IRVINE, Calif. — Golden State Foods (GSF), one of the largest diversified suppliers to the foodservice and retail industries, is pleased to announce two leadership promotions. Based in GSF’s Irvine, California corporate headquarters, Stephen Wetterau will serve as Corporate Vice President, Strategy and Innovation, while Shane Blanchette has earned a promotion to the Frisco, Texas-based role of Group Vice President, Operations, Quality Custom Distribution (QCD).
“Stephen has grown a tremendous amount in his leadership roles at GSF and QCD over the past 14 years,” said Bob Wolpert, GSF Corporate Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer. “This new role will enable Stephen to leverage his experience, learnings, and successes and apply them more broadly to other businesses and areas of the organization. I am confident that Stephen will bring his fresh, innovative approach to this new role, and will continue the Wetterau spirit, legacy and culture throughout our company to best serve our associates and customers.”
A GSF associate since 2009, Wetterau will broaden his exposure and interaction with all facets of the company’s global enterprises, partnering with the GSF Management Committee to help advance strategic priorities and support GSF’s strong culture of innovation. In his most recent role leading the U.S. logistics business for QCD, he leveraged his strategy, structure, and culture expertise to help GSF’s U.S. distribution centers successfully navigate the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, Wetterau guided many of QCD’s achievements in business plan results, developed leaders with a strong focus on structure and succession planning throughout the organization, supported warehouse management initiatives across multiple distribution centers, architected new site layouts and site plans, and supported the launch of a new customer in Southern California.
Earlier in his GSF career, Wetterau held roles of increasing responsibility as QCD’s Vice President, Logistics; Group Vice President, QCD West; Regional Operations Director, QCD West; Assistant General Manager for the company’s former City of Industry, California distribution facility; Strategic Procurement Manager – Centralized Leasing Corporation; and Continuous Improvement Analyst, QCD. Stephen earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Business with an emphasis in International Business from Chapman University in Orange, California.
In his new role, Blanchette will plan, direct, and coordinate the ordering, warehouse, and distribution activities of all QCD distribution centers to ensure customers obtain required products in a timely manner. A 25-year industry veteran and QCD associate since 2016, he most recently oversaw QCD’s strategic continuous improvement initiatives, including warehouse and transportation operations, new facility builds, optimization projects, and quality standards to support strategic customer initiatives and overall growth. Among his impactful accomplishments, Blanchette developed the data analytics team and its robust talent, as well as its operations and cost analysis tools that support leaders in key decision-making. He also successfully contributed as an integral part of QCD’s three-year strategic planning team.
“Shane’s knowledge and experience are matched by the level of care and support he provides operations leaders as they focus on delivering the best service to our customers,” said Ryan Hammer, GSF Corporate Senior Vice President and President, QCD. “His focus on innovation, sharing of best practices, and driving our business forward with associate and customer-focused continuous improvement initiatives will continue to be an integral component of our QCD business strategy.”
Blanchette’s prior roles with QCD have included Group Vice President, Continuous Improvement; Senior Director, Operations; Director of Customer Development; and Senior Operations Manager, QCD Los Angeles. Before joining QCD, he served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Taunton, Massachusetts-based Quality Beverage and previously held various beverage industry sales positions with Anheuser-Busch (Long Island City, New York) and New Hampshire Distributors (Concord, New Hampshire). Originally from the East Coast, Blanchette earned his bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of New Hampshire (Durham, New Hampshire).
About Golden State Foods
Golden State Foods (GSF), one of the largest diversified suppliers to the foodservice and retail industries, feeds one billion people every day! Headquartered in Irvine, California, the multi-national company is values-based with proven performance in superior quality, innovation, and customer service. Established in 1947, GSF and its family of companies currently service 200+ leading brands (125,000+ restaurants/stores in more than 50 countries) from its 50 locations on five continents. Its core businesses include: manufacturing of liquid products, protein, produce, dairy/aseptic, and provides custom distribution services. The company employs approximately 6,000 associates and is management-owned and run. Golden State Foods also operates a national non-profit organization, the GSF Foundation.
