In 1981, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters hung its shingle on the front of a small café in Waitsfield, Vermont. This café roasted coffee on the premises and formed the base of operations for what was to become one of the nation's leading specialty coffee companies.

The demand for high-quality, freshly roasted coffee soon grew beyond the café's walls. Restaurants and inns in the area asked for coffee and equipment. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters was soon in the wholesale business to satisfy these requests. Before long, skiers asked if the café could send Green Mountain Coffee to their homes in New York, Florida, Pennsylvania or Connecticut. This demand was filled by the birth of the company's mail-order business.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. has been publicly traded since 1993 (NASDAQ: GMCR) and had sales in excess of $341 million for the fiscal year ended September 2007. The majority of these sales is generated by the company's wholesale business which serves more than 7,000 customer accounts. Green Mountain's mail-order catalog is mailed to customers nationally.