Gary & Leo's presented with international award

Editor’s note: This version corrects who opened the Havre Gary & Leo’s store.

Gary & Leo’s Fresh Foods has been awarded top recognition from the Independent Grocers Alliance.

IGA awarded Gary & Leo’s with its 2019 International Retailer of the Year award.

This is an international award, with the Montana chain joining three other U.S. businesses as well as stores from China, South Africa and Australia in the 2019 recognition.

“It was one of those once in a lifetime experiences that was really over the top,” Gary & Leo’s co-owner Laura Malisani said. “I was so grateful to get to be and work with and spent my life with so many wonderful people and it kind of just brought that home to me.”

Malisani, who owns the business with her husband, John, and Tracy Job, said the award was a surprise to her. She was not notified of the award until shortly before being presented with it while at the IGA Global Rally in San Diego in February.

The award recognized Gary & Leo’s for the execution of excellence in the grocery industry, serving its communities with devotion and passion, a press release about the award said.

The International Retailer of the Year was presented for all of the stores in the Gary & Leo’s chain, which includes stores in Florence and Conrad.

Gary Leland and Leo Job opened their Havre store in 1986.

Laura Malisani said the store has been with the Independent Grocers Alliance from the beginning.

Their supplier Super Value Wholesaler nominated them for the award, she added.

She said Gary & Leo’s also received an award this year for innovation within its bakery, adding that she was excited about that award because it honors bakery manager Shelly Fisher, who is retiring after 31 years.

Malisani said because of Fisher’s planned retirement, Gary & Leo’s also worked hard to put seconds — co-managers or assistant managers who have gone through management training — in every department, to prepare people to take over the departments.

“Our people are so committed to excellent customer service they know their products, they are truly professionals,” Laura Malisani said. “I think that mindset and education behind them really sets them apart.”

This was not the first time Gary & Leo’s were recognized for their business practices, she said. Previous awards include the Montana Family Business award in 2014 and Malisani receiving the IGA Progressive Grocer Woman award in 2012.

She said she remembers being surprised they won the International Retailer of the Year Award this year and how she felt looking out from the stage and seeing her family, friends and everyone who she had worked with closely there supporting her.

The event was held in the Air and Space Museum in San Diego in the rotunda room, she said, with big glass ceilings and old airplanes hanging overhead.

While there, she met a number of other retailers from all around the world, comparing cultures and comparing ideas, she said.

One of the ideas she wanted to take back to her stores was signage for their made-in-house items. letting the public know that they have their own donut recipes, maple frosting recipes and more, Malisani said.

For the past three to four years, she said, she has been asked to participate on projects on a national level and served on the IGA executive board as a retailer.

As independent grocers they do not have the same technology available as larger chain stores do, she said, but by having employees working together as a group, customers are able to receive top of the line service. A large amount of information is available for shoppers in the modern world, she said, and shoppers need retailers who are well-educated to be able to assist them with any and all of their questions or concerns.

All of Gary & Leo’s employees are well trained to assist with customers and are shown how to provide best service, she said.

“Our employees rock,” she said. “I mean we are so lucky to work with such amazing people because they really do bring their care, their concern for the customer, and I think that is what really sets us apart.”

Malisani mentioned employee Brenda Friede, who decorates the store during holidays. She and other employees spend extra time to specially present the store and make it personal, Malisani said.

“Michael Rogers, in the deli, I think has a beautiful way to say it: ‘I have the opportunity every morning to make somebody’s day a little brighter and make it go a little better,’” Malisani said. “I think that is how the majority of our employees come to work.”