GGG Newsletter Q2 2020

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TO BE PART OF EVERY FOOD EXPERIENCE atalanta + camerican + de medici + finica + khi + jf braun + swiss chalet fine foods + tipico

HIGHLIGHTS

Q2 UPDATE 2020

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ATALANTA 75 YEARS STRONG

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GGG GIVING DONATES

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NEW ENTREMONT CAMPAIGN

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GELLERT GLOBAL GROUP

ATALANTA STRONG STRIVING TO BE A PART OF

EVERY FOOD EXPERIENCE FOR 75 YEARS

“We have tremendous faith that we will persevere.

Our dedicated people and talented suppliers ensure our ability to provide our customers with the best possible food experiences for years to come.�

-Thomas Gellert, President of Atalanta

Although we did not get the opportunity to celebrate our 75th anniversary at the Fancy Food Show in New York City this summer, we want to extend our heartfelt thanks and gratitude to our employees, suppliers, customers and community. We would not have reached this milestone without your invaluable partnership and support.

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GE RP O N T RAC K A N D O N B U DG E T OUR PROJECT TEAM DID A GREAT JOB OF KEEPING GERP ON TRACK AND ON BUDGET. THE OVERALL STATUS IS “YELLOW” FOR TWO REASONS. 1. COVID-19: it significantly impacted the project approach, schedule, delivery, cost, etc. We have adjusted our plan and action continuously to keep GERP on schedule and mitigate COVID-19 impact.

2. Increase of project scope.

GERP ACHIEVEMENTS WITH KHI: • Implemented MDM (Master Data Management) Naming Convention, KHI CRP-1 (Conference Room Pilot: 1st round testing), KHI Data Conversion-1.

• Workflow Design and 3PL Integration Design.

• TraceGains: begin to set up a test environment for suppliers and producers.

• Go Live Date: August for KHI! Then roll out to the rest of the group.

GGG KICKS OFF SP OT L I G H T SE G M E N T Human Resources is kicking off a new spotlight segment to help promote employee visibility and community with Senior Leaders while working from home. Shen Lui was the first to be spotlighted.

F I V E G U YS SP R E A DS T H E L OV E During this time, The Five Guys team took the opportunity to share and spread the “LOVE.” They are donating meals to front line healthcare workers.

Sadly, the Five Guys team lost one of their own to COVID-19. As a family, they pulled together and set up a GoFundMe page that raised over 10k for the family of the deceased.

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GELLERT GLOBAL GROUP

THE DARN CAT NEEDS TO BE ON MY DESK AS MUCH AS HE CAN, LOL!”- MEG SCHAEFER

GGG A DA PTS TO WORK I N G F ROM H O M E For our teams to stay connected to their coworkers, Shareena Guiao led an initiative to create a social sharing space for GGG employees. She worked with IT to launch the Employee Network on Podio. Over 312 of GGG employees belong to the page, and more are joining weekly. This is a space to reach out to your coworkers and teammates across GGG.

I remind myself when I get lost in my tiny corner that I answer our home phone with, “Tom Gellert’s Office.” It’s like having a typical day at work but with my husband as my coworker immersed in his own office in our basement.

He is not allowed in “my office” from 8:30 to 5:30.

He was annoyed that I asked Alexa to tell him that it’s garbage day today. I didn’t know Alexa reminded him while he was in a conference call. -Shareena Guiao

Got a nice email from a customer complimenting our warehouse team for getting them set up for a pickup in 01. Strong Work TEAM!

Stephen Wilson

By being a part of the “work from home adventure podio space,” I am learning about people I normally would not cross paths with. And I think that is great.

I am now finding myself on projects, which include people I have never worked with before, but now, I have seen a picture of their dog, or know their favorite beverage, or simply have seen a question that I had thought of myself but never found the right way to ask.- Marc Eisseen

Steve Kaufman I exceeded expectations this morning by making a typical diner breakfast complete with home fries! Why does a diner call them home fries?

