Welcome to Cacique! Thank you for taking the opportunity to join our team. You have joined a very exciting company that truly believes in our founding principles of Quality, Authenticity, Integrity and Family. These principles or pillars have served us well over the past four decades and will continue to guide us well into the future. We are so proud of our pillars that we place them on our labels and throughout our facilities as a constant reminder to ourselves and a promise to our most important asset, our customers and consumers. It is our purpose to delight our consumers every time they honor us with a purchase of a Cacique product.
Before we go forward, it’s important to know our history. Gilbert and Jennie de Cárdenas and their family immigrated to this country in 1971. In 1973, they started our company in a tiny, abandoned facility in Lakewood, California next to a drive-in dairy and selling product door to door from a 1966 teal green Pontiac. Our beginning was very humble and for the first couple of years it was just Gilbert and Jennie with their Children helping after school and during summer break. Gilbert and Jennie made a commitment very early to improve on the quality of the products available in the marketplace at the time. That passion for quality and innovation allowed the company to grow slowly but steadily. As the years went on the company continued to grow and expand its product offering by entering the chorizo market in the late 70’s, cream in the early 80’s and drinkable yogurt in the late 90’s.
As our business grew, so did the need for larger facilities, more innovation and stronger sales and marketing. Today, our 230,000 square foot advanced, state-of-the-art dairy facility is our home. The same dedication to quality led us to the build a new, state-of-the-art plant in Utah to process our meat products. We are among the most sophisticated cheese and meat manufacturing facilities in the world and have been awarded the SQF Level III certification. This is the most thorough and difficult certification in the industry. We invest heavily into marketing, consumer research, social media and new product innovation.
Our reputation for high quality standards, quality products and best in class services has been accomplished by a commitment to have the best talent in our sector. This talent is a highly dedicated team of professionals and dedicated employees whose efforts are the Company’s best guarantee for solid growth and a prosperous future.
This Employee Handbook has been prepared to give you a clear idea of the policies governing the employee-company relationship. These policies are essential for the efficient operation of our business and are part of our effort to assure you fair and consistent treatment. The Employee Handbook also describes various benefits available to you as an employee.
We are in business to provide the best product to our customers. Everything we can do to improve our products will directly benefit all of us. I wish to express our appreciation at this time for your future efforts, we know you could have chosen to work elsewhere and we are pleased to have you here with us. Together, we will continue and expand on Cacique’s earned reputation as the market leader in the perishable Hispanic food category.
Thank you,
The de Cardenas Family