Roasting Database

Roasting Database - Question and Answer

Question

Dear Roast magazine,

I AM WRITING because I was hoping you might know a thing or two in regards to a good roasting database. I'm interested in something that logs and graphs time and temperature data. I want a database that connects inventory (production orders, lot numbers and marks and forecasting) to quality information (cupping scores, graphs) to origin and broker information.

I don't want anything that runs the roaster for you, or replicates roast profiles for you... ain't no craft in that.

What do you know about my dream database?

Thanks so much,

Colleen

The Expert Answers

DEAR COLLEEN,

I hate to crush your dream, but what you are asking for is an integrated software program that fulfills multiple functions in three very different areas of control: process control, quality control and inventory control.

There are currently good programs and products that can do some, or even most of these functions, but to the best of my knowledge there are currently no viable software packages that can seamlessly and automatically integrate all of the functions that you desire. The inventory control portion of your dream database, while not in and of itself problematic, becomes much more complicated when you wish to use it to also track supplier info, quality info, quality info by supplier, as well as all of your profile data.

And yet there is hope...

Some of the coffee roasting data-loggers currently on the market have the ability to track many of the things you require, including batch weight, lot numbers, certification marks, as well as the actual time and temperature profile tracks, among other pertinent data. This information is then stored to a database that can, in many instances, be imported into an off-the-shelf or custom database for use with other data. Often this information, and hence the roasted coffee, can be tracked with a discrete batch number as well--this is useful for generating a product recall plan, a necessary part of a food safety audit.

Used in such a way, the batch-specific information that is stored with your profile information can then be retained with your quality control data, such as color readings, cupping data, packaging data and shipping data. Your process control tool (roast profile data-logger) can be easily coupled with your quality control data, and eventually with your shipping data. As you obtain more information, you simply enter it in the designated field in your database. For computer-savvy people, the above integration and tracking is currently possible with a good roast profile data-logging system and some knowledge of how to design templates in off-the-shelf database programs. Okay, that gets you two-thirds of the way to your dream.

Now onto the inventory control part: Most large roasters and many smaller ones currently use inventory control software. Some simply track orders; some track orders and drawdown inventories; some process orders and then break them down into production schedules; some generate POs and invoices, and then link to their bookkeeping programs; some are industry specific and some are not; some of these are off-the-shelf and some are custom; some are proprietary and some are not. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of inventory control software packages on the market today. But none of these can generate and store roast profiles.

However, it is currently possible that with a roast datalogger that allows for storing weight data, you can use an existing inventory control program such as Fishbowl Inventory (this program works with QuickBooks) to do much of the rest of what you would like your dream database to accomplish. Do all the above and you have created your database. Therein lies the problem: You created it.

Most roasters have neither the knowledge nor the time to create what to many computer software people may appear to be a pretty simple system of linked databases. Perhaps more importantly, most computer software people know next to nothing about the issues that roasting companies face, and further are unwilling to undertake the design of such a system without being bankrolled.

I believe that there are three fundamental ways for a roaster with your wants and needs to progress:

1. Wait until what you want comes to market. (It will, but who knows when? So, this could take a long time, and still may not be what you dream of.)
2. Hire a software engineer to create your dream database. (This will be expensive, and possibly take a long time, and still may not be what you dream of.)
3. Begin to solve these three different problems independently.
   
   
   1. Buy a coffee roasting data-logger that tracks much of what you wish to record.
   2. Track and store your quality control information either in hard copy or in a separate database referencing the discrete roast profile (date/time/name).
   3. Buy a decent inventory control program that solves your inventory issues only.

With option three, you still may not get your dream database but you solve all the problems you currently face--whether they be process control, quality control or inventory control.

Roasting And Retailing

Roasting And Retailing

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood ...
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
- from "The Road Not Taken"
by Robert Frost

Like Robert Frost's wanderer above, every specialty coffee retailer also faces a fork in the road. One route - the one most traveled--is the traditional retail model: buying coffee wholesale from a roaster and preparing it and marketing it along the roaster's guidelines, hopefully with the roaster's assistance. On the other route--the one less taken--is the retail roaster. This hybrid model forces a retailer to know at least as much as the wholesaler they presumably replace--without the support the wholesaler would normally supply--and still run their retail business.

