100 fastest growing inner city businesses

21. Premier Organics
21. Premier Organics
2009 Revenues: $3.1 million
5-year Annual Growth Rate: 56%

CEO:
Santiago Cuenca-Romero
Location: Oakland, CA
Year Founded: 2002

About the business:
Before CEO Santiago Cuenca-Romero established Premier Organics, he worked in the meat industry in Spain. After moving to America, he discovered peanut butter and became so fascinated by it that he began to research the food. His peanut butter pursuits led him to almond and cashew butter.

Cuenca-Romero worked out that he could apply his meat grinding expertise to make nut butter. With the help of investment from two partners and all of his savings, Premier Organics was born.

--By Eno Alfred and Mollie West


The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) defines inner cities as core urban areas with higher unemployment and poverty rates and lower median incomes than their surrounding metropolitan statistical areas. For the 2011 list, ICIC received more than 2,000 solicited nominations using its database of small businesses and through the support of its nominating partners, including the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Staples, and the Small Business Administration. Companies were ranked by compound annual growth rate (CAGR) based on their revenue over the five-year period between 2005 and 2009 (the last year for which complete data was available).
Last updated May 18 2011: 5:14 PM ET
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