While at home, all is QUIET! Very, very quiet. No David Sciueche wheeling and dealing.”

- Amelia Albero

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GGG GIVING DONATES TO LOCAL COMMUNITIES In the spirit of our giving culture across GGG, we have been able to give back to our local communities.

Below are just a few examples of how we have helped those in need: GELLERT SOUTH donated chocolate to our New Orleans distributor Perrone and Sons, who used it to make meals for employees at Oschner Hospital.

They also gave chocolate to POB United, a local nonprofit, who used it to make chocolate chip cookies for local hospital employees.

ATALANTA donated various grocery items to Feeding America, a nonprofit that has over 200 food banks nationwide. The NJ warehouse also donated 65 cases of olives to the Community Foodbank of NJ in Hillside.

FINICA FOODS in Canada donated 145 cases of various kinds of cheese and mousse to the Food for Life food program and another 145 cases to Eden Food Bank.

Camerican/KHI partnered with our client, Smoothie King, to donate smoothies to healthcare workers and first responders.

G G G WAR EH OU S ES W I N T HE G O LD EN A PPL E!

MVPS 2020

GENERATE TEAMWORK Arthur Khayat: Atalanta Luis Gallardo: GGG

EXCEED EXPECTATIONS Daniel Sanchez: Atalanta Christine Damour: Atalanta Lauri Gordon: Camerican

LEAD BY EXAMPLE Jake Weiner: Atalanta Eileen Chen: Camerican

Mind Body Wellness Challenge, we traveled 28,597 miles.

1ST PLACE: SOLE BROTHERS Ed Arce, Israel Aguilera, Jayme Perez, Ludovich Johnson, Orlando Rodriguez 2ND PLACE: TEAMWORK Aristol Melchor, Ines Delgaedo, Maggie Luna, Monica Calderon, Staffan Juelsson 3RD PLACE: ACHILLES HEELS Anna Gonzales, Brian Shoemaker, Jean McLennan, John McLennan, Karen Tedeschi, Larry Abramson

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GELLERT GLOBAL GROUP

ENTREMONT TO LAUNCH CAMPAIGN IN Q4 The French cheese brand Entremont and the Marketing team are developing a new Retail and Foodservice campaign called the French Connection.

This campaign will feature four kinds of cheese from Entremont: Comté, Emmental, Forest, and French Brie along with DeMedici product from A L’Olivier, Edmond Fallot and Esprit du Sel. Here is a sneak peek at the campaign.

FOUR EXTRA-VIRGIN OLIVE OILS FROM DE MEDICI IMPORTS WON AWARDS AT THE EIGHTH ANNUAL NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL OLIVE OIL COMPETITION De Medici Imports won awards at the eighth annual New York International Olive Oil Competition (NYIOOC) in May, the world’s largest olive oil quality contest.

Marqués de Griñón, a medium blend from Castilla-La Mancha, Spain, and Mandranova Cerasuola, a robust Cerasuola from Sicily, received Gold awards.

Silver prizes went to Mandranova Nocellara, a medium Nocellara del Belice from Sicily, and L’Intenditore Melchiorri DOP, a full-bodied oil from the foothills of Umbria. Quality olive oil exhibits fruitiness, bitterness, and pungency; the award winners demonstrated exceptional harmony and complexity. They are all available at a 10% discount at demedici.com.

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ACTIVE PROMOTIONS AT THIS TIME OF PUBLICATION

MARKETING TEAM PIVOTS DURING COVID-19 During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Marketing Department took the time to re-evaluate the structure and focus as a team. For years, the department’s resources were tied up, supporting the execution of 8 to 9 trade shows annually. Trade show execution is labor-intensive and time-consuming. It was the most significant Marketing effort for our organization and within an instant, the need to support such activities was eliminated. The department decided to quickly pivot and use the time to build retail and foodservice promotional plans for 2020 and 2021.