For about the last decade, the fastest-growing segment of the American coffee roasting market has been retailers. Every year, a few hundred of them decide to take on the additional operational responsibilities of creating their own product, of roasting their own coffee even as they still must manage and operate their coffeehouses. Many of these business owners are experienced retailers, while others are start-ups. They run the full gamut, from beginning coffeehouse owners to experienced multi-unit drive-thru operators. And while they all may want to roast their own coffee, they also may have some very different reasons for doing so. They may even be surprised, after beginning the process of roasting, to discover which factors are truly important to them and their businesses and which are just fluff. So why do retailers roast?

The following accounts are from three experienced retail roasters who answer this question, along with what they found after they started the process and how it has changed their businesses, if not their lives. They all had retail experience before taking on roasting, leaving them with fewer unknowns than startups face. Let us take a short journey down the road less taken with these three intrepid, but very different, retailers.

Mike French

Owner, Sammi J's Stonehouse Roastery, Nissawa, Minn.
CURRENT EQUIPMENT: DIEDRICH IR-7 AND AMBEX YM-10

Recently, I was asked why we decided to roast coffee. A simple question to be sure, but the answer is complicated. We were a coffee/frozen yogurt walk-in shop, a summertime business in a resort town in Minnesota. Our revenue was meager at best. My wife, Julie, ran the business during the summer, along with continuing her part-time nursing job.

We had been using regional wholesalers for our coffee offerings, and although liked by our customers, there was little to separate us from other coffeehouses in the area. We needed something no one else had: an identity and product that could only be purchased at our shop. We needed a coffee so fresh you could smell the fruit and chocolate in it. We needed to roast! We had visited many roasteries, and I had seen those "roasting machines" at Coffee Fest.

To sum it up, our top reason to roast was to set ourselves apart from other coffeehouses.

REASON #2: We would have the freshest product available in the area.

REASON #3: No more concerns with ordering, stocking and rotating stock. I would roast as we needed it, keeping no more than three days of inventory ahead. No old coffee.

REASON #4: Quality control. This includes roast level, blends and origins of coffee.

REASON #5: We wanted to. It was a new and exciting adventure. The second question I was asked was, "What has roasting done for our business?" Roasting our own coffee has made our business what it is today. We couldn't have made a wiser decision. I can't emphasize this strongly enough. Not only have we set ourselves apart from other coffeehouses in the area, we have set a whole new standard for coffee in our area. Day after day, we hear from our customers that we stand alone in our coffee quality. We have become the local standard everyone else is compared to.

Our competitor has everything money can buy: location, beautiful decor, incredible signage and branding. Yet we sell far more coffee. By the way, our roaster has paid for itself many times over in the last two years.

There are a lot of intangibles that roasting has brought to us. Our awareness and knowledge of green coffees, roasting, cupping and brewing continue to grow in ways only experience can teach.

KATHI ZOLLMAN

Director Of Education, Summa Coffea Academy
Founder, Dark Canyon Coffee Roasters, Pendleton, Ore.
CURRENT EQUIPMENT: DEIDRICH IR-12

Roastmaster, Cinnamon Bay Coffee, Clearwater, Fla.
CURRENT EQUIPMENT: AMBEX YM-30

My decision to start roasting specialty coffee in-house came after spending two years in a nontraditional retail environment. Our small mail-order business grew quickly and outgrew the kitchen table that was the center of the business. The demand for our fresh-roasted coffee seemed to warrant a retail location. After visiting a few Northwest roasters, we decided to purchase a coffee roaster and open a retail outlet. I was fascinated by the roasting process and felt confident that I could learn to master the secrets of the roast process. The fact that we could control our inventory levels, quality and product offerings was appealing to the potential growth of the business. The other opportunity that quickly emerged was wholesale. We found tremendous growth in wholesaling packaged coffees for retail sale and five-pound bulk coffee and espresso. My interest level was spiked by the roasting process, and becoming a master roaster became a priority in my career path. I wanted to learn the roast process inside and out. Coffee roasting in a retail environment was a win-win situation for my business: The marketing appeal of the roaster right there, within reach of the customer, and increased profit margins were add-on bonuses to the original goal of purchasing the roaster.

