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Crest Hill Bakery, the fast-growing artisan maker based in Glenn Dale, MD, has craft ed a formula for success: produce high Until he was almost 40, nothing in Mustafa Koi- “Truthfully, it was a painful experience,” he not- quality European hearth baked breads and sell them to retail and ta’s career path would indicate a love and passion ed about the bureaucratic procedure of getting the for the milk business. He was born in Princeton, necessary approvals to gain U.S. entry. “It took wholesale customers as private label items. NJ and raised in the Chicago area. Aft er graduating about a year for the entire process to be completed, “It allows our customers to have fl exibility on how they market from Northern Illinois University, he began a career but we are now ready to test the waters.” our products,” said Dave Neville, founder and CEO of Crest Hill, with U.S. Robotics and worked at several other jobs whose bakery journey began 40 years ago when he joined Vie de in the IT and tech fi elds. Actually, it was only six weeks ago that Koita Foods’ fi rst container of their milk products arrived France as a teenager. “More so than ever, with retailers demand- In 2010, he was recruited by Boeing to super- in New Jersey. Prior to that, much of the time was ing higher quality items in their private label portfolio, we can of- vise the defense contractor’s Middle East cyber di- devoted to developing an infrastructure that could fer them a broad line of top shelf products where they can control vision based in Dubai. Th ree years later, feeling a manage its U.S. business. Th at included two U.S.- the label and how they want to market our line.” bit burned out and anxious to begin a career as an based executives in sales and marketing and the entrepreneur, Koita left the world of high-tech and selection of a food broker familiar with Koita’s type Aft er his stint with Vie de France, Neville joined the old Amer- formed Koita Foods, processors of organic milk of products. ican Café organization in Washington where he worked with ex- products - both plant-based milk and milk from perienced bakers, helping him further learn his craft . He joined cows. Aft er many interviews, Koita Foods selected Sutton Place Gourmet (now Balducci’s) to head that retailer’s ar- Wayne, NJ-based Gourmet Specialties, Inc. to rep- tisan bread program in 1990. Five years later, he ventured on his But to hear Koita’s story, shift from tech to agri- resent the company in the Northeast, Koita Foods’ own and opened Upper Crust Bakery in Silver Spring, MD. culture isn’t so far-fetched at all. fi rst targeted marketing area. A second store debuted three years later in Olney, “I’ve always been passionate about health. While One critical decision the company made before MD, and Neville’s business was moving for- ward. living in Dubai for three years, I noticed my three entering the U.S. was to sell only plant-based milk EARLIER THIS YEAR, CREST HILL BAKERY RELOCATED TO A STATE- children didn’t have many healthy eating alter- products. Th ose would include organic almond Mustafa Koita However by 2000 the “low carb” move- of-the art bakery and production facility in Glenn Dale, MD. Founder natives. Even when living overseas (he also lived milk, organic coconut milk, oat milk, rice milk, soy and CEO Dave Neville (c) is fl anked by some of the company’s key in London), our family would visit the U.S. for a beverage and soy for coff ee beverage. A seventh ment had exploded, forcing Neville to make some hard business decisions. He associates, including (l-r) David Silbertstein, Joanna Yu, Nancy Lopez month, and we liked to shop at Whole Foods. I no- Th e company contracted with two Italian pro- item, organic almond/coconut blend, will be intro- sold the Olney store to Vie de France and Colleen Ball. ticed that dairy products from Horizon and Organ- cessors - Newlat and Sterilgarda - to co-pack Koita duced later this year. Koita will provide one of the and converted his Silver Spring unit to a ic Valley commanded a lot of space in the stores, Foods’ line, which was fi rst introduced in Dubai in fi rst Italian plant-based milk ranges in the US. All who takes no shortcuts to produce varieties like ciabatta, torta- so I thought pursuing an opportunity to introduce products are UHT (Ultra High Temperature) and wholesale-only bakery. Th at was a pivot- 2015. “We had no marketing budget, so we started no, pain de campagna and harvest multi-grain bread (Crest Hill’s organic milk into Dubai would be a sound idea,” sold in shelf-stable aseptic packaging made of recy- al move that would set the stage for future slowly with two products,” Koita recalled. “It was top selling item). Th e bakery produces about 60 varieties of bread Koita explained. literally all word of mouth and social media. We or- cled paper with a 12-month shelf life. events. In 2014, using his (with approximately 15 core items) and all breads are par-baked ganized hundreds of focus groups with local moms “Th e decision not to sell fresh cow milk in the life savings, Koita em- and we were off and running.” By 2006, he had outgrown the Silver Spring fa- on stone in the company’s French ovens using high quality ingre- barked on a year-long U.S. was rather an easy one,” Koita declared. “We cility and moved to a 13,000 square foot bakery in dients. journey visiting dozens By 2016, Koita began to grow rapidly in Dubai, had no desire to compete directly with U.S. dairy“Put us in front of a nearby Beltsville, MD. Th e company was also re- Beyond the love of baking, Dave Neville takes a pragmatic view of countries in search achieving distribution through most food outlets. farmers. Th ey control the fresh milk market and named Crest Hill. Aft er steady growth and another of the business side of his company. “Don’t be cheap. We’ve built of the best milk, the Th e company then expanded successfully to near- frankly there was no opportunity for us.” decision maker with expansion, Neville realized he simply needed more best cows and the best a reputation that’s based on the quality of our products. You can’t by countries such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Th e Koita Foods’ U.S. expansion plan will also fo- space, and six months ago opened a state-of-the art farms. “We scrutinized growth story was so notable that Harvard Business reach that level and maintain your reputation if you take short- cus on building a distributor network (productssome fresh product bakery production and distribution center in Glenn every aspect of the pro- School decided to write a case study about Koita’s cuts.” have been approved at Mansfi eld, MA-based Chex cess without compro- journey (which they now teach to the Executive Dale, MD. Foods) and selling to upscale regional and indepen-to taste – that’s the “We’ve got a lot more to accom- mise - from treatment MBA class in Boston). Crest Hill, whose sales have been increasing about 10-15 per- dent retailers whose customer base would seeming- Th e new plant encompasses 144,000 square feet of the cows to the en- cent annual for the past fi ve years, now has an opportunity to plish and the phase of our journey ly be attracted to Koita Foods high quality, healthy of space and not only replaces the Beltsville bakery, vironmental impacts Mustafa Koita then began thinking about the best selling tool we grow even more quickly. won’t be easy. But I’m really con- product line. but also a separate 66,000 square foot distribution of farm operations,” he possibility of expanding into the U.S. In 2017, while dent that the quality of our prod- center in Jessup, MD.