Behind a Famous Brand Name, a Quiet Hero
One day Tom Faley, a three-decade employee of Sargento, the food company known nationwide for its natural cheese, overheard a group of younger coworkers wondering about the identity of a man in an old photo. Faley was shocked the didn’t know who the man, Leonard Gentine, was—though, as the co-founder of Sargento, he was responsible for the existence of their jobs. He was also Faley’s personal hero. It was unacceptable to Faley to consider Gentine’s legacy might fade into obscurity. So he decided to do something about it.
Treated Like Family: How an Entrepreneur and His "Employee Family" Built Sargento, a Billion-Dollar Cheese Company
Hardcover $27.00
Treated Like Family: How an Entrepreneur and His "Employee Family" Built Sargento, a Billion-Dollar Cheese Company
By Tom Faley
In Stock Online
Hardcover $27.00
The result is Treated Like Family: How an Entrepreneur and His “Employee Family” Built Sargento, a Billion-Dollar Cheese Company, a new book that tells the inspiring story of Leonard Gentine’s life, his business vision, and his dedication to the basic values that made his company great. It’s a book that reminds us that not all heroes are household names, and that sometimes, heroism is about steadfastly sticking to your beliefs and always doing the right thing, even when it hurts.
The Man behind the brand
Chances are you’re familiar with Sargento and its cheese. Leonard Gentine—the “gen” in Sargento—was the driving force behind the company from its inception in 1953 until his retirement in 1984, and Faley’s book is as much a story of Gentine’s life—and his family—as it is an American success story. Remarkably, Gentine managed to build a business empire without stepping back from his commitment to family, his support of his community, or his dedication to fundamental concepts of decency, equality, and fairness that sometimes seem in short supply in modern American life.
The crash
Gentine’s story begins with a crash—a car accident that saw him damage the vehicle of a local mortician. Unable to pay for the repairs, Gentine proposed an arrangement: he would work for the funeral home for free until he’d paid off the bill. This sort of creative, restless thinking would mark Gentine for the rest of his life—and, impossibly, the arrangement inspired Gentine’s first business: that’s right, the man behind one of the most famous cheese brands in the U.S. started off as the owner of a funeral home.
Restless innovation
The Gentine Funeral Home never quite took off, even as it provided a living for Gentine and his growing family. Faley paints a portrait of a man driven not by greed—Gentine was generous to a fault and famously unconcerned about profits—but by a desire to provide for those he loved. That noble dedication to family drove Gentine to experiment with several businesses, always working feverishly to understand their products and markets and find ways to innovate.
Sargento has its roots in a humble cheese counter Gentine started when he hit on the idea of selling cheese gift baskets, one of several businesses he launched in his search for the sort of success that would offer his family security.
Even Sargento, formed in partnership with Joe Sartori (the “sar” in Sargento; the “o” was added to make the name sound Italian), took many years to flourish. In the interim, Gentine concentrated on coming up with new products and taking care of the people who worked for and partnered with him. He spent months perfecting a vacuum-sealable plastic container in order to introduce the first prepackaged sliced cheese, and developed packaged grated cheese by repurposing a pasta making machine, spending long hours to get just the right results and achieving innovations larger companies had failed to perfect. But despite these incredible achievements, Sargento was only modestly successful—until he hit on the supermarket peg.
Pegged to success
Today, the sight of products on a metal peg in the supermarket aisle is so common we barely notice, but in 1969, it was an innovation. While Gentine didn’t invent the concept, he happened upon one of its earliest implementations, and immediately saw the potential. He developed a peg system and accompanying packaging, and before long, Sargento was on its way to becoming the household name we all know today. Gentine had help in all of these endeavors—something both he and Faley never hesitate to underscore—but it was the man’s quest to ensure his family’s comfort that drove the ultimate success of the company.
Family above all
Gentine’s true legacy is his family. Sargento remains a family-run business, and his five children all went on to be the sort of kids anyone would be proud of. Gentine often stated he was most proud of the corporate culture he created, one in which all the employees are treated like family.
