Unilever, Suffolk
“There is not a country of origin you can name that we do not bring into the building,” said Charlie Cortellini, vice president of research and development at Massimo Zanetti.
East Coast and Midwest and railroads for the West Coast. The company also leases warehouse space in Missouri, Nevada, and New Jersey to stage its products close to customers in those regions.
Other coffee companies followed the path forged by Hills Bros. and Massimo Zanetti. The J.M. Smucker Company makes liquid coffee concentrate at its plant in Suffolk, and Keurig Dr Pepper roasts and packages coffee in nearby Isle of Wight County.
But the biggest asset for local coffee and tea producers in Hampton Roads is The Port of Virginia. Norfolk International Terminals and Virginia International Gateway, both located in Norfolk’s harbor, are entry points for green coffee beans (the raw form of the beans) and tea leaves arriving from overseas.
SUPPLY CHAIN ADVANTAGES AID INDUSTRY GROWTH One of the reasons the Hampton Roads region became a hub for coffee and tea is its location at the geographic center of the East Coast, with access to interstate highways and railroads. Massimo Zanetti moves finished coffee products from Suffolk to its warehouse in Portsmouth for distribution, using the highways for destinations on the
The willingness of officials at The Port of Virginia to expand into coffee beans in the 1980s impressed executives at Hills Bros. when they were searching for a site to build a coffee bean roasting facility, Cortellini recalls. “That is one of the reasons we did settle in Suffolk. The Virginia Port
Authority was very interested in moving forward. It really was a good symbiotic relationship,” said Cortellini, a longtime employee who relocated from Hills Bros.’ New Jersey plant to the Suffolk operation when it opened. The 25-mile distance between the Norfolk harbor and Suffolk means that Massimo Zanetti’s employees don’t have to worry about weather or traffic conditions delaying deliveries from coffee-heavy outof-state ports such as New York, Miami, or New Orleans. Since Massimo Zanetti schedules deliveries of beans on a just-intime basis, proximity is crucial. “You don’t want 500 people standing around waiting for a trailer,” Cortellini said.
BUILDING THE PORT OF VIRGINIA’S VOLUME After building its volume of coffee imports for several decades, The Port of Virginia was certified in 2016 as a delivery point
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