The CEO of the multi-billion dollar dessert chain shares a journey of addiction and recovery

WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) – On the outside, Greg George was a stylish showcase. The former Carolina Beach resident was known for his tight-fitting clothes accompanied by his countless tattoos.

“I’ve always had a knack for slippery clothes. I’ve always been kind of cool,” George said during a recent interview.

However, inside he was fighting a demon.

“On the outside everything may have looked fine, but on the inside, I was a mess,” he said. “I was an addict.”

George says he was drinking and doing drugs before he was a teenager.

“I started smoking weed at 12 and drinking Crown Royal,” George said.

George, who now lives in Florida, once lived in Carolina Beach. At 50, he was delivering pizzas between jobs. He’s a self-proclaimed genius in the franchise business, so the jobs got better. Their addictions do not. He described himself as a drunkard and a drug addict, but not the person most people picture him to be.

“Oh, I wasn’t a town drunk. In fact, people, some people, liked it when I showed up. Because you know, ‘do the rounds,’ drinks for my friends. I was that guy “.

George moved to Wilmington 20 years ago to help franchise Port City Java. Life looked good on the outside. He was a regular at the Kentucky Derby; he usually made a lot of money. But for most of the 40-plus years he attended the race at Churchill Downs in Kentucky, he missed it.

Then something happened that changed his life.

“Something happened to me seven years ago when I was living in Wilmington, North Carolina. One of my family members had an opioid addiction for eight years that destroyed our family. It destroyed me. This person had five OD and three arrests. It was brutal,” George said.

George was able to get his son Andrew into a treatment center, but it only made him drink more.

“I was intoxicated for three months while he was out scared to death that he wouldn’t make it.”

Then, when it came time to go get his son, he wasn’t prepared for what he was about to see.

“What happened when I got to the treatment center, I couldn’t recognize it. I didn’t know who he was. He didn’t weigh 130 pounds like he would look better in a coffin. And the moment I saw him, that was it.”

George checked himself into a treatment center. For ninety days, he and his son attended Narcotics Anonymous meetings together.

“By the grace of God, I’m almost seven years clean and sober,” George said proudly.

George was in Wilmington Wednesday as the guest speaker for the Coastal Horizon Center’s annual luncheon at the Country Club of Landfall. He shared his story of addiction, recovery and hope with a packed ballroom. Many people cried as George shared some very personal information about his 40+ year battle with addiction.

Life since the start of sobriety for the 62-year-old has taken a sweet turn.

“Three years ago I walked into a little dessert shop in Louisville, Kentucky called the Peach Cobbler Factory. It had one location. And I walked in the door and I didn’t even try dessert. I knew this was my calling in the moment I walked in.”

George is now co-owner and CEO of the Peach Cobbler Factory, one of the fastest growing dessert chains in the country.

“I’m proud to tell you that we have over 100 locations in 22 states.”

A different world for a guy who, at one point, delivered pizzas on the beach in his 50s.

“Today I am the CEO of a 50 million dollar company. Seven years ago I got lost.”

George admits that he loves this new life. Their son, Andrew, is now clean and sober. He now works as an executive at the Peach Cobbler Factory corporation.

George believes that all this success was for a purpose. Today he has helped more than 40 addicts get treatment. He thinks he’s a whisperer addict.

“First of all they look at me and see that I am different. You can’t mistake that I have tattoos, so that alone makes them trust me more that I’m not the guy from the police or the treatment center. They think this guy is cool,” George said.

He believes it is his calling.

“I know exactly why I’m here. It’s not to sell peach cobbler. It’s to help others.”

As for his recovery, he knows as with any addict, it’s one day at a time, but he’s firm and convincing when he says never again.

“Every once in a while, I look at it and I’m going to be the old me. But I have no temptations, no desires. You don’t know money or human being or anything is coming back to me. There’s no way. I’ll never take a another drink while I’m alive I’ll never do drugs while I’m alive I do it for the people out there I think God is using me as a tool to attract people who are struggling with addiction so that I can touch them in some way. This is what I will do for the rest of my life. I know my gift.”

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