{"id":385907,"date":"2023-02-23T06:06:03","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T20:06:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=385907"},"modified":"2023-02-23T06:06:03","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T20:06:03","slug":"foremost-coca-cola-honor-staff-for-45-35-yrs-of-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/foremost-coca-cola-honor-staff-for-45-35-yrs-of-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Foremost, Coca-Cola honor staff for 45, 35 yrs. of service"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Manuel Alvarez, left, business development and vending supervisor, and John Panaguiton, distribution specialist, both of Foremost Foods, Inc. and Coca-Cola Beverage Co. (Guam), Inc. receive their respective service awards for 45 years and 35 years of employment with the leading non-alcoholic beverage companies in Guam, Northern Marianas, and Micronesia during the 2023 Service Awards ceremony for longtime employees held recently the Foremost and Coca-Cola corporate headquarters in Barrigada Heights. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Foremost Foods, Inc. and Coca-Cola Beverage Co. (Guam), Inc. continue this year their time-honored tradition of recognizing longtime employees at the annual service awards presentation recently held at the corporate headquarters and distribution facility.<\/p>\n

Manuel \u201cManny\u201d Alvarez, the business development\/vending supervisor of Foremost and Coca-Cola, was recognized for 45 years of service, making him the longest serving employee of the leading non-alcoholic beverage companies in Guam, the Northern Marianas, and Micronesia.<\/p>\n

John Panaguiton, a distribution specialist of Foremost and Coca-Cola and the third employee who has reached the 35-year milestone with the companies, also received a plaque of recognition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just hope that this would continue on. It\u2019s rare for employees to stay with you that long. I want to commend Manny and John for their dedication and loyalty,\u201d Janice Castro, distribution and facilities manager of Foremost and Coca-Cola, said of Alvarez and Panaguiton.<\/p>\n

According to the U.S. Department of Labor\u2019s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median employee tenure of wage and salary employees as of January 2022 was 4.1 years.<\/p>\n

Alvarez has surpassed nearly elevenfold and Panaguiton by more than eight and a half times the national average number of years workers had been with their current employer.<\/p>\n

For someone who started on the job as a replacement for his brother who \u201ccould not stand the cold\u201d of the frozen food and cold storage facility at the Foremost plant, Alvarez has set the record for longevity of tenure.<\/p>\n

When he started working for Foremost on Dec. 10, 1977, as an ice bagger when he was in his 20s, Alvarez said he applied to replace his brother. \u201cActually, I was not the one that was hired by Foremost; it was my younger brother, but he could not handle the cold inside the freezer. So, I decided to apply for the job. I submitted my application and started that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the years, Alvarez learned the many facets of beverage manufacturing from production to product distribution. He stayed the longest in the latter. His job knowledge grew in lockstep with opportunities for advancement. He moved up the corporate ladder from route supervisor to sales supervisor to sales manager for the water distribution business.<\/p>\n

At first, Alvarez felt that he was out of depth to run the water business and he came clean with his employer about his inchoate management skills. In response to his candor, not only was Alvarez provided with training in the U.S. to prepare him for the management job, but he was also empowered by the company leadership with a nugget of wisdom that he would carry to this day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president of the company said to me, \u2018Manny, when you make a mistake, correct it and that\u2019s how you\u2019ll learn.\u2019 He let me make my own decisions and so I learned by trial and error,\u201d Alvarez said.<\/p>\n

Alvarez notes his hands-on management style with characteristic self-directed humor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI treat my guys the same way I want to be treated. Nobody can say I\u2019m bossy, but I\u2019m straightforward. I don\u2019t put myself above them\u2014I work with them, I sweat with them, and we finish the work together. When a member of my team is out, I would cover their route. That\u2019s why I didn\u2019t grow up because it\u2019s heavy,\u201d he said<\/p>\n

Having been married for 40 years to the love of his life, Pacita Calimlim-Alvarez, whom he met in Guam and with whom he has raised two generations of their family\u2014two daughters and seven grandchildren on whom he dotes\u2014and being with the same company for 45 years this far, Alvarez says he\u2019s in a happy place in life.<\/p>\n

Although Alvarez says he stays active both on the job and at home and does not plan on retiring anytime soon, it\u2019s not all work for the native of Baguio, in the northern Philippines. When he\u2019s not puttering in the yard on weekends, the 5-handicap golfer is putting on the fairways with his golf buddies from work. He learned his way around the golf course early by caddying part-time at Camp John Hay.<\/p>\n

When asked what his secret to longevity at work is, Alvarez says it\u2019s his love of work and the people in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cLove your work. Enjoy your job. Treat people right and you\u2019ll be happy. If you like what you\u2019re doing, you\u2019ll stay a long time,\u201d Alvarez said.<\/p>\n

Panaguiton shares in the belief that happiness in his job is key to his tenure of 35 years running.<\/p>\n

Seven years after he moved to Guam from his native Iloilo, in Western Visayas in the the Philippines, Panaguiton was 28 years old when he started working for Foremost as a dairy driver in November 1987. Back then, he would be up earlier than the cock crowed to complete the milk delivery to southern schools before 6 in the morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to wake up very early at 3 o\u2019clock in the morning because we had to be at the schools before 6 o\u2019clock. My route was mostly south starting from Yona, Talofofo, Merizo all the way to Umatac,\u201d Panaguiton recollected.<\/p>\n

He credits his mental and physical discipline for his tenacity at work.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven when you have to wake up early or when there\u2019s bad weather you can do the job as long as you can handle your mind and body,\u201d Panaguiton said. \u201cI started in dairy and drove the Chammorita ice cream truck for six or seven years. Then I transferred to ice delivery. When I was on the ice route for 12 years, I would load 50 bags of ice and each bag of ice weighed 10 lbs. So that\u2019s 500 lbs. or a quarter of a ton. Sometimes I would drop 250 bags to Agat Kimchee or Big Navy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panaguiton dedicates his 35-year service award to his family\u2014his wife, their two daughters and three grandchildren, and to the company.<\/p>\n

To the new generation of employees he said, \u201cAlways be devoted to your family, stay focused on the job and be nice to everyone. When you feel that you cannot handle the job alone, stop and get help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foremost and Coca-Cola are the leading dairy and non-alcoholic beverage distributors serving Guam, the Northern Marianas, and Micronesia since 1950. For career opportunities, visit https:\/\/glimpsesofguam.com\/careers\/ or email allhr@coke- foremost.com. (PR)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Foremost Foods, Inc. and Coca-Cola Beverage Co. (Guam), Inc. continue this year their time-honored tradition…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":385917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-385907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}