Happy Foods of S.W. Florida sells every kind of produce, from tomatoes to petite purple and white carrots, but the Fort Myers-based food purveyor’s next big push is cheese.
Terry Dean, who owns Happy Foods, recently hired Caroline Hostettler, a specialist in Swiss cheeses, to expand the variety of cheeses the company sells to chefs at Southwest Florida restaurants, country clubs and resorts.
“We’re doing everything in produce,” Dean said. “There isn’t anything we don’t carry, and this is the next area to grow.”
It’s part of an expansion strategy for Dean, who continued to delve into cheeses and other dairy products over the past two and a half years, but for Hostettler it’s been a transition from business owner to employee. She ran her own wholesale specialty cheese business locally for years and, from 2007 to 2010, had operated 55 Degrees, a retail cheese shop in Gulf Coast Town Center.
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