Marissa DeMaio, Senior Director of Marketing explains the new direction, “For years, we tried to create strategic promotional efforts and tools to support both sales channels, but with limited resources, it was a challenge to find time to manage both the trade show execution and all other marketing activities and initiatives. We felt this was our chance to focus on creating a promotional calendar and supplemental marketing tools for both foodservice and retail sales channels. In the beginning, the content we created was to support inventory movement through areas of the business where we saw opportunities for growth like pizza delivery and take-out.

From there, we moved on to other

concepts to support delivery and take-out business that was steady.

We also saw increased activity with retail and therefore began to create content to support that channel.”

Beyond creating COVID-19 related materials, the team began to develop a calendar of themes with guidance and feedback from the Sales Channels on areas of focus. The Marketing Department has made the execution of these materials a priority for the organization and enjoys collaborating with Sales and BDMS to bring good ideas, great products and discounts to the table!

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GELLERT GLOBAL GROUP

DE MEDICI TO LAUNCH FIRST COOKBOOK! “SHARED PASSIONS” The cookbook is a compilation of family recipes from De Medici friends and partners. It features a Forward by Massimo Bottura, a three-Michelin-star chef and creator of the Villa Manodori. The Digital version is coming soon!

DEMEDICI.COM

RECORD GROWTH IN 2020. SALES 5X HIGHER THAN 2019!

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LA ROSE NOIRE LAUNCHES NEW PRODUCT LA ROSE NOIRE IN WEGMANS Swiss Chalet’s Wegman’s win was the placement of LRN Fruity Tart Shells in Strawberry, Lemon and Green Tea and Single Origin Chocolate Shell.

FOODSERVICE - GRAB AND GO AND LABOR SAVING SUCCESS Foodservice Category Conversions and Labor-Saving Successes with Tuna, Italian Cheeses, Spanish Cheeses, Goat Cheese, Brie, and Menu.

RETAIL SALES ATALANTA TEAMWORK HELPS HEB LAUNCH GALLI PARMIGIANO WITH FACE MASKS FOR EMPLOYEES Amid COVID, HEB opened a brand-new store in Austin in June. They used this opening to launch the new Galli Parmigiano in their stores. Galli is a single source dairy, which is a growing trend for retailers. Andrea Berti came up with the idea to provide Galli Face Masks to the HEB partners as part of the launch. In a quick turnaround, Reshma Phatak from marketing designed and managed the production of the masks. On the store level, Davee Benson did her merchandising magic with a beautiful display of Galli Parmigiano.

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GELLERT GLOBAL GROUP

CHEESE & SPECIALTY MEATS DEPARTMENT NEW ITEMS IN COSTCO

PECORINO WITH TRUFFLE sliced at Maestri. First rotation in July 2020. Label and picture attached (we will have a beauty shot done next week of the finished product).

GELATO CAKE. The first rotations went well, so Costco placed an additional order (full container from Italy).

CROSS DEPARTMENT TEAMWORK GETS HALLOUMI INTO TRADER JOES This project was full of many barriers and required several departments’ efforts to be successful. The project started well over a year ago and has needed intense and heavy involvement from our sales team – Virginia Lazzaro, Daniela Tragni, QA team – Brianna McEvoy / Jiahui Jian, Supply Chain team – Maryann Toro, and BDM team.

Many times over the last year, the project appeared to be at a standstill, but the efforts of the groups involved kept pushing for solutions and ways to make the business work.

LIDL accepted the private label of Wensleydale with Cranberries, also beginning in September.

They are currently taking this item under the supplier brand.

ALDI TAKES IN GOAT CHEESE Aldi placed orders for the Goat Variety Pack with an estimated volume of 11,0000 cases!

Package includes:

• Goat Cheddar • Truffle Goat log • Goat Brie • Everything Goat

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BOAR’S HEAD APPROVED PRIVATE LABEL

The English Category has also seen a lot of success with Vince and Liz at the helm: They won Boar’s Head Private Label Irish Cheddar- launching September 2020.