Leonard Gentine passed away in 1996, after battling Parkinson’s Disease. We tend to think of heroes as people who run into burning buildings or defeat the bad guys, but there’s a different kind of hero who often gets overlooked: the quiet heroes, who stick to their values no matter what, always do the right thing, and never quit. Leonard Gentine was one of them—an American who loved his family and strove only to offer a quality product at a good price , and make his corner of the world a better place.
Treated Like Family is available April 10.
This post is sponsored by Triad Retail Media.
The result is Treated Like Family: How an Entrepreneur and His “Employee Family” Built Sargento, a Billion-Dollar Cheese Company, a new book that tells the inspiring story of Leonard Gentine’s life, his business vision, and his dedication to the basic values that made his company great. It’s a book that reminds us that not all heroes are household names, and that sometimes, heroism is about steadfastly sticking to your beliefs and always doing the right thing, even when it hurts.
The Man behind the brand
Chances are you’re familiar with Sargento and its cheese. Leonard Gentine—the “gen” in Sargento—was the driving force behind the company from its inception in 1953 until his retirement in 1984, and Faley’s book is as much a story of Gentine’s life—and his family—as it is an American success story. Remarkably, Gentine managed to build a business empire without stepping back from his commitment to family, his support of his community, or his dedication to fundamental concepts of decency, equality, and fairness that sometimes seem in short supply in modern American life.
The crash
Gentine’s story begins with a crash—a car accident that saw him damage the vehicle of a local mortician. Unable to pay for the repairs, Gentine proposed an arrangement: he would work for the funeral home for free until he’d paid off the bill. This sort of creative, restless thinking would mark Gentine for the rest of his life—and, impossibly, the arrangement inspired Gentine’s first business: that’s right, the man behind one of the most famous cheese brands in the U.S. started off as the owner of a funeral home.
Restless innovation
The Gentine Funeral Home never quite took off, even as it provided a living for Gentine and his growing family. Faley paints a portrait of a man driven not by greed—Gentine was generous to a fault and famously unconcerned about profits—but by a desire to provide for those he loved. That noble dedication to family drove Gentine to experiment with several businesses, always working feverishly to understand their products and markets and find ways to innovate.
Sargento has its roots in a humble cheese counter Gentine started when he hit on the idea of selling cheese gift baskets, one of several businesses he launched in his search for the sort of success that would offer his family security.
Even Sargento, formed in partnership with Joe Sartori (the “sar” in Sargento; the “o” was added to make the name sound Italian), took many years to flourish. In the interim, Gentine concentrated on coming up with new products and taking care of the people who worked for and partnered with him. He spent months perfecting a vacuum-sealable plastic container in order to introduce the first prepackaged sliced cheese, and developed packaged grated cheese by repurposing a pasta making machine, spending long hours to get just the right results and achieving innovations larger companies had failed to perfect. But despite these incredible achievements, Sargento was only modestly successful—until he hit on the supermarket peg.
Pegged to success
Today, the sight of products on a metal peg in the supermarket aisle is so common we barely notice, but in 1969, it was an innovation. While Gentine didn’t invent the concept, he happened upon one of its earliest implementations, and immediately saw the potential. He developed a peg system and accompanying packaging, and before long, Sargento was on its way to becoming the household name we all know today. Gentine had help in all of these endeavors—something both he and Faley never hesitate to underscore—but it was the man’s quest to ensure his family’s comfort that drove the ultimate success of the company.
Family above all
Gentine’s true legacy is his family. Sargento remains a family-run business, and his five children all went on to be the sort of kids anyone would be proud of. Gentine often stated he was most proud of the corporate culture he created, one in which all the employees are treated like family.
Leonard Gentine passed away in 1996, after battling Parkinson’s Disease. We tend to think of heroes as people who run into burning buildings or defeat the bad guys, but there’s a different kind of hero who often gets overlooked: the quiet heroes, who stick to their values no matter what, always do the right thing, and never quit. Leonard Gentine was one of them—an American who loved his family and strove only to offer a quality product at a good price , and make his corner of the world a better place.
Treated Like Family is available April 10.
This post is sponsored by Triad Retail Media.