Otis McAllister Inc.

Otis McAllister
Corporate Newsletter
Volume XIV
this issue
New Travel Retail Division
IAADFS Show /Otis visits DR
ISM Show/Frey Factory Tour
Farewell to Mike Gnecco /
Asiatic Visits OM
Otis Ahead of Ghirardelli Sales
NASFT /Gulfood Shows
Village Harvest Top Shelf
“Taste of Elegance “
Ghirardelli Demand, Guatemala
New Travel Retail Division
The company is proud to welcome a new Travel Retail division. American
Caribbean Gateway –ACG – merged with Otis McAllister this April bringing new commerce opportunities and an expanding premium brand portfolio. Based in Fort Lauderdale, ACG has over 25 years experience servicing the Travel Retail industry, specializing in airport stores, cruise lines,
and border stores worldwide. Both companies unite under a common
business culture based on a passion for innovating global trade and driving customer service. This new alliance will produce exciting ventures
and generate significant growth throughout Latin America, the Caribbean
and Asia Pacific. By combining resources and pooling together expertise,
the addition of this new division will advance performance and future
expansion in these lucrative markets. The company is excited to welcome
ACG to the dynamic fold here at Otis McAllister, Inc.
Who is American Caribbean Gateway?
Nick Tamma, CEO of Travel Retail, started in the industry in 1985. He has represented a variety of highly-competitive brands in Travel Retail such as Jackson Family Wines, Beringer
Blass, Budweiser, Imperial Tobacco, Scandinavian Tobacco Group, Ghirardelli, and Turin.
Justin Nee, Director of Confectionary, started at ACG in 2005. He is the head sales director
for all confectionary brands, currently managing accounts with Jelly Belly, Ghirardelli, Turin,
and Frey.
Marc Panara, Director of Tobacco, started at ACG in 2006. He is head sales director for all
tobacco brands, currently managing accounts with Scandinavian Tobacco Group and
General Cigar (#1 premium cigar co. in the world).
Matt Panara, Brand Manager, started at ACG in 2010. His responsibilities include brand
management, sales support, and office administration.
Carla Tamma, Brand Manager, started at ACG in 2011. Her responsibilities include brand
management, promotional graphics, and office administration.
What is Travel Retail?
The world’s first airport duty free shop was opened at Shannon Airport by Dr Brendan O’Regan in 1947 to
serve trans-Atlantic airline passengers travelling between North America and Europe. Flights would stop at
Shannon on both legs to refuel and passengers had time to kill before continuing on their journey. The argument by Dr O’Regan and his team was that, having passed passport control, the passenger had left the
country and therefore the duties/taxes of that country are invalid. All goods purchased after passport control should be considered duty-free. The idea was given the go-ahead in Ireland and the shop became an
instant success.
Duty Free has since become a prominent component of the larger Travel Retail industry. This encompasses
the sale of products exclusively within Travel Retail environments such as airport stores (both Duty Free
and Duty Paid), airlines (on board sales), cruise and ferry lines, down town duty free stores, and diplomatic
stores. Travel Retail products are currently divided into five different categories: liquor & wine, tobacco,
luxury products, confectionary & fine foods, and fragrance & cosmetics.
Recently the industry was ranked the 2nd fastest growing retail sector behind the Internet. In 2010, sales
turnover was just under $40 billion USD. As large as the market is, few businesses are aware of its existence
and ever expanding potential.
IAADFS Trade Show in Orlando, FL
Matt Panara, Nick Tamma, Carla Tamma, and Chloe Nicolaisen in ACG exhibition booth at the IAADFS
The International Association of Airport Duty Free Stores (IAADFS) held the annual Duty Free Show of the Americas this March in Orlando, FL. The event provides an excellent opportunity to meet with all industry members in
Travel Retail at one central location. ACG has exhibited a diversified Confectionary and Tobacco portfolio for the
past 20 years. The event helps to strengthen relationships with existing suppliers and customers but also paves
new roads for exciting opportunities currently in the market. This year ACG was very excited to have both Royce
Nicolaisen, Chairman and CEO of OM, and Chloe Nicolaisen, Business Development Specialist, attend for the first
time.
