Growing a brand is never easy. It takes forethought, commitment, perseverance, and the strength

to will it to fruition. In the case of today's guest, the strength to will it into a mug

in the form of premium coffee. On the business buffet, we're constantly talking about staying

consistent with your brand down to every detail.

Tom O'Keefe founded Tolley's Coffee and was a man so closely associated with the operation that his middle name is the company's name, Tollies. He will talk about the challenges of taking on the

industry leader Starbucks, as well as ways in which he has given

back to the community in this ingredients episode of the business buffet.

Welcome to another episode of the business buffet ingredients where we ask the experts' questions

that serve up a business and life-growing feast. Pull up a chair and get ready to

eat hardy in business because the business buffet is now open. Welcome back to the ingredients

episode of the business buffet. I am Phil Anderson. And back in the early 90s, 1992, Tom O'Keefe was

a successful real estate developer who was approached about leasing

a space to Starbucks for a coffee store in one of his shopping centers, realizing that no one

was competing with Starbucks. O'Keefe, who had a lifelong love of coffee and an interest in

specialty foods, decided to develop a business plan

to start his own coffee company. Six months later, Tollies was in business. Tollies quickly

developed into a strong regional specialty coffee retailer that was concentrated in the Puget Sound

area where coffee loyalty is so deep there is one coffee shop for every

4,000 people and by 2000 Tollies was building a strong brand and getting noticed in 2006

toli's focused was no longer on competing against Starbucks but on serving handcrafted coffee

in its local Seattle area retail

coffee shops. The company had franchises and grocery chain coffee shops in the United States and Asia.

...