Editor’s Choice: Top Companies and Executives of 2008
Editor’s Choice 2008
By Erica Burke   
Monday, 01 December 2008
smc Food and Drink's 2008 Editor's Choice winners span the industry.
Food and Drink's 2008 Editor's Choice winners span the industry.
This is Food and Drink’s second year-end issue highlighting the year’s top food and beverage companies and business leaders – from young entrepreneurs to multimillion-dollar corporations. It’s quite an undertaking for our editors to each pick one of the dozens of companies they profile in a given year, and each is handpicked for reasons beyond profit or popularity.

For example, Associate Editor Alan Dorich chose Michigan-based BPNC Distillery (fall) because he was intrigued by how “founder Brian Pearson – a former Marine and presidential guard – grew his idea of pre-packaged gelatin shots into a major beverage and contract packaging company, with the ability to produce an average of 400,000 cases annually.”

Food and Drink happens to feature two other spirits-related top picks this year: Southern Wine & Spirits of America Inc. (March/April cover) and HOPE Wine from the same issue.

Special Projects Editor Chris Petersen says Southern Wine & Spirits stood out in his mind because the firm – headed by father-son team of Wayne and Harvey Chaplin – “is more or less responsible for building the American wine market into what it is today,” Petersen says.

HOPE Wine has taken a philanthropic approach to the American wine sector, Associate Editor Kate Burrows says. “This company was started in 2006 with the idea to pair its three wine varietals with a different charitable cause,” Burrows explains. “It donates 50 percent of its profits to these charities. At the time the article was published, the company already made $40,000 in donations.

“Also, I’m pretty sure the owners are younger than me,” says the 20-something editor. “Wow!”

A pizza franchise also comes out on top, according to Associate Editor Fernie Tiflis. Toppers Pizza (fall), a Whitewater, Wis., company with 20 locations, “shies away from the traditional pizza items, and instead, offers unusual flavors,” she says. The company tops its pies with everything from mac 'n cheese to, well, you can guess what’s on the B-L-Frickin’-T.

Associate Editor Kathryn Jones picked BANa Bottling Co. (fall) as her year-end favorite because of its innovation in the beverage industry. Developed by a physician working in the ER, BANa specializes in hydration beverages that naturally replenish adults and kids alike.

While food and beverage fads come and go, the desire to stand out from the pack never goes out of style, and that’s exactly what we’re celebrating in this best-of section. Enjoy this toast to our top executives and companies of 2008!
–Erica Burke, Senior Food Editor
 
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