12 June 6 • 2019
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ADAM FINKEL CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Organic
Growth
R
abbi Jonathan Sacks, formerly the
chief rabbi of England and the
author of 30 books, notes that
the medieval scholar Maimonides held
that the highest form of charity was job
creation. Economic policy, Sacks further
articulates, is not about abstractions like
GDP but about people.
Employment, he says, is a moral issue
because dignity comes from what we
do to enhance the lives of others. Sacks
writes that work being fundamental to
human dignity is a Jewish idea just as
it is an economic one. “We believe that
everyone should be able to say, ‘
I made
a contribution to the common good. I
gave; I did not just receive. I earned my
daily bread.
’
”
Daily bread and doing good is some-
thing that Jackie Victor knows well as
the CEO of Avalon International Breads,
which just celebrated its 22nd anniver-
sary June 5. Avalon, the largest buyer of
organic flour in the state, is in a period
of dramatic organic growth.
It’
s a made-in-Detroit story that
started when Jackie and co-founder
Ann Perrault opened in 1997 that has
become a made-in-Detroit success.
Millions of Sea Salt Chocolate Chip
Cookies, Vegan Blueberry Muffins and
crusty loaves of Farnsworth Family
Farm Bread and other leavened items
later, its growth has soared from not-
even $800,000 a decade ago to almost $8
million in 2019, and now employs more
than 100 people, most of them people of
color and Detroit residents.
STEADY GROWTH
Do the math: Avalon now has five retail
outlets serving 1,300 customers a day. It
has a growing group of more than 100
restaurants, cafes and grocery stores —
from Whole Foods to Holiday Market
— offering its Hastings Street Challah,
Dexter Davison Rye, vegan carrot cake
slices and an evolving and often season-
al assortment of other breads and pas-
tries, now available for catering as well,
including Jackie’
s favorite, the Motown
Multigrain Bread.
The baking, which used to occupy
just 2,000 square feet, has now moved to
a bakehouse that measures nearly 50,000
square feet.
Plum Market CEO and co-founder
Matt Jonna said he’
s a big enthusiast of
Avalon and especially loves its vegan
offerings. All Plum Market’
s large-for-
mat stores sell Avalon products. “We
started selling Avalon items 12 years
ago when we opened our first location,
”
Jonna said. “I am a big fan of Avalon
and Jackie in particular, and I have great
respect for what she has built.
”
The Avalon retail network has
expanded into Ann Arbor and a
Downtown location, where it is a tenant
of one of the many Bedrock buildings.
While corporations are expanding and
doing more business in the city, Victor
is cognizant of the income inequality
and disparity that has been growing as
well. “The truth is,
” she said, “most of
Detroit has not changed in the way that
the Downtown core has, and a lot more
needs to be done by all stakeholders.
”
Victor had her first residence in
Southwest Detroit, then lived in
Midtown, Cass Corridor and Lafayette
Park before moving to Huntington
Woods two years ago when her children
became high-school age. When she was
raising her kids, she saw a wonderful but
very small Jewish community in Detroit.
Now she sees a vibrant and increasingly
active one.
“One of the most satisfying things
over the last two decades is to see the
younger, progressive Jewish people that
have moved into the city,
” Victor said. “I
started to see it 10 years ago when they
revitalized the Isaac Agree Downtown
Synagogue; there are now young, Jewish
leaders who are activists, making mov-
ies, studying in rabbinical school and
using their experience within the com-
munity for the greater good of the city.
”
A COMMUNITY OF SUPPORT
To Victor, growth can’
t be viewed
through a singular lens. To her, it’
s
always about Earth, community and
her employees. About half of Avalon
employees have been with the com-
pany two years or more — well above
industry-average. “Our flagship store on
Willis had almost zero turnover last year
and we have many people there who
have been with us for 17 years, off and
on,
” she said. “
At the Bakehouse, we have
a number of people who have worked
with us for up to 13 years, off and on.
”
One attraction: Jackie prioritized
health insurance for her team long
before it was mandated.
Her brother, Jewish communal leader
and philanthropist David Victor, said
that Jackie leads with her heart and is
100 percent authentic. “No pretense, no
prose, what you see and what she feels
is what you get. And you know you’
re
lucky to get it.
”
Victor credits her father, Steven
Victor, as her business role model. “He
thought I was crazy at the time, but
always supported my endeavors, as did
my entire family,
” she said. “My brother,
David, my sister, Julie, my mom, Arlene
all were there every step of the way. My
extended family has always been uni-
versally supportive of Avalon and every-
thing I have done with my life, although
it has taken twists and turns that might
have been surprising to them. My par-
ents had a very close circle of friends in
the Detroit Jewish community that were
always very supportive as well.
”
Victor’
s mother recycled before it was
jews d
in
the
Avalon International Breads’
Jackie Victor has been a visionary
in Detroit’
s rebirth.
continued on page 14
on the cover
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