Van Howell

Owner, Chaos Coffee Roasters, Greer, S.C.
CURRENT EQUIPMENT: AMBEX YM-15

I knew I wanted to do coffee retail, but after doing several coffee trade shows, especially the retail-oriented ones like Coffee Fest, I was suspicious that a coffeehouse in the Greenville, S.C., area could make it on coffee alone. I already had retail ownership experience in the TCBY system, and I actually still owned a couple at that time. So I pretty much knew the retail labor picture, and I also knew the difference between gross margin and net margin, but I found that many of the so-called experts in coffee either purposefully or through ignorance constantly confused the two. In short, I failed to see where the money was in coffee at the retail level. Until I began to look at roasting in-house.

Roasting in my retail location appealed to me for two primary reasons. The first was that roasting appeared to increase my net margins (the money I get to keep) significantly. The second was that it opened the door for me to explore the wholesale coffee roasting business without much additional cost, allowing me to basically develop two businesses using the same space and the same piece of capital equipment: the roaster.

It has been a great ride, and after three years, I have finally grown the wholesale portion of my business to a point where it is no longer feasible to continue to roast in the retail location. Additionally, the retail has mushroomed, and I could better utilize the space currently occupied by the roaster for traditional retailing.

All in all, I would say that roasting in my retail location was the smartest move I made when I decided to embark on my coffee career. Not only did it allow me to develop and tweak my own brand, but it opened up networking and educational opportunities, such as the Roasters Guild and the new Regional Roaster Training Groups, that are generally not available to standalone retailers.

Nontraditional retailer, traditional retailer and retail/wholesaler are three very different starting business models, and each one above decided to take up roasting. And that has made all the difference. The reasons given for roasting by French, Howell and Zollman are as varied as their business models, but they all fit into the following six general categories. All are mentioned in one form or another by these retail roasters:

Marketing. All specialty coffee retailers have competition. If it isn't coming from a chain store across the street, then it's coming from another independent on the other side of town. If there are no dedicated coffee retailers, then it's doughnut shops, grocery stores and Internet retailers (a rapidly growing segment of retail coffee sales). No matter the competitive threat, independent retailers must find a way to differentiate their product from all others in their marketplace. By installing a roaster, a retailer has a built-in marketing advantage over more traditional retailers, creating a theme for their stores while simultaneously allowing them to brand their own coffee. For most retail roasters, marketing is one of the more important and most obvious advantages to roasting for retail, and it almost always increases the sales of whole bean coffee for existing shops.

Inventory control. Of all the traditional duties of the retailer, none seems to cause more heartache, or gets sloughed off more often, than tracking inventory. Specialty coffee retailers, like all retailers, must devote precious time and energy to staying on top of their inventory. Poor inventory control contributes to inconsistent sales, upset customers and in-house theft. Roasting can transform a retail operation from being the final distribution point in what can be a torturously complex supply chain to a vertically integrated, just-in-time manufacturer of their own branded product. Buying green coffee, as opposed to buying roasted coffee, changes the entire inventory dynamic, as green coffee has a much longer shelf life than roasted coffee and is generally sold in much larger quantities.

Quality Control. Although a less obvious consideration for most retailers, especially start-ups, quality is perhaps the most important consideration over the long run. Quality issues for retailers considering roasting fall into two wide categories: freshness and product selection.

