There are hundreds of mainland companies that have opened in Hawaii and found locals receptive to their products and services. The number of local companies that have expanded beyond Hawaii is not as large. This is one of those stories.
Robert Taira was the ninth of 11 children born to Okinawan immigrants who came to Hawaii in 1906 to work at the Kohala sugar plantation. With $400 in loans, he opened Robert’s Bakery in Hilo in 1950. It had one display case and three stools for customers. Even though it was small, it was at this bakery that Taira developed his award-winning sweet bread recipe. His idea was to turn a traditional hard Portuguese crust into something much softer. It was a big hit.
Hilo was not big enough for Taira’s dreams, and in 1963 he moved to Honolulu, to 1936 S. King St., near McCully Street. King’s Hawaiian Bakery took its name from King Street. It started with 13 stools but soon expanded to 130 seats.
King’s was the first in the islands to combine a retail bakery and coffee shop. The restaurant became a magnet for locals and tourists, who mailed Taira’s sweet bread to friends all over the world. He later opened at Eaton Square and Kaimuki Shopping Center.
The huge number of mail orders convinced Taira to open on the mainland. In 1977 he built a 30,000-square-foot wholesale bakery, King’s Hawaiian Bakery, in Torrance, Calif. He soon became the leading maker of sweet bread nationwide. In 2004 a larger, 150,000-square-foot facility was built in Los Angeles, and today sales top $100 million.
Taira’s King Street coffee shop closed in 1993. It was a sad day for many of his loyal customers. Taira died in 2003, and his son, Mark, is now CEO. Taira mused about the lessons he had learned: “Quality is first. You don’t cheapen the price at the expense of quality. That’s the key to success. Then the product sells itself."
Robert Taira was a visionary, a local Horatio Alger. From a three-stool coffee shop in Hilo, he built an empire that employs more than 150 people and sells its products in 50 major markets across the country. “My generation started from scratch,” Taira said. “It’s up to the next generation to carry on. You have to be globally-minded from here on. That’s the reason why we went to the mainland.”
Even though King’s has left Hawaii, it continues to embrace its island heritage and core values.
