A Bronx specialty-food distributor with a $1 billion appetite has begun operations in its new Ridgefield headquarters, where it plans to add between 50 and 100 employees.
Dairyland USA Corp., which increasingly does business as The Chef”™s Warehouse, finalized its lease for 20,000 square feet of space in Ridgefield”™s former high school, which is now owned by the town and leased to commercial parties.
The space at 90 East Ridge was formerly occupied by Air Age Media, which in April moved to Wilton. Air Age publishes magazines for enthusiasts of radio-controlled model airplanes, boats and cars.
Started more than 50 years ago as Veterans”™ Butter & Egg Co., Dairyland today has 600 employees and more than $250 million in annual sales distributing specialty foods and ingredients to 12,000 restaurants, caterers and grocers.
The company was founded by Peter Pappas and is run by his son Chris Pappas.
“My dad was what Mae West might have called a short handsome, butter and egg man,” Chris Pappas said.
The company still sells butter, both the individually wrapped chips found on café tables as well as pricier truffle butter imported from France. But it is better known today for expensive, exotic foods such as the truffles themselves, which can sell for more than $3,000 a pound.
Having built its business primarily in the New York City metropolitan area, in 2005 the company acquired a West Coast distributor, launching an expansion there that Pappas says will eventually pave the way for a full national rollout.
Given its aspirations, Pappas said he considered establishing a headquarters in California”™s Napa Valley region and came close to inking a headquarters lease in Rye, N.Y. Ultimately, Pappas chose Air Age”™s space in Ridgefield, where he became a resident seven years ago.
Though the largest specialty-food distributor now based in Fairfield County ”“ excluding consumer-packaged goods organizations like Newman”™s Own ”“ Dairyland still cedes the Connecticut crown to United Natural Foods Inc. The Dayville “supernatural” distributor numbers among the 15 largest wholesale food vendors in the country, according to the Food Marketing Institute. The company employs more than 4,500 people and had $2.4 billion in revenue in its 2006 fiscal year ending last July and includes restaurants in its clientele.
If United Natural Foods has made hay with American”™s escalating obsession with organic produce, Dairyland has fed off a fascination with foreign foods, according to Margaret West, owner of Tokeneke Foods, which makes frozen hors d”™oeuvres and cookies in the Black Rock neighborhood of Bridgeport.
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Both trends have been made possible by wholesale improvements in distribution channels, speeding the packaging and delivery of foods over great distances and allowing relatively small vendors to effectively feed into bigger channels, whether it is olive oil from a Tuscany farm or Tokeneke”™s “pesto cloud” spread.
In an April census, the Connecticut Department of Agriculture listed 140 specialty-food companies in Connecticut, including both single-product vendors like Pearl”™s Salad Dressing and conglomerates such as Pearl”™s Westport neighbor Newman”™s Own, which expanded from its initial focus on salad dressings to a broad range of specialty and organic products.
Despite the improvements in the supply chain, it is not easy for small vendors ”“ at least those lacking Paul Newman”™s mug on their label ”“ to get on the offering menu of the largest companies like United Natural Foods and Dairyland. At July”™s Fancy Food Show in New York City, sponsored by the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade Inc., more than 2,000 specialty-food companies hope to elevate their visibility with distributors.
“There”™s just a lot of great products out there today,” West said.
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