F. James McGilloway

In 1971, after a successful career in supermarket management, Jim migrated to the specialty food industry, where he spent 25+ years building success in the U.S. for Twinings Tea, Tobler Chocolates, Tiptree Preserves and other iconic brands. He was recruited by Crawford Norris, the first importer of Twinings Tea and joined the RR Cooper Company and Internal Commodities as executive vice president, later becoming chief operating officer of Grosvenor Marketing. Under his guidance, Twinings Tea and Tobler Chocolate became dominant brands. Jim launched the very popular incentive trips to places all over the world, bringing industry leaders together in a social setting.

In 1981, Jim founded The Gilway Company with Tiptree Preserves, products under the Gilway label and many other British and European specialties. He built the brand of Tiptree to be synonymous with the best of its kind, its famous catch phrase “A Taste of Heaven from the Fruit of the Earth” was known all over the U.S. Later, Gilrix Sales was set up to cater specifically to the Asian and Caribbean markets. Jim served as Chair of the NASFT (now SFA) from 1986 -1988, making major contributions to the reshaping and direction of the Association.