Coffee--especially specialty grade coffee--should be a fresh product. Although coffee, unlike, say, raw spinach, cannot make consumers ill if it is not fresh, the staling of coffee has a decidedly negative effect on its taste. Coffee drinkers should not be paying good money for a poor product, such as coffee that is too stale or even borderline degraded. Freshness is no doubt the preeminent quality issue facing all specialty coffee retailers today, but traditional retailers only have limited control over freshness. They also must rely on their roasting partners to be clear and honest when communicating about issues affecting freshness, and react appropriately. Coffee shops that roast, however, have only to rely upon themselves to ensure that they are serving and selling a fresh product. Additionally, poor margins on wholebean coffee often encourages staleness in retail by discouraging discounting or disposing of coffees that are too old or too stale. Retail roasters, with their much larger margins, are in a better position to discount or destroy stale coffees.

Reasons Not To Roast

Davis speaks for and against retail roasting from experience as an equipment manufacturer and retailer of 13 years:

1. INADEQUATE TIME.If you currently do not have enough time to run your business, how do you think roasting can help? You need time to do the roasting as well as to learn this very special craft.
   
   
2. INADEQUATE SPACE. You do not have enough physical space to roast in-house; or you are unable to vent (coffee roasting produces smoke) the roaster.
   
   
3. YOUR BUSINESS IS TOO DEEPLY INVESTED IN THE WHOLE-SALE BRAND THAT YOU CURRENTLY SELL.For example, if you have Intellegentsia or Counter Culture signage all over your cafe, it may be difficult to switch, even if it will be your brand.
   
   
4. YOU DO NOT HAVE THE CAPITAL TO ROAST.Roaster, ducting, build-out, permitting, and initial green coffee stock are all capital investment - and some are not recoverable if you move or go out of business.
   
   
5. FEAR.You lack the confidence to make the leap into roasting where you will get less support for your business than you are currently getting from your wholesale roaster. Wholesale roasters as a group are much better at day-to-day support than either equipment manufacturers or green coffee brokers.
   
   

With the increasing number of coffees, not to mention certification options, available to roasters of any size, one would think that retailers would have an overwhelming selection of coffees to serve and sell. But the reality is somewhat different. Once a traditional retailer partners with a roaster, they cede certain decisions to that roaster. Among these decisions are what coffees are to be roasted and, perhaps more importantly, how they are to be roasted. For many retailers, relying on the expertise of the wholesale roaster is a welcomed comfort. For others, however, it can be a constant source of irritation. By roasting for their own outlets, retailers can expand--exponentially--the selection of the coffees on their menus, taking inhouse the control as well as the responsibility for their core product line.

COST CONTROL. Nearly every retailer that even fleetingly considers roasting believes that cutting their costs on the coffee they use, without sacrificing quality, is one of the most important factors when considering roasting. With coffee usually being the largest variable expense for most coffee retailers after labor, reducing those costs can be vitally important if the retailer is to grow or even survive. And while it is true that green coffee costs less than roasted, there are other costs associated with roasting in-house that are often not factored into the equation: Initial capital investment (roaster, shipping, installation, finance costs and permitting) and labor (direct roasting labor as well as the labor of learning a new process) are the two most important. However, once all costs are factored in, most retailers can see a significant increase in their bottom lines, even if sales remained constant. A general guideline to keep in mind: It will cost a retail roaster approximately 50 percent of what buying wholesale roasted coffees cost to produce the same coffee in-house.

NEW BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. Many retail coffee operators enter into the business dreaming that eventually they will make their way "up the coffee chain," using their retail operation as either a base or as an experience to build upon. Whether that dream be multistore, wholesaling, consulting or even eventually growing coffee, roasting within a retail operation opens a new world of opportunities, with a much smaller level of risk. Some of the best wholesale roasters in the country began as strictly retail roasters leveraging their experiences as retailers and their knowledge of roasting to create entirely new businesses. Additionally, roasting can give the committed retailer increased margins and quality control to offset the increased management costs of going multi-store. Although developing new coffee-oriented businesses is usually far from the minds of retailers when first considering roasting for themselves, in many ways a roaster installed in a retail location should be looked upon as a small business incubator awaiting the right entrepreneur to fully realize its potential.

SELF-FULFILLMENT. Very simply, many retailers roast because they see the roasting process as an extension of their own personalities. Roasting coffee, to these retailers, represents that rare avocation that can easily be turned into a vocation. It's a milestone in their relationship with coffee, a chance to create a product with their hands--a product that is still evolving and hence requires attention and creative brain power.