GROCERY DEPARTMENT

GOAT CHEESE ON THE MOVE Rosalie and Vince won the IMA bid for goat cheese and have business starting with them in October.

Lidl also began their goat cheese business with the core range of goat logs under their private label.

Aldi has moved forward with its private label goat cheese project as well, with plain, honey, and garlic herb logs.

CHIMAY IN FOR Q3 AT TRADER JOES Chimay Autumn will be placed into Trader Joes for a Q3, it will be featured in their October Flyer. We also are going to put Mifroma Fondue into Aldi and Lidl for Q4.

The Grocery Department keeps connected virtually with weekly Zoom meetings, including a birthday party for Bob Gellert!

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GELLERT GLOBAL GROUP

CAMERICAN/KHI SHOUT OUT PROGRAM

HELPING HANDS Karla Bayo, a Sales Support Coordinator at KHI, collected funds to create “basic baskets” for an impoverished community in El Salvador in conjunction with her family, who live there. The baskets offered supplies during the country’s lockdown, when people weren’t allowed to go to work. Each basket contained beans, instant soup, flour, oatmeal, rice, salt and oil.

Each week, employees send HR shout outs about their fellow coworker’s hard work.

All nominations were shared in an email, and one winner was randomly selected from each company. Over two months, we had 14 winners and over 55 shout outs.

The program was well-received, and we would like to thank everyone for their additional efforts during this time.

CAMERICAN HAS A PUBLISHED WRITER Alex Stransky, Assistant Claims Manager at Camerican, selfpublished a paperback book through Amazon. “Somewhere Far From Here” is about a teenage boy who is desperately trying to fit in, deal with adolescence, and figure out where he belongs with friends, family and high school life.

CAMERICAN VIRTUAL HAPPY HOURS Camerican hosted two virtual company happy hours. As a fun twist, the most recent one featured a game show-style questionnaire section (employees with May birthdays were chosen as contestants), and a contest for best Zoom background.

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GGG PERSONAL NOTES CONGRATULATIONS TO YANNICK MEIJER OF ATALANTA Born: April 10, 2020 Parents : Yannick Meijer and Sandra Polak Baby name : Noah Jacob Meijer-Polak Birth weight: 7 lbs 14 oz.

CONGRATULATIONS TO JENNIFER TRAUB OF CAMERICAN Born: May 26, 2020 Baby name : Walter John Mitrevski Birth weight: 6lbs 15 oz.

DO YOU HAVE UNIQUE STORIES TO SHARE? The Giving Team wants to highlight our employees that take time to work with nonprofit organizations, mentor children or volunteer at their local charities. Inspirational stories and acts of kindness can make a difference in the lives of people. We want to share these stories with everyone. Please send information to: givingteam@gellertglobalgroup.com

A PROUD MOMMY BY SHAREENA GUIAO Every Sunday, my daughter, Lira Camille “Kim” Roman, is up early morning when most of us are sleeping in. Armed with scrubs, reused N95, a smile, compassion, and mom’s fervent prayers to protect her, she pursues her Biochemsitry post -grad studies at Columbia Universiy. The passion and drive to do whatever she can to help identify the treatment and cure for COVID-19 and COVID-19 for cancer patients seem to energize her. Columbia University Hospital, where she studies and works as a Senior Clinical Trial Researcher, embarked on their clinical research trial for this COVID-19 protocol.

She assured me not to worry about her. I told her I worry 10,000 times more than when I dropped her off to pre-school when she was three and a half years old. As a Mom, you can’t help but worry about your child who goes head-on against this virus. There is nothing you want more than to protect and take care of her like you did when she was young. I can only pray that she will be safe and protected, along with all the front liners who step out of their homes and take risks to keep us safe and healthy everyday.

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GELLERT GLOBAL GROUP