Otis McAllister Visits the Dominican Republic
Royce Nicolaisen, John Koppel, and Nick
Tamma visited the General Cigar factory in
the Dominican Republic where each premium cigar is hand rolled with superior
craftsmanship. The factory employees 2,500
skilled hand rollers and produces approximately 100 million cigars annually.
After the General Cigar tour Royce Nicolaisen visited a local food market in Santo
Domingo. Otis McAllister’s La Sirena brand
is known for superior quality in their local
markets and food stores and has become a
food staple for many Dominican families.
ISM Confectionary Show in Cologne, Germany
The ISM refers to International
Sweets World, the world’s leading
trade fair for the confectionary industry. The event was held in Cologne, Germany this January. Royce
Nicolaisen, Nick Tamma, and Justin
Nee attended with great success.
Two big deals were closed with Frey
Chocolates and Jelly Belly at this
event.
Nick Tamma and Royce Nicolaisen with a professional Chocolatier at the
Frey Cocktail & Dinner event.
Justin Nee Tours the Frey Factory
Justin Nee, Director of Confectionary Sales, had a wonderful opportunity to tour the Frey factory following the
ISM show in Cologne, Germany this past January. Frey is the #1 selling premium chocolate brand in Switzerland,
the largest consumer of chocolate per capita in the world. This rare opportunity also allowed Justin to taste their
premium chocolate fresh off the production line. While meeting with Frey, Justin finalized the business plan for
introducing Frey chocolates into ACG’s Travel Retail portfolio. Justin’s diligence and hard work has brought Frey
sales into the United States, Caribbean, and onboard cruise ships. This account will bring a large array of new opportunities, amplifying sales and opening many doors for the company.
A Fond Farewell to Mike Gnecco
After many decades of dedicated service to the food
industry, including many years at Otis McAllister, Inc.,
Mike Gnecco, Director of European Sales retired on February 1, 2012. With almost every employee present for
his farewell party, many tears were shed and many kind
sentiments were expressed by all to honor all the time,
effort, and expertise Mike had put into serving his customers, his vendors, and the mentoring he provided
everyone around him throughout his long and prestigious career. We thank you again in this newsletter and
want you to know that we will miss you Mike!
Asiatic Visits Otis McAllister
Jacqueline Acuña, Jirawat Srikong,
Weerawat Thongsinchailaoha, Nancy
Bieraugel, and James Kochheiser
We were honored to have Jirawat Srikong and Weerawat Thongsinchailaoha of Asiatic Agro visit our San Francisco office and meet with key Otis staff. Asiatic Agro (located in Thailand near Bangkok) is a conglomerate of
several food businesses including a coconut processing plant. They produce several kinds of coconut milk as
well as coconut juice, and coconut water. The Cheesecake Factory Restaurants selected coconut milk made by
Asiatic Agro as the product they wish to use in their restaurants. The product has been packed for Otis
McAllister under the Super Lucky Elephant brand, and is sold to DPI Distributors, Inc., who are servicing The
Cheesecake Factory restaurants through Sysco. We are excited to expand into coconut milk as there is a big
demand for coconut milk which seems is growing in the food service as well as grocery retail markets in the
US. The Super Lucky Elephant Coconut Milk has a high fat content and lots of flavor, and is considered a premium product.
Otis Ahead of Ghirardelli Sales
Royce Nicolaisen, Chairman and CEO of
Otis McAllister, and Dan Bush, Director of
Travel/Retail and Export of Ghirardelli
Chocolates attended the Ghirardelli National Sales Meeting in February at the San
Francisco Grand Hyatt, where Rob Budowski, Vice President of Sales at
Ghirardelli’s presented awards to Royce
and Dan for achieving some very impressive budget results.
