Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/725016
F. JAMES MCGILLOWAY The Gilway Co. Jim McGilloway, 85, ran supermarkets in the Northeast for many years and migrated to the specialty food industry in 1971. Ten years later he founded The Gilway Co., an importer of specialty foods from Great Britain and Europe. Inspiration… A headhunter led McGilloway to leave his career running supermarkets and enter the specialty food business, though at the time, as his son, Sean, explained while accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award on his father's behalf, he "wasn't familiar with the term specialty food. He knew them as foods from Europe nobody wanted." McGilloway soon became one of the original importers of Twinings tea and Tiptree preserves from England as well as Tobler chocolate from Switzerland. "I didn't have any difficulty," he says of the transition. "From my experience in the food industry I saw tremendous opportunities that weren't developed." He believed his products belonged in super- markets, and should not be limited to specialty shops. "It was where the future was. If you stay in specialty stores you're only appealing to a small number of people. I wanted more traffic." The Gilway Co. became well known not only for Tiptree pre- serves but as the source for Tate & Lyle Demerara Sugar Cubes, the iconic Bird's Custard Powder and Gilway Malt Vinegar for English- style fish and chips. McGilloway's background was not in business but he had a natural instinct for it. He was born in Northern Ireland and came to the U.S. to attend Fordham University, where he studied lib- eral arts. "It's a good basis for anything," he says of his degree. For decades his base was New Jersey but after he retired, at 75, he and his English wife, Evelyn, moved to London. Impact… McGilloway notes how consumers today can shop for specialty foods in supermarkets all over the country. When he paved the way, persuading the industry to give his products shelf space, "it was like the sun coming up and people saw the light," he says. From 1986 to 1988 he served as chair of the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (now Specialty Food Association), and worked to reshape its direction. "Since I came from the supermarket industry and others on the board had built their businesses in specialty food shops, I was a bit unwelcome at first," he says. "But over a period of time people came around." The Future… "I'm thrilled at the progress of the Fancy Food Show and how it's evolved into something that's very, very good and gives people a window to present their products," he says. "That's where you'll find tomorrow's winners." In his acceptance speech, Sean McGilloway recalled Jim's sound Fancy Food Show advice to "always visit the 10-foot booths. That's where the future is." Today, McGilloway keeps up with what's going on in the industry by visiting stores in London and believes specialty foods are on the right track. "They're part of the mainstream as they always should have been," he says. "I believed in the American entrepre- neurial spirit to develop new products and said the time would come when domestic specialty foods would be the major share of our busi- ness in the industry." He's happy to have been proved right. "I believed in the American entrepreneurial spirit to develop new products and said the time would come when domestic specialty foods would be the major share of our business in the industry." PHOTOS: THE GILWAY CO. 40 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com