My Chat with Alex Rechichi

Not too long ago I attended an inspirational talk named ,quite suitably, “Inspire” that consisted of 2 speakers that shared their stories with us students. Alex Rechichi was one of the speakers and really shared an inspiring and honest story about his rise to success in the food industry specifically being an entrepreneur  starting his own company. He is now the president and chief executive officer of Extreme Brandz Inc that consists of Extreme Pita, Mucho Burrito and soon a casual QSR focused on italian cuisine. This venture wasn’t his first in entrepreneurship, he started taking initiative back in high school running a driveway paving company and has continued down that path to his present day career.

Alex has not only started his own line of successful brands and franchises but he also brought something else to the Canadian Food Industry that is unique to his competitors. Alex and I talked most about this aspect of his business which is that he has put nutritional content on every menu in his operations. He said he first caught on when doing research in the states and seeing that franchises had started incorporating this information on the menu a few years ago. He stressed his feelings of how important this was to him when he saw it and how not only does he think it will be seen more often popping up in Canada but that it will be regulated and made a policy by the government. It also doesn’t hurt that it sets him apart from his competitors too! This I was clearly not surprised by since I am enwrapped in this information about the food industry because of UGSRP and it was really nice to talk to an industry professional that is feeling the effects of this right now. We talked about how it is important for our industry leaders to understand the importance of this change and where the industry will be heading in the next 5 years. I am glad that the importance of this information in our industry is noticed and awareness is growing and for Alex,  he has already seen how important it is for this information to be prevalent for his customers.

Alex also stressed his thoughts on the importance of consumers knowing “why”  businesses do the things they do. He touched on something I have come to now know as the Golden Circle which states it isn’t about what you do but why you do it. Simon Sineck who introduces this theory describes successful business to follow this model whether they are aware of it or not but it deems successful for those that carry the model out and Alex is one of them. I truly was inspired by Alex and what he is doing for the industry and know that his efforts will soon be seen on a large-scale by everyone in due time!