Going from a small cafe to a wholesale roasting business, advice?
Hey guys,
At the moment we have a small cafe with a roaster and are just roasting enough for us and some extra that we sell to our customers. We want to move away from the cafe/food/craziness and go into more of the roasting and wholesale side of things.
Currently we are aiming for a little warehouse/garage type place to roast out of, supplying our old cafe (we'll take the roaster from there) and this new place, as well as a few other cafes/bars. However, we have some questions about how the best way to go about supplying new customers is. Is it better to supply them with a brand spankin new coffee machine and give them a contract when we start supplying them, thus maybe investing around 10k in each new customer? Or are second hand machines or no machines at all a better way to go?
We also want to have a small selection of retail items in our new place, we were thinking a top end and a bottom end home coffee machine and grinder, as well as some kitchen type gadgets. Has anyone got a place like this and if so, what sells best!?
If anyone has done this before we'd love to hear some pointers of the best way to go about doing it, any help is appreciated!
Stevie
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John P on
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Stevie,
We are pretty much in the same boat. We roast only in house and for customers. We've had several (local) requests over the years to roast for a few places, and at this point I've turned all of them down because they are places that would harm our reputation.
Big(ger) roasters chime in, but from my perspective: You are in the coffee roasting business. Coffee only. You don't want to be an equipment salesman. It will lead to huge headaches and problems. There are many horror stories out there!
I would recommend equipment and/or have a particular vendor that you work with. because in order to gain or maintain a certain reputation, you have to target your clients. Selling to anyone who wants to buy is a bad idea.
They should meet certain requirements in terms of equipment and training. I know that Stumptown and Vivace, as well as other quality roasters, don't accept everyone who comes calling. You need to make sure the product they deliver to the customer will help you, not hurt you.
I know small roasters who have reputation of having lousy product... horrible in fact. But further investigation revealed it was the shops, not the coffee. Lack of training, poor equipment, poor maintenance, etc, all led to a rather irreversible opinion of these coffees. Just something to think about when you build up your client list.
Oh, and don't sell yourself short. There's a balance between the perception of cost and quality, regardless of the volume you are selling.
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Permalink Reply by Stevie Jepson on
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Thanks so much for your advice, definitely some things to consider. Thinking that supplying equipment might be more hassle that it's worth.
John P said:
Stevie,
We are pretty much in the same boat. We roast only in house and for customers. We've had several (local) requests over the years to roast for a few places, and at this point I've turned all of them down because they are places that would harm our reputation.
Big(ger) roasters chime in, but from my perspective: You are in the coffee roasting business. Coffee only. You don't want to be an equipment salesman. It will lead to huge headaches and problems. There are many horror stories out there!
I would recommend equipment and/or have a particular vendor that you work with. because in order to gain or maintain a certain reputation, you have to target your clients. Selling to anyone who wants to buy is a bad idea.
They should meet certain requirements in terms of equipment and training. I know that Stumptown and Vivace, as well as other quality roasters, don't accept everyone who comes calling. You need to make sure the product they deliver to the customer will help you, not hurt you.
I know small roasters who have reputation of having lousy product... horrible in fact. But further investigation revealed it was the shops, not the coffee. Lack of training, poor equipment, poor maintenance, etc, all led to a rather irreversible opinion of these coffees. Just something to think about when you build up your client list.
Oh, and don't sell yourself short. There's a balance between the perception of cost and quality, regardless of the volume you are selling.
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