Irvine, California-based Golden State Foods has promoted Shane Blanchette to group VP, continuous improvement, quality custom distribution.
Blanchette will now oversee 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.
“Shane brings a fresh, energetic approach to continuous improvement with his keen understanding of the operation and his solid partnership with our facility teams in the field,” said Stephen Wetterau, QCD’s VP of logistics.
“His leadership is a great example of our creed and values, as he strives to make our associates’ jobs easier and our teams more effective for the benefit of our customers. Shane’s focus on ensuring our people are successful enables our customers’ success.”
A 25-year industry veteran and QCD associate since 2016, Blanchette has supported the company’s growth as an integral leader driving optimization and championing best practices across the U.S. network of distribution centers.
In his previous role as senior director of operations, Blanchette led his team to improve processes, including leadership of the logistics operations hub, optimization of routing and facility layouts and implementation of business intelligence to inform decision-making. In 2022, he traveled to GSF’s Cairo, Egypt, facility to learn, partner and support the GSF distribution team.
As QCD’s director of customer development from 2017-2020, Blanchette earned a 2019 Stellar Performance Award, GSF’s highest individual honor, for his expertise, knowledge and leadership approach in cultivating key strategic partnerships with QCD customers. He joined QCD Los Angeles as senior operations manager with responsibility for monitoring and implementing performance initiatives, managing departmental financial results and supporting a positive work culture for nearly 200 employees.
Prior to QCD, Blanchette led personnel and activities focused on sales, revenue, market performance and strategic opportunities as the VP of sales and marketing for Quality Beverage. Earlier in his career, he held various beverage industry sales positions with Anheuser-Busch and New Hampshire Distributors.
Established in 1947, Golden State Foods and its family of companies service more than 200 leading brands 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 about 6,000 employees and is management-owned and run. Golden State Foods also operates a national non-profit organization, the GSF Foundation.
