PROVIDENCE PEANUT COMPANY HAS BEEN PLEASING TASTE BUDS FOR A CENTURY

Rhode Island Public Radio, RI
July 11 2013

Wed, Jul 10, 2013
By Flo Jonic

Lt. Governor Elizabeth Roberts is holding a birthday part of sorts
Wednesday for a Providence peanut company that’s celebrating its
100th anniversary.

The Virginia and Spanish Peanut Company was founded 100 years ago
this summer by Peter Kaloostian, an Armenian immigrant. The company
roasts, packages and distributes peanuts, nuts and dried fruit to a
wide variety of bakeries, confectioners and supermarkets throughout
New England.

The state is honoring the Providence-based peanut company for its
century of selling peanuts in Rhode Island.

It’s run by three great granddaughters now, including Shelley
Kaloostian-Conti. “Somebody told him to either go into the nut
business or the car business. So he chose the nut business and we’ve
been going ever since,” said Kaloostian-Conti.

The company occupies a large, nondescript building on Dexter Street
in southern part of Providence. Walk by and you smell the aroma of
the nuts roasting inside.

Despite a series of surveys that show Rhode Island is unfriendly to
businesses, Kaloostian-Conti said they’re here to stay.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress