"I learned from every stumble."In the 90s he painted for playboy, today he runs a food empire in New York-LA NACION

2022-10-18 03:19:38 By :

When his father, one of the most important double bass players in Argentine jazz, told him that he loved the musical genre born in the United States, he never imagined that he would find his destiny in those distant lands.For four decades, Alberto González (58), nicknamed the same as his father, "El Negro", lived comfortably in Buenos Aires, rubbed shoulders with entertainment personalities and in the 90s he was in a relationship with some of the most desired women of the Argentina.He painted for playboy... but the vision of an unusual business captivated him and led him to bet all his savings to achieve success.And he did it.He owns Ace Natural, one of New York's largest food distributors."The greenest in the United States," adds Alberto.His disruptive imprint has been with him since he was a child.“He was rebellious.They kicked me out of every school.Although academically he was good, he did not have good conduct.They kicked me out of a priest's school because I was throwing stones in the courtyard or in an industrial school I broke a saw with a lead pipe”, he says.Alberto lived together with his parents and a sister 10 years younger, in a house in Belgrano R. “We were a middle-class family, we didn't lack anything but we didn't have anything left over either,” he explains.When he finally finished high school, he started law school but dropped out after a couple of years.It wasn't his thing.He liked business.He received a Bachelor of Marketing and, years later, did a business master's degree at IAE.In the middle, Alberto was related to the Buenos Aires entertainment.In the magazines of the time there are photos of him.He went to the trendy clubs, where he met some of the trendy girls.He was a couple of Raquel Mancini and Verónica Lozano.“I've always been into women a lot and, almost by chance, I've dated several well-known models, who used to be called 'cover girls,'” he says with a laugh.-It was not from the environment of the show, how did you get to know them?I am a very sociable person and I get along well with people.I consider that I am quite empathetic and that is how I made many friends who knew people... I used to go to New York City and El Cielo a lot, the architect who did it was my girlfriend.I always entered all the places, I never had problems to enter some place, although I am an ordinary guy.-Raquel Mancini and Verónica Lozano were his partners.-I went out with Raquel for a while, we were young and she was very pretty, she was capable of being the most beautiful face in Argentina.With Vero [Lozano] we were boyfriends for many years, she is an extraordinary human being, I was with her in the 90s. What happens is that relationships are like yogurt, they have an expiration date: for a while things are great and then it ends.In Argentina, Alberto dedicated himself independently to consulting small and medium-sized companies.Everything was going from strength to strength until in a seminar at the UK embassy he discovered his new passion and his life took a 180 degree turn.“It was a course on products and organic food that blew my mind.I understood that people should eat without chemicals, antibiotics, or hormones... So it occurred to me to set up an organic and certified restaurant in New York”, he says.Alberto put together a business plan and, at the beginning of 2006, he moved to Manhattan convinced of the success of his venture: an ecological restaurant.- Why the United States and not Argentina?-For better or for worse, the United States is a leader in innovation.And New York is a place of high visibility: if you are successful there, then there will be many people who will imitate it.My plan was to put together a business plan, look for investors and see how it went... And I did.-You set up a 100 percent organic restaurant in Manhattan.-“Gustorganics”, which was the greenest restaurant in the United States for seven consecutive years, and the first certified organic restaurant in the world.The business did not turn out as expected.I could write a book with the mistakes I made... First, for example, the choice of location: we were on Sixth Avenue and 14th, a very busy area, but that was not the public that was looking for organics.-How much does it cost to set up a restaurant in New York?-Very expensive.It took me over a million and a half dollars to break even.You open a business and the first few months you lose money.I came in 2006, but we opened the business at the beginning of 2008 and that year there was a very serious global financial crisis and everything exploded here in New York.It was total chaos.That crisis complicated the business.Although the restaurant lasted nine years, it was not as successful as I imagined it would be.-Could you recover the investment?-I did not recover what I invested, but it allowed me to live and learn a lot about the North American economy and the food industry.Recently I had to look for another job because the business was not enough to support my family.-You closed the restaurant in 2015, how did it continue?-I was offered a job in an organic food distribution company in New York.And today, I've been working for that company for almost 10 years, and it's been a year and a half since I bought it.The company is in Westchester County, upstate New York, and has 70 employees.Alberto bought the company with another local partner and they are dedicated to distributing organic food in a completely sustainable way.-What is an organic food?-It means that it is a food that is produced without chemicals.Today it is a highly developed industry.Although we are a niche company, it is growing more and more.There is a lot of demand.-Who buys your products?-We sell mainly to restaurants and universities.Although now I am planning to acquire a new company, another distributor, which sells mainly to supermarkets.Where does the food you distribute come from?-We buy from organic producers in the area, also in California and Pennsylvania.We do not import directly but, for example, we buy Argentine apples.We are a small company, but we are very strong in plant-based, which is the diet based on plant-based foods and is the one followed by vegans, and also in organic, we are certified.-Your company is presented as "neutral in its carbon footprint"...-There are businessmen who in twenty years would go to jail for the things they do to the environment today.Many people in order to earn money can do anything and many of these things pollute the environment.We measure the impact that our company generates on the environment.-In practice, what does it mean to be “carbon neutral”?-We produce our own energy with solar panels, our trucks are hybrid... We try to ensure that everything we do pollutes as little as possible and that, of course, is more expensive.But we don't care, we do it this way because it is what corresponds and in this way we leave our children a better world than the one we found.In turn, we self-impose a tax, which is an audit carried out by a European company to reset what we pollute.With the money we paid they bought, for example, ecological kitchens in Uganda or plant trees somewhere in the world.At the same time, Alberto gives talks to students at different universities in the United States to raise awareness about the importance of "doing things right" while taking care of the environment.-How do you perceive Argentina in terms of caring for the environment?Argentina makes me sad.It is such a beautiful and interesting country, but politics is so deficient that today the Argentine is worried about other things.If we apply Maslow's pyramid, which analyzes what drives human behavior, today the Argentine clearly has other priorities.Copyright 2022 SA THE NATION |All rights reservedDownload the application of LA NACION.It is fast and light.Do you want to receive alert notifications?A connection error has occurred