The NSA Blog

Message from Frank Grande of Quirch Foods – 2017 Company of the Year

As I reflect on Quirch Foods being awarded vendor of the year by the Florida Chapter of the NSA, I am reminded of how it all started in the summer of 2010. The founding group of NSA members came to visit us at Quirch Foods (Tony Diaz, Carlos Hernandez, Raifiz Vargas) among others.

The idea was simple but bold.

They wanted to create an independent retail grocery organization that worked together to improve store operations, compete against the national chains, provide funding and support in the communities they operated and forms a bond. To create a “think group” that could help build the independent retail grocery business in Florida, similar to what the NSA had accomplished in New York. Eight years later the mission has been accomplished. Congratulations!

The Quirch Foods story is very similar to the story of most everyone in this room. The company was founded 50 years ago by Don Guillermo Quirch and his two sons Eduardo Quirch and Guillermo Quirch III. They started with very little after losing all they had during the Cuban Revolution. They came to America and started their lives all over again, doing what they knew how to do – servicing the food industry. Fifty years later we are now going on our 4th generation of Quirch involvement in the business and have grown a significant business that sells to retailers across the continental U.S. Latin America and the Caribbean. Our goal is simple – provide top quality service and work closely with our partner customers to have “win-win” opportunities that will grow our mutual businesses. We firmly believe and focus on the Independent Supermarket/Grocery operator in every market we serve. If you win, we win, and we all win together. In order to continue this success, we will need to continue working closely together to ensure the Independent Operators are offering top quality products and services that keep them competitive and viable with the ever-changing consumer demands. That means we have to be quicker and change faster than the National Retailers do today. One example of change is how we’re starting to leverage social media with our evolving customer bases. We’re focused on being on the leading edge of this changing and ever-growing trend.

I will leave you with 5 things we at Quirch Foods are focused on delivering:

  1. Attitude – Your attitude determines your success; a positive attitude is contagious.
  2. Minimizing mistakes – Think decisions through and focus on the details. We are a penny business and any/every mistake hurts.
  3. Capitalize on opportunities – We are presented with them every day. The key is to know which opportunities we will target and put all of our energy and focus into it. We must be bold and try new ideas.
  4. Everyone is a leader – One never knows where leadership will come from. We must seek it out at all levels, empowering people makes a difference.
  5. Find a New Way – Don’t keep doing things the same way we have done them in the past and expect great results, always seek out new ideas, opportunities, etc.

Thank you to the NSA for this fantastic recognition, we at Quirch Foods will do everything in our power to continue to serve you and your customers the best we possibly can.

Thank you!

Frank Grande

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