Oil & Vinegar: Exotic tastes – Missoula specialty shop to become hub for Northwestern expansion of international company

The mall is not the first place most of us think about when we want to pick up a bottle of gourmet olive oil from Spain, a specialty fig spread from Croatia, or any other kind of exotic delectable to enhance our home cooking.

And rarely does one think of Missoula as the launching pad for an international import company.

Yet in the case of Oil & Vinegar http://www.oilandvinegarusa.com/shops.html , this premium culinary shop located in Southgate Mall defies the norm.

“Missoula is an untapped hot spot for companies like us that have a unique product and where our product is not available except through the store,” said Matt Stermer, CEO of the company’s American franchises.

“It’s a fantastic market because there is very little competition,” he said. “Missoula gets great tourism traffic. It’s a college town, which also attracts its own kind of tourism, and the consumer demographics include a lot of people who like to cook and are adventurous.

By BETSY COHEN of the Missoulian

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/articles/2009/06/25/news/mtregional/news06.txt