Specialty Food Magazine

WINTER 2014

Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.

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heading to the Oakland Coliseum just down the street for a game. Beyond creating a destination for coffee lovers, the retail store serves another purpose. "Because we do so much foodservice and cafe business, it serves as our little test kitchen," George Jr. says, "where we are able to experiment with new products and we get phenomenal direct feedback from customers before we attempt to roll it out to our larger base." Coffee and Tea Distribution and Sales… While Peerless is most commonly known for its coffees, the company also distributes foodservice and retail sizes of teas, spices, peanuts and gift items. As George Jr. explains, "We are a very traditional family coffee roaster, which means we sell coffee, tea, spices, cocoa, chocolates—just a variety of things." The company has focused on growing its tea department in the past 10 to 12 years. Offerings include organic iced tea, boxed teas such as Smith Tea and more. "Tea has become very important," George Jr. says. "Last year we debuted a retail pack for homebrewing our organic ice tea." says. Desolate at the time, the area would eventually turn into Jack London Square, "which is one of the Winter Fancy Food Show Booth 855 shining, bright spots of Oakland. The area has also become a mecca for coffee roasters. Blue Bottle has moved here down the street, as well as a number of other higher-end coffee roasters," he adds. The specialty coffee Peerless offered became especially popular in the 1980s, helping to fuel the company's growth into the next decade. During this time, both of George and Sonja's children were finishing school. George Jr. graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, went to culinary school at the Cordon Bleu in Paris, followed that with a job at a coffee exporter in Mexico and then returned to work at the family business in 1996. Daughter Kristina graduated from law school and went on to work as a deputy district attorney before joining the company in 1998. Kristina notes that their success as the next generation comes from having knowledge of the company's history as well as real structure within the company. "We talked about Peerless every day of growing up. And we've had some great advice about how to make family businesses work. One ......... very important thing is that we have clearly defined responsibilities," she says, adding that regularly communicating about goals has been key. ......... Winter Fancy Food Show Booth 325 WINTER 2014 111

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