As we reported early last week, Glen Tellock, the CEO of Lakeside Foods has decided it is time to end his near 30-year career in business management in Manitowoc.
We were able to speak with Tellock, who said there a few reasons he decided to hang up his boots. From a business standpoint, the company is embarking on its next four-year strategic growth plan, which his replacement, Joe Yanda was instrumental in developing. On the personal side, Tellock explained, “Quite frankly, I turned 60 in February, each of my daughters just had babies, and when we found out that they were pregnant and you put everything together on the personal side and the professional side, it’s just the right time.”
Glen spoke very highly of his predecessor, with whom he has worked side by side throughout his 5-year career at Lakeside Foods.“When you look at some of the plans that Lakeside has, there’s kind of a shift in some of the mentality of becoming a growth-oriented company, and Joe has been through that,” he said. “[Joe] has the support of a lot of people internally. He’s been there a long time but being there a long time doesn’t mean he carries the mentality of keeping things the way they are. Joe recognized some of the things that this company can do.”
In return, Yanda had high praise for what Glen was able to achieve in a relatively short period of time. “I think the biggest thing that he brought to us is the ability and the challenge to believe in ourselves, and he gave us the confidence to do what we always thought and knew we could do,” Yanda commented. “He did that not just by laying out a strategy, but by detailing a road map on how we were going to do it and keeping us accountable.”
While Lakeside Foods is a pretty large company, they were still affected by COVID-19, which Yanda said really hurt their business, but “Fortunately we are in the food business and people need to eat. That’s been a good thing for Lakeside, but it has been a stress on our operation and a stress on our employees.”
Yanda said that even though they still have to push through the pandemic issues, they have a great plan in place to continue to grow and improve Lakeside Foods.
Yanda also confirmed that they are fully operational at their newest additions on South 30th Street in Manitowoc, and that they are always looking to add more members to their team.
