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Small-Town Coffee Purveyor Goes Grande
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters is climbing, financially and socially
By Clay Dillow
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Posted May 9, 08 9:00 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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A success story is brewing in tiny-town Vermont, where a coffee roaster is supplying beans to 600 McDonald's restaurants across 50 states and 25 countries. The creator of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Bob Stiller, never imagined such a feat—nor the $121 million in sales last quarter—when he started the business in 1981. "This vision of today was not in his mind," Green Mountain exec Jon Wettstein said.
A mix of good planning and good luck made Green Mountain a hit, as did America's love affair with specialty coffees. Now Green Mountain can write large checks for coffee-growing communities and mix a few blends to profit social causes. It's all a far cry from Waterbury, Vt., where Green Mountain's local shop still services a community of fewer than than 5,000 people, the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus reports.