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CORPORATE STRATEGIES Time-Tested CVS Health - Three-generations continue a 140-year-old family tradition by Tanya Isley Don Francisco Gaviña's father and uncle left their home in the Basque region of Spain, in 1870, searching for a better life in Cuba. Once settled there, the broth- ers planted coffee trees and started a farm. Hacienda Buenos Aires, which would leave a lasting legacy well into the 21st century. In 1960, Gaviña left the successful family coffee business in Cuba and moved his family, including his sons, Pedro, Jose, and Paco Gaviña, and daughter Leonor Gaviña-Valls, to Miami to escape Fidel Castro's communist regime. Although he left the business and the farm behind, he brought his skills and expertise with him to his new home. Three years later, the family settled in Los Angeles and, in 1967, Gaviña returned to his coffee growing roots and started F. Gaviña & Sons with a roaster he bought from a local coffee producer for $500. "We started in a very small building...selling coffee to the Italians, Cubans, [and] people that would drink dark roasted coffee. Then, when what we call the coffee revolution started, a lot of specialty stores start popping up with gourmet coffee shops selling coffee by the pound, mostly country of origin, and also dark roasted coffee. So, we kept on doing that, and then we also sold to restaurants and a small mom-and-pop store," explained Jose, chief financial officer and head of sales. In the early stages, all of the Gaviña children were pitching in and learning about coffee while working in the fields. Today, 50 years later, it's still a family-run business with each of the siblings assuming key roles. In addition to Jose, Pedro is the com- pany president, Paco, the oldest son, is vice president of operations and Leonor is the vice president of marketing. The business also has extended to the next gener- ation of Gaviñas, with Pedro's son, Michael, serving as the purchasing manager. The company employs over 250 people and its plant in Vernon, California is one of the top coffee roasting facilities in the country with over 240,000 square feet and has the capacity of up to 60 million pounds. The Gaviña siblings and their children, still personally select beans, cup samples as they arrive, and oversee the specialty coffee roasting and production every day. Gavina and Sons sells four brands: Gaviña Gourmet Coffee, available exclusively through coffee houses, bakeries, other foodservice locations and offices; and its core grocery brands Cafe La Llave Espresso, one of the leading Latin coffee brands in the U.S., Jose's Gourmet Coffee, and Don Francisco's Coffees, which are sold at major companies like Wal-Mart, Safeway Inc., Kroger Co., and long-term retail partner, CVS Pharmacy. The coffee company's partnership with CVS Pharmacy began when it was look- ing to place its Don Francisco's Coffees in Longs Drugs, a California-based 521-store regional chain. When CVS acquired Longs, the relationship be- tween the Gaviña's and the retail giant was formed and Gaviña & Sons' brand expanded in California as well as to other parts of the country with CVS's acquisition of Miami-based Navarro Discount Pharmacy. "We created a nice partnership with CVS Pharmacy. They appreciate how well we treat our customers, and how well we work with [them]. CVS gave us the partnership of the CVS y Mas in 2016. They opened up 25 stores and we did a partnership with them by doing demos within all those [stores] to attract the public. Cafe La Llave sold well at the CVS Pharmacy locations in Florida, so they placed us in 530 core stores in April of 2016," Jose said. Through the CVS partnership, Los Angeles-based Gaviña & Sons has expanded its brands into new markets and new retail opportunities. "CVS has been a great partner for us. We received an award last year from the company in the minority diversity group. |The partnership] has benefited our company by giving us value and a lot of exposure in different parts of the U.S. When that happens, more people see our products, and more people can purchase our products at CVS. They really treat us really well." This year marks the 50th anniversary of Gaviña & Sons' operations in Los Ange - les but its rich tradition traces back to those two brothers who were seeking a better life in Cuba. Surely, they had no idea that not only were they planting coffee seeds on their farm, but they also planted the seeds for a long-last- ing tradition of coffee growing and roasting for their descendants. Reprinted by permission from the 2017 Summer Issue of MBE magazine. © Enterprise Publishing Inc. www.mbemag.com ♦