Q & A — Chaff In The Coffee

Q & A — Chaff In The Coffee

Question

Dear Roast:
I am getting a lot of chaff in the coffee when I drop it into the cooling bin when I finish a roast. How can I prevent this from happening?
the expert answers

THE SIMPLE ANSWER to this problem is airflow, airflow, airflow. The complication, however, is determining just where the airflow problem is originating: coffee, technique, weather, drum, blower, internal ducting or external ducting.

Coffee

Let's start with the coffee. Changes in coffee, or increases in the use of certain types of coffees, can significantly increase the amount of chaff. Brazils, Sumatras and Ethiopian Harrars come quickly to mind. And while the amount of chaff thrown off by any one coffee should not be an issue in and of itself, increases in the use of these softer-bean coffees necessitate an increase in the frequency of cleaning and general maintenance of the roaster. It is pretty simple, really: more chaff, more cleaning.

Furthermore, these coffees are the very ones where you will first notice this problem. They are not unlike the canaries in the coal mine. Because they produce more chaff, you are more likely to begin to notice airflow problems with these particular coffees. If you see this problem with these coffees and no others, you still have an airflow problem, and you will eventually see it with other coffees if you do not determine the cause and take the appropriate actions.

Technique

In roasters that use a single blower for both roasting and cooling, failure to move the damper from the cooling to the roasting positions can cause a reduction in airflow through the drum and may cause chaff to remain in the drum.

Weather

Weather-related problems primarily affect the least-experienced roasters, or those that have recently moved a roaster or changed an existing duct. Thermal inversions, abnormally strong or gusty winds, or winds from unusual directions can cause transient airflow problems with roasters. The best way to determine if you have an issue with weather is by keeping a roasting log and documenting your weather so that you detect any problem patterns. If you are experiencing transient weather issues, there are several things you may be able to do to lessen, or even eliminate, the problem depending on the particulars of that weather, your exhaust set-up and even the surrounding buildings. Permanent fixes include extending the height of your exhaust, eliminating horizontal exhaust terminations and changing the termination head of your exhaust. And, of course, if you determine that your problem was caused by highly unusual weather, you can always choose not to roast when that type of weather occurs.

Drum

Over-packing the drum can cause airflow restrictions that will not allow the chaff to be efficiently pulled off the coffee. Once again, you will see this most often with Brazils, Sumatras and Ethiopian Harrars. Additionally, the increase in bean size with darker roasts can cause an over-packing situation, even if the roaster operates well with that load size at lighter roasts. However, if this problem is appearing after roasting well for some time, then over-packing is not the cause, although reducing load size can produce a short-term solution.

Blower

The heart of drum and air roasters is the blower. It is the blower that provides circulation that allows for convective action — the dominant form of heat transfer in both air and drum roasters — and that removes smoke and chaff from the roasted coffee. For drum roasters, insufficient cleaning of the roaster blower is the single greatest cause of chaff remaining in coffee. This is true because drum roaster blowers move dirty air. This air contains coffee oils, chaff in varying degrees and green-coffee dust. If allowed to accumulate on the blades of the blower, these "dirty" elements will begin to reduce the amount of air that the blower can pull through the roaster. Eventually, there may not be enough airflow to pull the chaff out of the drum (this is also the greatest cause of smoke in the roastery). How often you clean the blower is mostly dependent upon five things:

1. Type of blower (impeller or squirrel cage)
2. Exhaust run (how much resistance your blower has to overcome to push out the exhaust)
3. Type of coffees roasted (see above)
4. Darkness of roast (the darker the roasts, the more blower cleaning that is necessary)
5. Frequency of roasting (the more often you roast, the more often you need to clean)

Internal Ducting

Internal ducting is generally accepted to be the ducting between the drum and the blower, and may or may not include an internal chaff collector. External chaff collectors are considered to be part of the exhaust, except where the blower is mounted atop an external chaff collector. Many tabletop roasters are configured in this manner.

