Profile of Paul Levitan in East Bay Business Times
June 20, 2008
Paul Levitan has taken the concept of "affordable luxury" and made a $20 million-a-year company out of it.
And all in the matter of a decade. It was 1998 when Levitan, who owned The Cheesecake Lady in the Mendocino County town of Hopland, and fellow bakery owner Jean-Yves Charon decided to merge their talents and business fortunes into a single company, Galaxy Desserts. Its repertoire of cheesecakes, mousse cakes, tarts, croissants, danish and other items - priced from $2 to $6 - has steadily increased.
Levitan, the president and CEO, minded the business and administrative side, and Charon, the executive chef, all matters creative and culinary.
After moving their company from Marin County to Richmond in search of bigger quarters in February 2005, Galaxy has entered the stratosphere, on track this year to double its revenue of $10 million in fiscal 2007. It now occupies 52,000 square feet of manufacturing space and offices in Richmond's Marina Bay district.
"We were out of space and bursting at the seams," said Levitan of his company's former digs across San Pablo Bay. "Since we were growing, we needed to move beyond 'survival production' to production that is planned."
Part of Galaxy's rise has been three appearances since 2003 on Oprah Winfrey's wildly popular daytime show, with Levitan's products considered among the influential talk diva's "favorite things." Up to now focused on individual-size desserts, the company is growing even larger by downsizing the desserts, offering bite-sized portions of old favorites and new offerings.
PERSONAL STYLE:
Age: 45
Automobile: Lexus GX
Days on the road: One trip a month
Dress code: Bakery casual
Education: B.A., Wesleyan University; M.B.A., Stanford University Graduate School of Business
Family: Married, three children
Favorite:
Hotel: Ritz Carlton Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii
Food: Any dessert.
Restaurant: Yu Shang in San Rafael
Drink: Arnold Palmer
Sport: Tennis, golf, skiing, ice hockey
First job: Shoveling snow in Philadelphia
Residence: Mill Valley
COMPANY STYLE:
Company's proudest moment: "Being featured on Oprah's "Favorite Things" segment three times."
Company's next unique project: "Canele, a pastry from the Bordeaux region of France."
Inducement to sell: "An extremely large number."
Lessons learned: "Hire 'em slow and fire 'em fast."
Single biggest challenge: "Finding time to work 'on' the business instead of 'in' the business."
COMPANY PROFILE:
Name: Galaxy Desserts
Address: 1100 Marina Way South, Unit D, Richmond 94804
Phone: 510-439-3160
Web site: www.galaxydesserts.com
Year founded: 1998
No. of employees: 200
Revenue: $20 million
Top executives: Paul Levitan, co-founder, president and CEO; Jean-Yves Charon, co-founder, executive chef
Who are your customers: "High end restaurants, hotels, grocery stores and mail order catalogues in all 50 states."
Family employees: "Not yet."