In a 15,000-square-foot facility in Plainville, seven employees at Sun Coffee Roasters have spent the past year roasting nearly 250,000 pounds of organic and fair trade coffee imported from pockets around the world.
Their goal is to produce 9.5 million pounds of coffee annually with a staff of seven to 10.
One of the keys to the company’s fluid operations is the fact that its facility is run largely by automated machines, not people.
“Because of the quality of the equipment, we can keep labor costs down,” explained Ken Lewis, partner and chief marketing officer. “We love to hire people and give them jobs, but we have low labor costs and control expenses. It’s the bad and good in today’s economy. We don’t have to hire more people to do more work.”
Sun Coffee Roasters started in 2009 after Keith Lemnios decided he wanted to take his family-run coffee business in a different direction. Lemnios, now CEO and a partner in the firm, had been in the business for two decades.
“He realized, as he was looking to grow, that fair trade was gaining momentum,” said Lewis. “He decided to do it on his own.”
Lewis wouldn’t comment on how much capital was required to start Sun Coffee Roasters, but he did say that its state of the art equipment is expensive. Especially, since Lewis says, the company’s facility has the lowest carbon footprint for a roaster of its size in New England. Lewis says all of its equipment is manufactured in the U.S. with the exception of its packaging film, which he says ships from an environmentally friendly manufacturer in Canada.
The company focuses its business on selling to three areas: retail, college campuses and high-end institutional accounts. Its customers include supermarket mega chains, such as Stop and Shop and Whole Foods, and the U.S. Library of Congress. At many New England colleges, it makes private label coffees that Lewis says are a big hit.
“They play into the affinity that colleges have for their campuses, more so than a Dunkin Donuts, for example.” Lewis says he also provides educational programs to teach college students about the organic fair trade movement.
In order for its staff of seven to produce fair trade and organic coffee at the rate it does, the company relies heavily on help from importers who have relationships with farmers around the globe. These importers find and vet the coffee beans, says Lewis, so that way his staff does not have to travel the globe in search of fair trade and organic coffee beans.
Lewis says Sun Roasters Coffee distributes to about 350 stores in the Northeast, and tries to focus on staying within a one day’s drive to a customer to ensure maximum quality of the beans.
“We can roast, grind and pack in about three days,” he said. “You can roast 600 pounds of beans in 18-20 minutes.”
Long term, Lewis says he hasn’t ruled out expanding nationally, but wants to make sure that the quality of the beans won’t be compromised in a longer shipping process. The green movement is also a priority long term, he said.
“We have a long-term plan to achieve complete environmental sustainability, but because we’re young, money is tight. We want to be off the grid eventually,” said Lewis.
Joanna Smiley writes the weekly Local Insight column. Reach her at jsmiley@HartfordBusiness.com.