It is important that roasters understand how the air moves within their respective roasting system in order to know how, and how often, to inspect and clean this ducting. Many roasters clean internal ducting very infrequently — every year or so, depending upon the cleanliness of the blower. The dirtier you allow your blower to get, the likelier you are to experience a partial or complete clogging of your internal duct. Complete cleaning of this ducting can be a time-consuming and backbreaking task. If you are unsure of how this duct runs, the usual frequency of cleaning or how to clean it, go back to your manual or ask your manufacturer.

External Ducting

Improper ducting materials or poorly laid out external ducting runs are the second-greatest cause of poor airflow through restriction; ducting problems are, in fact, the greatest cause when roasters experience this phenomenon upon initial installation. Ducts that have too many angles, long horizontal runs, horizontal terminations, restrictive caps, or are the wrong size can all cause chaff to remain on the coffee by negatively affecting airflow through the drum. These types of ducting restrictions increase back pressure upon the blower, decreasing the amount of air that can be pulled through the drum. They can often be noted upon startup of a new, recently moved or re-ducted machine.

However, these types of restrictions are not always noted at start-up, but they will increase the likelihood of trouble in the future as well as increase the amount of maintenance that must be performed — especially cleaning of the roaster blower. Roaster ducts should be inspected, if not cleaned, at the same frequency as the main blower. When cleaned, they should be free of oils, chaff and dust. Mushroom caps, or any cap with screen, should be avoided at all costs. China caps should be modified to prevent the air from being pushed back down toward the open duct. If possible, all vertical ducting terminations should use a no-loss or low-loss stackhead (see Roast's September/October 2009 issue for more on this). Horizontal terminations should be avoided, if possible.

Most recurring problems with roasters come down to airflow issues. And chaff on coffee is no different. Perhaps the most important thing to remember about all airflow issues is that a problem in one area can cause connected problems in another. For this reason, it is important to understand the flow of air — both the flow through your roaster and through your stack. If not, you may find yourself fixing a problem only to see it recur very quickly.

— Terry Davis

One SCAA Member Weighs In

One SCAA Member Weighs In

The heart of the SCAA is independent companies still run by their founders. Many, if not most, SCAA member companies are younger than the association itself. SCAA companies are more dynamic, committed, independent, individualized, invested and, yes, passionate as a whole than their National Coffee Association brethren. The SCAA itself is a voluntary federation of these individual and very independent stakeholders. The federation that is the SCAA encompasses the entire coffee supply chain, from seed to cup. As in any federation, however, there is a constant give and take between different interests and perspectives of those involved; it is Pollyanna, irresponsible and even dangerous to pretend otherwise. Growers, brokers, roasters, retailers and allied manufacturers do not have the same business concerns, models or, in most cases, customers.

In any organization of this type, there must be one overriding goal or mission that brings these groups together. The mission must be important to all, and it must encompass all agendas within. For the SCAA, that goal was--and should remain--quality coffee. The advancement of quality in coffee has been the glue that has held our little federation together, regardless of the secondary issues that constantly swirl around it. Quality is, in effect, our flag.

Throughout the occasional battles within, our quality flag has remained high above the fray. In most cases, the organization has come out stronger once conflicts have been resolved. It wasn't that we argue over the mission itself, but over the strategies to be employed to accomplish our mission and to maintain our goal. But in the last few years, we have experienced something altogether different: a slow decline toward irrelevancy as different groups within the SCAA have squabbled over ever-dwindling resources. Mud has been flung, motives questioned and reputations savaged. Our flag, now soiled, is at risk of becoming an empty symbol.

In the life of any organization, there are times when honest, probing and often painful examinations must be undertaken. Mission statement, bylaws, operating environment, structure, personnel, finances and supplier agreements--all must endure close inspection and, if need be, must be rewritten, restructured, rededicated or abandoned. As a U.S. trade organization, the SCAA must be cognizant of the market realities facing its members and respond accordingly.