Royce Nicolaisen and Dan Bush Celebrating Solid Achievements in Sales
Otis Attends NASFT 2012 – San Francisco
Since 1955, the Fancy Food
Shows have been North America’s largest specialty food and
beverage marketplace. Between
the Winter Show in San Francisco
and the Summer Show in New
York City, the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade
events bring in more than 40,000
attendees from more than 80
countries to see 260,000 innovative specialty food products such
as Village Harvest rice and grains
in dry and ready-to-eat frozen
packages. This year was recordsetting with many existing and
potential customers stopping by
our booth to get a look and taste
of our new and innovative products aimed at both high nutrition
and convenience. For more information about Village Harvest
rice and grain products, please
visit our web site at
www.villageharvestrice.com.
John and Nancy Bieraugel – NASFT 2012 - San Francisco
Otis McAllister Attends Gulfood 2012 – Dubai
This was Otis McAllister’s first time exhibiting at Gulfood in
Dubai. Karri Donahue and Alanna Maldonado presented
Martintelli’s Gold Medal apple juice products and
Ghirardelli’s Chocolates at the show that is known as the
world’s biggest annual food and hospitality exhibition
(68,681 trade visitors attended the show that covered an
exhibition hall of more than 100,898sqm). More than 3,800
exhibitors were in attendance, and better than 61% of
those were international buyers. For more information
about Gulfood, or to obtain a Post Show Report for the
2012 show, please visit www.gulfood.com.
Karri Donahue and members of Minel Gida Ltd. STI.
Village Harvest Products – A True Top Shelf Item
For many years now, the family of Village Harvest Rice products has expanded to satisfy our many consumers’
demand for high quality ethnic rice and grain ingredients for their recipes and dishes. With imported Basmati
rice from India, Jasmine rice from Thailand, Arborio rice from Italy, and Quinoa from Bolivia, consumers everywhere are singing praises about our products, earning our brand recognition as a true “top shelf” product,
such as the above photos taken from a recent visit to an Albertson’s store in Texas. To see what people are
saying about our products, visit: http://villageharvestrice.com/about/the-fan-room. www.gulfood.com.
Otis Attends “Taste of Elegance” in Pittsburgh, PA
Sysco Pittsburgh invited Otis McAllister
to present our rice products at their
premier food show “Taste of Elegance”
held at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh. The
one day show always has a huge turnout of Sysco Pittsburgh customers who
enjoy gourmet samples in an atmosphere of “elegance”. Presentation is
key for the suppliers who are invited to
participate. It gave Otis the opportunity to meet many sales people and
customers to expand our business.
Nancy Bieraugel of Otis McAllister, Inc. and Margaret Celani, Merchandising
Manager for Sysco Foods Service
Ghirardelli Products are in Demand in Guatemala
When it comes to promoting
and selling the finest products available, the Otis family
really gets into the spirit
(Christmas spirit that is…). As
a testament to that spirit,
Ignacio and Marcos, sons of
Lorena Ruiz Perdomo from
our Guatemala office were
busy promoting Ghirardelli
Chocolates at Santa’s SugarLand stand in Guatemala during the holidays, where the
demand for Ghirardelli
Chocolates is growing rapidly
and quickly becoming a
Christmas tradition.
John Bieraugel Joins the Food Service Team
John Bieraugel of Otis McAllister, Inc. and Ralph Lowe of Sysco Food Service at
Sysco Taste of Elegance Food Show – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – February 2012
John was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and raised in Hudson, Wisconsin with his
younger brother David, by his parents Bob and Nancy. Throughout high school and into
his college years John enjoyed working in the food industry for Kristian Regale Inc., a family-owned specialty beverage company, where he learned a variety of skills while working
in all aspects of the business. He graduated from Hudson High School and went on to
Inver Hill Community College where he studied business, history, and Spanish. While in
college the housing market was booming, John left college to pursue a career as a builder/
contractor, where he worked for Bluff Creek Builders for four years. He learned a lot in
those years and decided to build a spec home for himself with the hopes of selling in the
future for a profit. When the housing market bubble burst, John started his own company
called JB Tiles & More. Although he did very well for himself, he wanted a career that offered more stability and opportunity. At the time, Otis McAllister was searching for talent
to further manage its Food Service Division. With opportunity knocking, John took on the
challenge and joined the team. John is currently working under Nancy Bieraugel for the
Rice Division at Otis McAllister. His primary focus is Food Service sales. Other responsibilities include working with Woodman’s, Roundy’s and Supervalu, who are all grocery retail
customers that Otis sells to on a direct basis. John is very excited to be part of the Otis McAllister team and is currently
studying Spanish and taking computer classes in addition to working for Otis. John has many interests including scuba diving, snowboarding, camping, hunting, and fishing.
