jeff has worked for at least three distribution companies as well as conducting a parts and service business out of his garage. Of course, those were the early days. Now, “The Parts Guru” can be found firmly ensconced in the Heartland Tanning empire, working out of the distribution giant’s McDonough, GA facility. “I’ve known [Heartland Tanning co-owner] Greg Henson for quite some time, but only as a business acquaintance,” Jeff commented. “When he asked me to come on board with Heartland, I was excited because the company has a great reputation in the industry and they are very nice people. The best news of all was that I wouldn’t have to move from my home in Georgia.”

At Home and Abroad
Today, Jeff’s definitely content with his home life. He’s been happily married to his second wife, Laurie, for the past six years, and enjoys family time with her and her twin teenagers – Kelly and Scott. His daughters, Melissa and Jennifer, are both married and have children of their own, making Jeff a very proud grandpa. “When I lived and worked on the farm, I picked up the hobby of gardening and it’s something that I still enjoy today,” Jeff commented. “On the weekends during the summer, you can usually find me pushing the roto-tiller with one hand and holding a cold drink in the other!” Laurie is a huge fan of hot sauces and salsa – she has more than 100 bottles of hot sauce arranged in several racks around the house – and she and Jeff enjoy making their own sauces from the various peppers they grow in the Valaska family garden. “[Heartland Exec. VP/GM] Brad Henson particularly enjoys our salsa, so we always make sure to send him a couple jars each time we make some,” Jeff commented.

While Jeff and Laurie enjoy their time at home, they don’t stay there much. The couple shares a passion for travel, and they’ve already been around the world together. This hasn’t stopped future travel plans, however. “On June 1st of this year, we plan to take a trip to Hawaii,” Jeff said. “We usually plan all our trips about a year in advance, but this one was different. Laurie just called me up one day and said she bought two tickets to Hawaii, and I said ‘Okay.’” The couple also plans to visit Alaska, Australia and Turkey in the near future, and they’ll continue attending all the home games of their favorite NFL team, the Atlanta Falcons.