Jackie Mattos and the Imperial Shipping Team

Jackie Mattos

Embracing the Challenges of Change …

You know within the first few minutes of talking with Jackie Mattos that she’s a woman on a mission.

The home-grown Gramercy native understands the vital role she plays as superintendent of the shipping department at the Gramercy plant, and her steady gaze and carefully-chosen words tell you that she is serious about leading her team to success.

“We’re responsible for on-time, on-target shipments of our product to our customers,” Jackie says. “We are only one part of the process, but we understand that if we don’t succeed, Imperial doesn’t succeed, and we take that responsibility very seriously.”

Processing from 80-110 trucks per day during peak season of June through October, Jackie and her hard-working crew are always on the move, figuring out what combinations of products customers need, getting them loaded properly and getting them out on time.

“It might sound easy, but it can be extremely hectic,” Jackie says. “We may have to set up one set of pallets in stretch wrap and another in cardboard and another in airbag. We have to make sure that the trucks themselves are safe for shipping, so we inspect them for things like glass, sharp metal and holes in the trailer walls or ceilings. We have to find the correct items to ship in the warehouse and then may have to change pallet types. All this is under tight time pressure.”

An already tough job was made significantly tougher after the Port Wentworth explosion. “The workload increase was incredible, but the increased focus helped us get through a really tough, really sad time when we were all hurting a lot,” said Jackie.

Her calm demeanor in the face of such stress may come from the fact that Jackie knows the company as few others do. The 33-year Imperial veteran is a third-generation company associate who remembers company lore from the 1940s and 1950s handed down from her grandfather to her father and uncles to her. “I guess you can say that sugar is in my blood,” she laughs.

Jackie marvels at the amount of change she has seen over the decades, and while she welcomes change, she’s honest about the challenges it brings.

“We’ve introduced a lot of new technology over the last few years, like barcode scanners and plastic pallets. As the technology changes, your procedures have to change with it, and change is not easy, especially when it seems like just when you get used to one new thing or way, it changes again.”

But Jackie keeps it all in perspective. “We have to keep our eyes on the big picture of how these changes fit into our company’s success. This industry is so competitive. I tell my team all the time that we need to always be ready to change, because that’s what’s going to make us stronger as a department and as a company.”