Heading East Bay Filipino food manufacturing, distributing company a labor of love

For Susie Quesada, meals has at all times been entrance and middle. As a younger little one she taste-tested unique Filipino ice cream, in addition to completely different flavors of do-it-yourself breakfast sausage, lumpia and extra for her household’s enterprise.

Grandmother Maria Quesada, a local of the Philippines, had opened her first retailer, Orientex, promoting import handicrafts in Mountain View in 1969, later including Filipino ice cream with tropical flavors equivalent to mango, inexperienced tea, avocado, ube (purple yam) and lychee below the Magnolia label. The family-run firm would grow to be a number one American innovator of tropical ice cream and milk bars – produced in Oakland after which Pittsburg.

That was simply the ice cream. The enterprise, later named Ramar Meals — in honor of grandparents Ramon and Maria — would develop so as to add a wide range of Filipino frozen meals, equivalent to barbecue meat, lumpia, steamed buns, dumplings and extra, ultimately turning into a Bay Space chief within the manufacture of Filipino frozen meals, which had been distributed nationally and internationally.

Quesada had at all times labored within the household enterprise, however when it got here to deciding on a profession, the Walnut Creek resident regarded elsewhere.

“I at all times liked working with children,” Quesada stated, noting she loved teaching youth soccer. “So after I went to school, I believed I’d love to show, so I went about getting my instructing credential.”

However then there was that unforgettable household dinner. Her dad, Primo Quesada, stated, “How would you prefer to work within the household enterprise? What if one thing occurs to me?” By the tip of the dinner, the San Lorenzo center faculty trainer agreed to take a depart of absence from instructing.

Quesada by no means went again, however somewhat discovered a option to incorporate her instructing expertise in her new profession within the household enterprise.

“The abilities that I introduced largely had been listening and curiosity and tradition constructing,” she stated.

Quesada sat down with this information group to debate the Pittsburg enterprise that now employs 250 to 300 staff. The interview has been edited for size and readability.

Q: How did Ramar Meals get began?
A. My grandmother (the late Maria Quesada) was a serial entrepreneur. She began many companies in her lifetime. So she began this one once they came to visit right here from the Philippines within the late Sixties. She had 11 children, and within the Philippines, when you might have that many children, it is advisable discover jobs for them. Nicely, so she simply began opening companies, and every one a child would take over.

She began promoting Filipino handicrafts on the flea market in San Jose. After which folks began asking for some jewellery, furnishings, issues like that … and a few meals which might be fundamental to the Filipino weight-reduction plan. At first, our firm had a couple of retail shops because the Filipino group was rising right here, and he or she would import merchandise and my dad and his brothers and sisters would unload the containers and promote them.

My grandmother was the visionary, so she’d give you the thought, after which she’d have any person execute it. So it was both her husband or one in all her children, and on this case, it was one in all my uncles and my dad who had been working it (Ramar Meals).

Q: What had been a number of the challenges?

A. My dad tried to import meals from the Philippines, however there are loads of guidelines about what you’ll be able to and might’t import. You possibly can’t import meat. You possibly can’t import dairy. So, he determined let’s begin making it, and he began making the ice cream first after which began making the sausages and the egg rolls. And so he was the one who actually was the visionary who introduced this import enterprise into a producing enterprise.

At first, my mother or aunt or uncle would make it and folks would come over and style the completely different flavors. Finally, he began having somebody prepare dinner these merchandise. He’d discover a producer till we had sufficient vital mass to put money into our personal gear.

Q. You had been concerned within the firm early on?

A. My dad had a warehouse in Oakland. There was a small room in that facility and he had an ice cream machine that he used to begin making ice cream. I used to be working within the enterprise after I was 8. I used to be placing all of the labels on the ice cream. I acquired one cent for each one which I did.

