Local business owners Leyland Papa and Lindsey West have teamed up to buy Vermont Tortilla from founders April and Azur Moulaert for an undisclosed price.
Papa and West don’t anticipate disruptions to the nearly 10-year-old brand, which sells organic, gluten-free tortillas made with corn sourced from Adirondack Hay & Grains in Essex, N.Y. The corn is nixtamalized — an ancient process that involves boiling it with slaked lime — and ground into fresh masa at Vermont Tortilla’s Shelburne production facility, where it’s then turned into various tortilla products.
The new owners’ goal, Papa said, is to increase the “exposure and availability” of Vermont Tortilla’s products at local retailers. They’ll immediately ramp up production of ready-to-fry tortilla chips with restaurant customers in mind — though the chips also crisp up nicely in an air fryer for eating at home, West said.
Neither partner had heard of the tortilla biz until they learned it was for sale. Papa — who was the force behind the reopening of Stone’s Throw pizzeria in Charlotte last year and owns Trash Away, a Shelburne trash removal company — said he’s “always looking for opportunities.”
“We both have a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit,” said West, who works primarily in human resources but also operates a small event business and nanny agency. “We wanted something local that we could really sink our teeth into to create a nice working environment for local folks.”
Vermont Tortilla currently has three employees, one of whom is full time. That won’t change until the fall, West said, when the partners will move their production facility to a to-be-named spot elsewhere “in the Burlington area.”
“We’ll expand as the demand grows,” she added.
This article appears in The Food Issue 2025.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
