He stood at the front of a packed room at the world’s largest ice cream factory Wednesday morning, scanning faces — employees, community leaders, a screen full of colleagues tuned in from around the world — and slowly understood what was happening.

“It’s difficult to surprise me,” he said, smiling. “My wife will tell you. It’s very, very difficult.”

His wife was on the screen. So was his younger son, Felipe. So were people who had worked alongside Borrero at other facilities, in other cities, across years of assignments. They were drawn together to honor a man whose impact, it turns out, is hard to contain to one place.

Tipton County’s economic development director, Mark Herbison, has spent 30 years working with plant managers across the region. He didn’t hesitate.

“There’s never been a better plant leader than Andrés Borrero,” he said.

That matters more than it might sound. Because when Borrero arrived in Covington, the plant he now manages was in serious trouble.

A factory on the edge

Herbison described a meeting from a couple of years ago that was blunt by necessity. The Magnum facility was struggling with workforce shortages, operational problems, a frayed relationship with the surrounding community. Borrero told the group plainly: there was a real possibility the factory could close.

What followed was methodical and personal at the same time.

The Loving Covington initiative was founded and, with Borrero’s leadership, they have rebuilt community connections and changed the workplace culture, too.

They showed up to eighth-grade career expos and job fairs. He walked into rooms where plant managers almost never appear and kept coming back until his presence stopped being surprising. He reached out to TCAT Northwest, to Tipton County Schools, to local government.

“I think what we needed was intention. We needed to have engagement,” he said.

And so, they did.

Wednesday morning, TCAT Northwest President Dr. Youlanda Jones was in that room. So was Covington Mayor Jan Hensley, future county executive Billy Daugherty, and assistant superintendent Dr. Rebekah Byrd. None of them came because they had to; they came because over two years, Borrero had made himself a fixture in their professional lives and, by his own account, they had made themselves a fixture in his.

“I’ve never seen a team come together to embrace the community,” Herbison said. “We’ve reconnected completely. We’ve built strong partnerships with TCAT, with Tipton County Schools and our local governments. Through the Loving Covington campaign, it’s really made a huge difference.”

“What I came to here, to the factory and to Covington,” Borrero said. “Everything I saw was potential.”

‘Serving God by serving others’

Ed Doyle, director of the Boys & Girls Club of the Hatchie River Region, arrived with a Bible verse and a pocket full of tissues.

He opened with Colossians 3:23 — Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters — and told the room that Borrero is one of the few people he has met who actually lives that way.

“His leadership reaches far beyond the walls of this remarkable workplace and deep into the heart of our community,” Doyle said.

The room was quiet in the way rooms get when something true is being said out loud. By the time Doyle finished, Borrero was visibly emotional. Several others were as well.

Doyle announced that a permanent wall display would be installed at the facility in June, with space for future honorees to be added year after year. The Andrés Borrero Loving Covington Award, presented for the first time that morning, would outlast all of them: a piece of institutional memory anchored in the culture one man built.

The award, he said, would be given annually to a Magnum employee who reflects the values Borrero brought to Covington: character, service, humility, and an unrelenting commitment to the people around him.

‘Big shoes to fill’

The room quieted again when Felipe Borrero’s face appeared on the screen at the front.

He didn’t take long to get to the point.

“We see the work you put in even outside of work,” Felipe said. “The love you work with for the people, for the community.”

He said he has watched his father’s impact across multiple assignments and plants throughout his career — a legacy that stretches well beyond Covington.

“If there was also an award for best father, you would win it. I have the best mentor, the best role model I could have. I have big shoes to fill.”

Andrés Borrero, standing at the front of the room, was choked up. So were many others.

“A little bit humbled,” he finally answered, when someone asked how he was doing.

Colleague after colleague chimed in — people from previous facilities, previous roles, other cities — describing a man whose impact followed him from one assignment to the next. Colleague Umair Arshad put it simply: “You have been my boss, you have been my mentor, you have been my friend. Throughout your career at this company, you have touched a lot of hearts.”

Several stories emerged of moments when, faced with challenges that affected employees’ paychecks, Borrero had bought them groceries and made sure their families had what they needed.

“The thing that really moved me is where you put your purpose in life,” Borrero said. “Serve God by serving others. And I cannot allow in my watch to have families of people not having food on the table.”

Even Borrero’s boss, Alper Kulak, the senior vice president of Supply Chain, took a turn. The gains at Covington aren’t just cultural. Productivity has increased month-over-month, year-over-year, quarter-over-quarter, he said.

An employee named Jake, speaking on camera after the presentation, said what he had to say was simple: “Thank you for delivering on your promises.”

‘This is how we’re going to do it’

When it was Borrero’s turn to speak, he had no notes.

He talked about arriving in Covington and seeing potential where others saw problems. He talked about his faith — 765 days of consistent prayer tracked on an app, the streak beginning, he noted, right here in Covington. He said he calls Tennessee home now.

“Everybody that’s coming to visit the factory is telling us we can be not only the largest — we can be the best,” Borrero said.

One of his colleagues, Anna, said the award was also a direct answer to a question Borrero had asked in March, when he pressed his team about how the changes he helped lead would continue after him.

“This is how we’re going to do it,” she said. “This is how we’re going to be a part of the cultural change in the factory.”

Borrero closed the way he opened: with heart.

“This love in Covington is contagious.”