Stuart Daw is the president of Heritage Coffee Company Ltd., with a roasting
plant and cappuccino facility in London, Ontario and sales offices in Toronto
and Montreal.
Stuart has spent almost his entire career in the coffee business, beginning in 1950 with the Club Coffee Company of Toronto. In 1964 he formed Stuart’s Branded
Coffee which became Canada's largest foodservice roaster by 1977.
Stuart owned the first Canadian chain of gourmet specialty stores from 1964 to
1977. He founded the Red Carpet Coffee Service Ltd. in 1967 which became the largest independent
coffee service in Canada.
Heritage Coffee was founded in May 1981 by Richard Middleton and
John Noble of London, Ontario, both former employees of Stuart's Branded Coffee
(later renamed Goodhost Foods Ltd.). Stuart joined them by buying a controlling interest
in the company in 1984.
Stuart appeared twice, representing the coffee industry, on
David Hartman’s "Good Morning America" television show, and
once on CNBC's nightly news faceoff with New York consumerist Richard Kessel.
He was the Coffee Service Editor for two years of the Tea and Coffee
Trade Journal of New York. He writes extensively in other trade
media covering vending, specialty coffee and coffee service. Stuart has conducted
coffee blending seminars and has spoken at various national and regional conventions
in several cities in North America. He has lectured frequently on the virtues of
free market economics, with the "Stuart Daw Case History" on coffee pricing
now being given in several languages in universities around the world.
He was a trainer of the "Coffee Ambassadors"
for the Coffee Development Group in Washington, the predecessor of the SCAA and
an official coffee taster for the Customs Division of the United States Treasury, identifying
contraband coffee by country of origin through cup-testing.
In 1997, the Ontario Coffee and Vending Service
Association created the Stuart Daw Gold Service Award, presented
annually to operators "in recognition of coffee excellence."
Stuart was the first recipient of the award and annually presents the plaque
to the current year's honoree.
Stuart was an original inductee into the Hall of Fame of
the National Beverage and Products Association (NBPA) and was selected as
NAMA's OCS Supplier of the Year in 2000.
In 1998, Stuart designed a coffee blending workshop,
"Bean Blending™" which has received rave reviews from
participants, including those at the June 1999 Canadian Coffee Expo in Toronto
and the Southeastern Refreshment Association at their October 1999 meeting in
Asheville, NC.
In October 2000 Stuart received the
"Office Coffee Service Supplier of the Year Award" from the National
Automatic Merchandising Association (NAMA), in recognition of his leadership
within the industry.
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