Biscotti Firm Has The Feel Of Family -- Owner Went Back To Baking, When Her Baker Dad Died

It was risky, but Joyce Coffaro didn't hesitate two-and-a-half years ago to quit her job, pull up stakes in Las Vegas and move to Seattle, and pour her life savings into starting a biscotti bakery.

Taking risks was no big deal for Coffaro. She cut her business teeth as a public-relations official for The Dunes Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas - specifically working with high rollers at the baccarat tables.

"I don't believe in luck," says Coffaro. "Even at the gaming tables, you can tell when to keep going and when to quit. It's the same in business. If you're prepared and work hard, you don't need luck."

Her aggressiveness has helped her build Coffaro Baking Co. from a tiny operation in the kitchen of a rented house in the University District to an expanding bakery with 11 employees in a Redmond light-industrial park.

She chose Seattle because of its reputation as a coffee mecca, tapping into the booming market for lattes and espresso.

Biscotti is a twice-baked traditional Italian cookie. Its crunchy texture and hearty, lightly sweetened taste make it a natural complement to espresso and coffee. It is a cookie specifically designed to be dipped.

Coffaro's biscotti are available locally at Starbucks, QFC bakeries throughout the county, Larry's Markets and Costco. Costco, which already offers the biscotti in its Tukwila, Federal Way, Southcenter, Kirkland and Seattle stores, is offering the cookies to its stores in the Northeast and Southeast.

Costco buyer Scott Larson said the regional food buyers for the company have expressed interest in the biscotti, but it's too soon yet to say whether the product will be a hit nationally.

In her first full year, 1990, Coffaro sold $178,000 worth of biscotti. Last year, she says, sales topped $400,000. She expects sales to leap to $2 million this year.

The rapid growth has, at times, been difficult to manage, Coffaro says. For example, last year she was forced to lay off a couple of people she had intended to keep permanently. The experience left her determined to plan better.

"You begin to realize you have an obligation to workers that wasn't there when you worked for someone else," she says.

She's also had to face the realities of managing the cash-flow problems of a growing business. As a result, she's had to work especially closely with vendors.

"It's easy to grow right out of your ability to keep current with bills. I've been going to seminars to learn more about cash flow. Cash flow is particularly critical to a new small business because getting financing can be so difficult," she says.

Coffaro grew up in a bakery. She learned about baking from her father, in San Francisco, who, she said, never got the recognition he deserved for some of his baked goods, like a cheesecake he sold to a French cooking school.

Her father's death, in 1988, was the catalyst that prompted Coffaro to quit the relative security of her casino job and go into baking. "He'd be thrilled," says Coffaro of what her father might think about her business. "He never would have believed I would do this."

Even as the company grows exponentially each year, Coffaro says she wants to maintain the feel of a family-run business. Her employees include a mother, daughter and family friend recently immigrated from Russia, and four members of a Vietnamese family.

The starting pay, $6.50 an hour, is lower than she'd like, but she hopes the emphasis on hiring families and friends of families will help the company fill its needs for quality-conscious workers.

"I like hiring family members. You have workers who feel more of a stake in the business than if they just punched a clock and collected their pay," she says.