Gilda Kochheiser Joins the Office Services Team
Gilda Kochheiser recently joined Otis McAllister as an
Office Services Coordinator whose primary job is to
digitally archive over a decade of printed files. She is
also the friendly face behind the reception desk that
greets the many visitors our staff meets with daily.
After graduating National High School in Zambales,
Philippines, she went on to study general business
and computer programming at Columbian College.
After working in the restaurant management industry
for nearly a decade, she decided that a career change
was in order and began studying medicine, earning
first a Medical Assistant certification, then the coveted Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) certification, a certification that she put to good use at Oak Valley Hospital
where she worked in the MED/SURG Department helping patients recover after surgery. Gilda is fluent in English,
Tagalog, Ilocano, and Visayan. The hobbies that she enjoys most are gardening and networking with her friends and
family on Facebook.
Damaso Vidalon Joins the Latin American Division
Providing expert freelance translation and
language tutorial service for nearly four
years, Damaso Vidalon has accepted our
offer to join the Latin American Division as
an Exports Coordinator. Tasked with the
chief responsibility of assisting with complex Spanish legal (trademarks, export documentation, product registrations, etc.),
general business, and translation services,
he will also remain our resident Spanish
language guru and continue helping Otis
staff with learning and becoming more
proficient with the Spanish language.
Girl Scouts – A Worthy Cause
Victoria Umaña is truly one in a million. In fact, she is one of 3.2
million Girl Scouts (2.3 million girl members and 890,000 adult
members working primarily as volunteers) that work continuously to inspire, challenge, and empower girls everywhere.
The Girl Scouts was founded by Juliette Gordon Low on March
12, 1912, in Savannah, Georgia. On March 16, 1950, the Girl
Scouts of the USA was officially chartered by the U.S. Congress.
For over a century the Girl Scouts organization has helped girls
discover the fun, friendship, and empowerment of girls by putting together extraordinary field trips, sports skill-building clinics, community service projects, cultural exchanges, and environmental stewardships – helping girls grow courageous and
strong in the process. Girl Scouting helps girls develop their full
individual potential; relate to others with increasing understanding, skill, and respect; develop values to guide their actions
and provide the foundation for sound decision-making; and contribute to the improvement of society through their abilities,
leadership skills, and cooperation with others. At Otis, we
thought we would do our part by contributing to the average
sales of 175 million boxes sold annually (in 28 varieties,
with Thin Mints making up 25% of the overall sales as the
most popular variety). Thin Mints anyone?
Girl Scout Victoria Umaña delivering her cookies
Editor-in-Chief:
Royce Nicolaisen
Editor:
James Everett Kochheiser
Assistant Editor,
Graphic Layout & Design:
Carla Tamma
Contributors:
Global Trade Experts Since 1892
Come Join Us

FHA 2012 Singapore at Booth 7D2-10 in the USA Pavilion at Singapore
Expo (Halls 1-9), April 17-20, 2012

SIAL China 2012 at Booth N4-D034 in the USA Pavilion at the Shanghai
New International Expo Centre, May 9-11, 2012

2012 Sweets and Snacks Expo in Chicago, IL May 8-12

ASUTIL Conference 2012 at Iguazu Falls in South America, May 20- June 2.
John Bieraugel
Nancy Bieraugel
Karri Donahue
Gilda Kochheiser
Mary Lobaugh
Alanna Maldonado
Lorena Ruiz Perdomo
Victor and Victoria Umaña
Damaso Vidalon
Email comments to
jkochheiser@otismcallister.com
ISSUE XIV March 2012
OTIS MCALLISTER, INC
Otis McAllister, Inc. is a proud recipient
of the U.S. President’s “E” Award
for Export Excellence
160 PINE STREET, SUITE 350
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111
415.421.6010 ph
415.421.6016 fax
www.OTISMCALLISTER.com