Robert Garcia, president and CEO, RW Garcia Co. Inc., San Jose, CA, is a man who understands every detail of his tortilla chip and cracker business. While his extensive industry background is primarily in sales, through the years, he’s grown familiar with “welding and screwdrivers,” as he puts it, and doesn’t hesitate to step into the production fray, wrench in hand, to troubleshoot a glitch on the line. Then, once the line is operational again, he walks to the end, selects a finished blue tortilla chip and samples it with a knowing smile. After all, it’s his name above the door—and on every pack of RW Garcia tortilla chips and crackers that hits retail in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia. He’s in the minute details and the big decisions. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.
‘Better-for-you’ from the beginning
Back in 1982, Garcia was working for a national tortilla chip company and saw an opportunity to set up a regional distribution system—and eventually opened his own plant. “We went from distributing someone else’s product with our label on it—in other words, private label—to, at one point, deciding that if we were ever going to control our destiny, we would have to start manufacturing a product on our own,” he says. [Read Full Article.]
– excerpted from Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery online. Written by, Douglas Peckenpaugh.