Tully Coffee sold its wholesale business and brand to Green Mountain Roasters in March 2009. The Vermont based company is now busy expanding on the West Coast and is opening a new roasting center for Tully’s in the city of Sumner, Washington, in the Puget Sound region. Green Mountain Coffee has leased 200,000 square feet at White River, an industrial development owned by Investco Financial Corporation. Formerly, Tully’s Coffee was located in Seattle’s historic Rainier Brewery building. In the new site, the company plans to increase roasting, packaging and distribution. Their new facility is more modern and boasts a great deal more space than the 80,000 square feet that Tully’s had at the Rainier brewery.

Tully’s has opened 42 new stores and coffee shops in the last 12 months, with three in Singapore, for a total of 174.  Under the purchase agreement with Green Mountain, Tully’s will continue operations under its own name. Carl Pennington, who spent 30 years with Albertson’s was recently named CEO. When asked if the recession stalled the plans for expanding the business, he replied, "I'd be kidding you if I said the recession hasn't affected us. It has. It has affected our sales in some ways and we are working to work those issues. People are not coming in the second time like they usually do- a lot of people come in the morning and come back in the afternoon and we’ve lost some of that. It’s been kind of an up-and-down effect.”

Green Mountain has extended job offers to all 75 Tully’s wholesale employees, inviting them to join the operation at the new Sumner facility.  The company plans to build a staff of 125 employees at Sumner. Green Mountain's CEO, Larry Blanford, said that the Keurig single serve brewers have reached 80% of the market share and continues to grow rapidly. There are more and more of these brewers in homes and businesses and sales of the K Cups, the vacuum packed portions of coffee to use with the Keurig system, continues to increase.

Green Mountain sells over 200 different roasts and blends of coffee, tea and cocoa in K-Cups as well as whole bean coffee. The company has shown steady growth and in June 2009, announced third quarter sales of $190.5 million. This is a 61% year over year increase from $118.1 million. Earnings per share came in at 36 cents, which is more than double last year’s earnings of 16 cents. The company’s explosive growth has caught the attention of stock analysts, who often list its shares among the top five to own. Experts predict Green Mountain’s aggressive growth will continue throughout 2009 and into 2010.

Find all of your favorite Green Mountain coffee and Keurig coffee at greatcoffee.com