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By Brad Carlson
Edition Date: Monday, April 7, 2008
Moxie Java coffee shops in Boise, and one in Garden City, changed hands recently.
Treasure Valley Investment Group LLC, headed by Managing Member Derrick Gayle, on Feb. 14 acquired nine Moxie Java shops in Boise and one in Garden City. The seller was Panorama Enterprises Inc., a company owned by Doug and Sue Baker of Boise.
A price was not disclosed for the transaction, through which Gayle’s group purchased the stores and took over all shop-space leases. Boise-based C&H Group handled the sale.
Gayle, 37, grew up in St. Catherine’s, Jamaica. He earned a track and field scholarship to Boise State University – he competed in shot put and discus events – and then completed a degree in electrical engineering at the University of Idaho.
He chose to leave Micron Technology in mid-January after nearly 11 years at the Boise memory chip maker. While at Micron, he held ownership interests in businesses including software development, compact disc and digital video disc manufacturing, and real estate development.
Gayle liked the opportunity he saw in the Moxie Java shops, he said.
“There was the opportunity to increase profitability by making store processes more efficient,” he said.
“Things are going well, and there are opportunities to expand that,” Gayle said.
He aims to streamline operations and increase automation at the stores, which employ about 75 combined.
“We plan to keep all employees we have, but retrain them, and have them think like business owners,” Gayle said. The new owners also intend to “reward them for their efforts.”
Doug and Sue Baker started in business 14 years ago with two Moxie Java stores in Boise, Doug said. They acquired five stores and the territory rights to Boise in August 1997.
“Over the most recent 10 years, we added and subtracted stores based on performance and viability,” Doug Baker said. They moved and expanded stores on Apple Street in December 2006 and on Vista Avenue in early 2006.
“We just felt that after 14 years, we wanted to pursue yet-unidentified new opportunities,” Doug Baker said.
“We wish to thank the city of Boise and the surrounding area for their support over the years,” he said.
“We feel that the business is still very strong, and that the new owners will be very successful.”
Earlier, Doug Baker, now 52, sold medical supplies to hospitals in Idaho and Montana. Sue Baker, 51, previously worked for a Boise advertising firm and as a marketing specialist for Ore-Ida, the food products company formerly based in Boise. Moxie Java International is based in Garden City.
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