In 2019, Peerless Coffee was named roaster of the year by Roast Magazine — the most prestigious coffee award in North America.
Sure, you might think, a coffee company that has been around since 1924 is bound to pick up some awards along the way. But for YPO member, President and Master Roaster George Vukasin Jr., this moment was particularly meaningful: It recognizes superior quality, sustainable practices and commitment to community. What’s more, roasters can only win it once, and recent winners had all been newer, trendy upstarts.
“The coolest thing for me is that it wasn’t a lifetime achievement award, because we could probably win one of those at this point,” he says. “It was more about what we’re doing now in the industry.”
Vukasin and his sister, CEO and Vice President of Administration Kristina Vukasin-Brouhard, are the third generation of the Vukasin family to run Peerless. For the siblings, maintaining the company’s relevance and success is a tribute to their family’s legacy.
“It’s usually the third generation that kind of screws everything up,” he laughs. “So, turning 100 is incredible. My grandfather wouldn’t even recognize the company, but he would be so proud of where we are.”
Today, Peerless is recognized in the U.S. as a leader in the coffee industry, specializing in small-batch craft roasting and the distribution of premium gourmet coffee blends sourced from top coffee-growing regions worldwide. Their extensive product range includes artisanal blends, single-origin coffees, and organic teas for consumers and hospitality businesses alike. They also offer a comprehensive suite of services – training, equipment, marketing – that supports their partners in creating profitable and impactful coffee and tea programs.
— YPO member George Vukasin Jr., President of Peerless Coffee share
Sitting in the office his father occupied for decades, he shared advice for other executives leading multigenerational companies who want to respect history and find ways to evolve.
Create a legacy of choice for the next generation.
When Vukasin’s Yugoslavian immigrant grandfather, John Vukasin, founded Peerless in Oakland, California, USA, he involved his two sons in the business from the start, planning to eventually pass on the reins. When his eldest opted for law school, Vukasin’s father was told to forget his plans of pursuing a career with the FBI to come work for the family.
“Because of that, my parents were very hands-off with us,” Vukasin remembers. “While I effectively grew up in this building, it wasn’t a path my parents really pushed.”
Turns out, Vukasin was, in fact, interested in joining the family business. And he didn’t plan on simply maintaining the status quo: He became a Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef so he could elevate the creative art and exact science of coffee roasting. Knowing he’d be the coffee buyer helping his dad procure the raw beans, he moved to Oaxaca, Mexico, for a year to gain hands-on experience with producers. He became one of the first roasters in America to create long-lasting, farm-direct relationships with coffee growers in the world’s premier high-elevation regions from Costa Rica to Ethiopia.
By giving his sister and him space to explore their own paths, Vukasin’s parents ensured that they’d bring genuine passion to the company’s next chapter.
“Ultimately my parents were very happy to hand over the reins. That’s not always the situation in a family business,” he says. “They wanted this business to continue, and they wanted to keep it in the family.”
A lot can change in 100 years, but your ethos should not.
Amidst the changes and growth Peerless experienced in its first 100 years, its core tenets have remained the same: quality people and a quality product.
“It might sound cliché, but if you asked my parents and my grandparents, they’d say the same thing: Put your people first,” he says. “The people we have today and those we’ve had throughout all our generations — they’re a big reason we’re here after 100 years — and not just here but thriving.”
Since becoming president of the company in 2008, Vukasin has encouraged an open-door policy with his employees and describes his managerial style as hands-on — his office shares a wall with the production floor — but he avoids micromanaging. He also doesn’t ask his employees to do things he wouldn’t do himself. So, during COVID-19, when production leaders were still coming in five days a week, he was too.
“The word ‘integrity’ is etched in my brain,” he says. “It’s very important to me, and that came from my grandfather and my dad.”
Be bold during challenging times.
As a commodities-based company, a century of operations translates to plenty of highs and just as many unavoidable lows. From World War II to the financial crisis of 2008 and COVID-19, Vukasin’s perspective is that during hard times, you can retreat and go back into the bunker to wait it out. But if you’re proactive, there are benefits to be had.
“It’s not just about how to handle the day-to-day during the tougher times. It’s knowing that we’ll get through it, and then asking ourselves: Where do we want to be when we do get through it? Then we can act when our competitors are still being more careful,” he says.
And when in doubt, multigenerational companies can fall back on decades of institutional knowledge to navigate new challenges with more confidence.
“My family has made three generations’ worth of business mistakes. But we typically don’t make the same mistake twice,” he says. “We learn from them and pass down the lessons to the next generations.”
Each generation can pour their own way.
When John Vukasin started Peerless in 1924, it was one of the very first craft roasters in the Bay Area. He wanted to bring traditional European style richness, guaranteed freshness and artisan blending to the hospitality and retail industries.
Second-generation George Vukasin maintained his father’s commitment to excellence, growing the company’s production and revenue as well as positioning them at the forefront of the certified organic and fair-trade coffee movements.
Now it’s George and Kristina’s turn to maintain the quality of their product — all Peerless’s single origin and blended coffees must earn a minimum quality score of 84 out of 100, well above specialty market standards — and find their own ways to evolve their offerings and practices.
For him, that means weeding through the noise to see what keeps coming back as true trends before figuring out how to capitalize. It also has meant purposefully staying in the Bay Area, despite being able to operate cheaper elsewhere, because it’s the region most abuzz with industry innovation and competition in North America.
Heading into their next century, Vukasin and the team aren’t slowing down. Peerless was recently recognized as one of the first hospitality craft roasters to perfect nitrogen-infused cold brew coffee on tap.
And in celebration of their 100th anniversary, in early 2024 they presented regenerative organic coffee at the Natural Products Expo West, the largest natural food show in North America. For the uninitiated: Regenerative organic coffee practices improve soil health and promote biodiversity instead of depleting or leaving the ecosystems “neutral” — all while meeting organic certification standards. Peerless is one of only a handful of roasters in the United States dabbling in this type of sustainable initiative right now.
“A big part of my job is to figure out where the coffee landscape is going and decide what we need to do today to make sure we’re in the place we want to be tomorrow,” he says.