Q.  How did you later transition from instructing to working the household enterprise?

A. My dad stated that it might take me two years to like it. I began working in accounts receivable after which in stock. I went by means of every division and discovered completely different components of the enterprise, and I began to see the way it all linked. I believe that probably the most compelling factor for me was that my dad had constructed this enterprise, and all of those households that work for the enterprise they depend on it, that is their livelihood. And so I form of realized when my dad didn’t make it to my soccer video games when he was busy constructing this enterprise.

Q. What helped you as a lady working a global enterprise?

A. I used to be actually fortunate in that after I first took over. I used to be in a position to faucet into some actually nice enterprise organizations. One is the Ladies Presidents Group. It’s a world group that helps girls with working a enterprise. And thru that, I’ve a neighborhood chapter that I meet with each month and we discuss issues that may assist us develop our companies. And thru that, I gained a scholarship to Harvard Enterprise College for his or her Proprietor President Administration program. I accomplished that in 2018. It was very eye-opening. That was my enterprise faculty. I met superb folks in different industries. And so they’ve additionally helped me relating to the technique of what we need to do subsequent as an organization. I actually depend on these enterprise teams, as a result of it simply challenges you and I like the problem. I believe that’s what’s helped us with our plans shifting ahead.

Q. What’s your loved ones’s legacy with this firm?

A. My grandmother’s imaginative and prescient was to help the rising Filipino group and in addition to have a future for her children. … I believe when my dad took over within the Seventies, he noticed the rising Filipino inhabitants and the way they’re actually eager about these merchandise he couldn’t import, he actually needed to help the Filipino group once more. And I believe that’s what our legacy has been, is to proceed to help the group, our workers and anybody who’s eager about consuming any kind of meals.

Q. What are the names of manufacturers of meals prospects within the Bay Space may acknowledge and the place would they buy them?

A. Our most distinguished model is the Magnolia model, which homes our ice cream, our meats – sausages and cured meats – and a few of our lumpia. They are often bought in any respect Asian supermarkets and located in another areas, relying on the place you might be. Costco carries our egg rolls and a few Walmarts additionally carry our meals.

Q. What are a few of your new well-liked meals?

A. We launched a boba ice cream two years in the past however then there was a world scarcity (of boba), so we needed to relaunch it in 2021. Now there’s a steady provide. It’s a kind of merchandise that I believe lots of people find out about – particularly the youthful era. It was only a option to carry our identical flavors to a brand new era. This yr we’re additionally launching the Bliss line, an ice cream that’s low-fat, low-sugar. Then we launched a brand new taste of ube and cookies and cream this yr.

Q. What makes your organization particular?

A. What actually makes our firm particular is that very same consideration to those who my grandmother had, that my father had, that we proceed and simply make it possible for we care for our folks. We care for our enterprise, and I believe we’ve acquired an important product due to our folks.

Q. How did Ramar Meals survive the pandemic and what does the longer term appear like?

A. We’re simply very excited that the provision chain has been discovered after the pandemic. It’s good to really have a product. In the course of the pandemic, it was actually tough to simply even get uncooked supplies and to maintain up with demand. The grocery market enterprise was excellent however it was not so good for our restaurant market. Loads of our restaurant prospects closed. We tried to assist them with expertise … and get them on (meals) supply providers.

SUSIE QUESADA

Place: President, Ramar Meals Worldwide

Schooling: UC Berkeley, St. Mary’s Faculty, Harvard Enterprise College Govt Schooling Program

Earlier work expertise: Center faculty trainer in San Lorenzo

Residence: Walnut Creek

FIVE THINGS (FUN FACTS) TO KNOW ABOUT SUSIE:

1. Loves the outside and hikes two miles a day.

2. Likes to prepare dinner and eat – together with leftovers.

3. Her favourite meals is a Filipino dish referred to as kare-kare, an oxtail stew made with a peanut butter base.

4.  Loves soccer. She performs each girls’s and co-ed soccer, indoors and open air.

5. Practices yoga.