Smells good

When Brian Long moved from London to St. Petersburg in 1957, he was 17 years old and had $50 in his pocket.

One of eight siblings who grew up poor, Long sought a better opportunity than what he had back home, and he found one in the food and beverage industry. He delivered milk to grocery stores for Sealtest, and later sold coffee for Kraft to hotels and restaurants. In 1971 he moved to Fort Myers, and along with his father-in-law he launched a new business, Aroma Coffee Service. The moniker was for the scent, but to also have an A-name in the phone book when people searched for coffee companies. The firm's objective: Provide coffee and related supplies to offices.

Nearly 45 years later Aroma still does that, with offices in Fort Myers and Sarasota and clients from Naples to Haines City in Polk County. The client list is diverse, from manufacturing facilities to insurance and law firms to the corporate offices of the Tampa Bay Rays. Some clients buy as little as $5,000 worth of coffee a year, while one customer spends up to $200,000 a year — all in individual cups. Aroma had around $4.5 million in sales in 2014, up about 5% over 2013.