Meet the Workers: Brad

About 5 years ago now, Brad Golden ran into Jon Schwalls, Southern Valley’s Director of Operations, at the grocery store where he then worked as Produce Manager.  An unfortunate series of events caused them to cross each other’s path at the time, but Jon left Brad his card and told him if he ever wanted to come to “the other side” (of the produce industry) to give him a call.

That store ended up closing a year or so later and Brad found himself working in a different industry, one he didn’t really care for.  After 20 years as a produce manager at various locations, he says the produce industry was in his blood and he wasn’t happy being out of it. At his wife’s urging due to his unhappiness, he finally gave Jon a call and as they say, the rest is history.

Brad has been working in the shipping office at Southern Valley for 3 years now and his job duties entail overseeing Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC), supervising the truck loaders, and lotting out trucks – deciding which product goes to which customer based on that customer’s specific needs and requirements.  Over the three years he’s been here, Brad says he’s seen a continual increase in volume of product moving off the loading docks as well as an increase in overall customers.  The operation just continues to get bigger and bigger every year, he says.

Brad is known for being a people person and thoroughly enjoys interacting with the truck drivers as they come in and out on a regular basis. He relishes the fact that he knows most by name after talking with them multiple times now. It’s a good thing he loves his job too since during the spring season he sure does get the chance to work lots of hours! For 6 to 8 weeks out of the year, Brad opens the shipping office around 8:00 AM and leaves his shift anywhere from 12:00 – 4:00 in the morning. He does that 6 – 7 days a week during that time frame. Somehow – and I really haven’t figured out how – he manages to work that schedule without drinking any coffee!

Brad is a huge asset to our shipping office and works his long shifts without complaint. His laid back manner brings a calm to the crazy that often takes place out there as 100-150 orders – with multiple orders going on one truck – load out of 15 docks over the course of a busy day.