Windsor Foods serves up international flavors close to home

Food markets in foreign countries, brimming with the aromas, colors and tastes of ethnic
foods are rarely short on tourists.Windsor Foods understands. Fortunately for those
who crave the tastes of dim sum, taquitos or ravioli, but shop in local grocery stores,
Windsor’s specialty and ethnic fare is offered much closer to home.

Houston-based Windsor Foods is a woman-owned manufacturer and marketer of frozen
specialty foods whose brands include José Olé, Bernardi and Freds for Starters. The compa-
ny was formed in 1990 with the acquisition of a pizza topping and frozen meat company. It
expanded significantly in 1996 after the purchase of frozen food companies formerly
owned by the Keebler Company.

Windsor Foods employs more than 2,100 workers, oper-
ates 10 USDA-approved manufacturing facilities and provides branded and private label
products to the foodservice, national account, retail, warehouse club, convenience store and
industrial markets.
“We do quite a bit of customization,” said Windsor Chairman Anne Smalling.“It’s not unusu-
al for a client to ask us to make something they already have in mind. And sometimes a client
will want something new and will leave the design to us. Either way, we’re happy to accom-
modate those requests.”
Smalling added that Windsor’s product development team includes chefs and food technol-
ogists who can create proprietary, customized products for large-scale operations.

Support
services provided by the company include marketing, package design, and all facets of quali-
ty assurance.
Research on new products and marketplace trends is critical for Windsor, which serves hun-
dreds of clients around the country. Independent research, focus groups, online surveys and
product placement research provide valuable insight into foodservice and retail consumers,
as well as emerging issues like environmental sustainability and organic ingredients.
Smalling indicated that Windsor Foods is as dedicated to meeting its customer’s needs as
valuing its employees.

“We have many employees who came from some of the companies we acquired along the way,”
she said.“The vast majority of our employees have been with us since the company started.”
A happy workforce has translated into quality for Windsor. Its José Olé brand was listed as
America’s favorite brand of frozen Mexican food by NFO WorldGroup, an organization which
provides research-based marketing information. Windsor was named Processor of the Year by
Refrigerated & Frozen Foods, an industry trade publication, for its “entrepreneurial spirit and
decentralized management.”

“We owe a great deal of our success to our employees,” Smalling said.“We’ve tried to culti-
vate a culture of cooperation and ownership. We value our employees and their ideas. They
make us a better company to do business with.”