from the website
Tea & Coffee 04/04 - Green Mountain Coffee Roasters: Doing Well by Doing Good
I didn't post the entire article but here is some information about GMCR. I used to own stock in it as well.
There’s not much question that Stiller knows how to succeed in business. First he made millions in the 1970’s from founding and selling EZ Wider papers. Then one day he had an extraordinary cup of coffee in a Vermont restaurant and asked where it came from. He was directed to Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, a small Waitsfield shop started in 1979 by Doug and Jamie Balne. They roasted exotic, high-quality beans in the store’s small batch roaster. Literally smelling (and tasting) an opportunity, in 1981, Stiller founded Green Mountain Coffee and bought Doug’s and Jamie’s shop. A year or so later the Balnes pursued an opportunity to open coffee shops in Florida and left Stiller the sole owner