In the past, the SCAA has often operated more as a charity than a trade group, pinging from directive to directive, crisis to crisis and initiative to initiative while chanting the mantra, "We chase the mission not the money," even as the opposite was occurring. What mission can be accomplished without adequate funding and resources to bring it to fruition? The history of our association is littered with starved skeletons of programs began and never finished, from the National Specialty Coffee Week/Month program to the Roasters Handbook project, and any number of professional and/or business certification programs. Many of these programs, if not all, failed not because of a lack of interest, but due to a lack of committed resources. Idealism often triumphed over pragmatism and condemned many of the membership and the staff's greater ideas. Is it any wonder then, that through the last dozen years, we have hardly grown our membership, even as our industry has virtually exploded?

So here we find ourselves a year after the SCAA's financial crisis was first reported, an organization floundering in a sea of doubt, seemingly rudderless, without a chart, a captain or a navigator. Yes, we may soon have new executive leadership, but is the organization healthy enough to be righted by one individual? Sure the immediate cash flow crisis has been solved, but how do we look in the long term? Worse yet, the initial energy that pushed committed volunteers to dig deep has been largely squandered by in-fighting on the board of directors.

Within the committed SCAA volunteer community, there is an undercurrent of resignation, disillusionment and fatigue. Often, the more committed the volunteer, the deeper the foreboding. There is a rising pessimism stoked by the seeming inability of the board of directors to communicate with the membership in a clear and timely manner. This is a board stacked with talent, experience and competence that seems incapable of functioning as a team. How can a board that fails to communicate effectively with each other ever expect to communicate effectively with the rest of us? It is past time for all volunteers in leadership positions (on the board, Roasters Guild, Barista Guild and standing committees) to vow to set aside their differences or step down.

Our current situation is best described as weakness exacerbated by confusion. In the midst of all this confusion and weakness, enter the NCA. What exactly the NCA is up to and whether they really want to go after those of us that have been the bedrock of quality in coffee in the United States remains to be seen. The NCA issue underscores what many of us have known for awhile: The Specialty Coffee Association of America needs to be remade.

Coffee consumers are different today than they were 25 years ago, when the SCAA was formed by a small group of committed individuals. Let us acknowledge these people and move on. We owe them the respect they have earned and nothing more. That is business. Many of us have also invested our lives and our security to make our livelihoods in this industry. Through our hard work and entrepreneurship, we have also changed this industry. We need a trade organization that looks and acts more like us and less like our local municipal planning authorities.

It is time for a re-constitutional convention, to re-federate our federation. We should start with the mission statement and not stop until we have looked at every nook and nuance, from the dues structure to the number of committees and their makeup.

Let us rally around our flag.

My Best /Worst Day

My Best /Worst Day

Hi, my name is Terry, and I am a small business owner--a retailer, to be precise. I am addicted to the everyday stress of owning and operating a retail coffeehouse in America. I would like to share the story of the day I hit bottom and the day I reached the top. The following account is a true (as best I can recollect) retelling of my best and my worst day as a small business owner; it was, in fact, the same day. Small business owners--especially retailers--are a contentious bunch. Slightly arrogant, we often undertake projects that would be better left to professionals. Occasionally, these projects end up taking longer, costing more and containing decidedly poorer results than had we just hired someone, pulled the permits or followed the rules. Sometimes our "little projects" can even end in disaster.

I have been a specialty coffee retailer and retail roaster since the late spring of 1994. In the spring of 2001, a road-widening project claimed most of the parking immediately in front of my store--a space I was renting. I wanted to stay on the commuter street where we had been located for almost 10 years, so I waited and watched; for two years, I waited and watched. When the construction project was nearing its end, I began looking for a space to rent or perhaps buy. Two days before signing a lease on a less-than-desirable space, and one day after putting a $200 nonrefundable deposit down, I found a building to buy. It was a three-bay strip center built in 1958, and it needed work. God, did it need work.

A year later, our new New Harmony was up and running. Everything seemed to be going well--except the sewage. The building we had purchased had a 100-foot sewage line that ran out to the alley and connected to the city's wastewater main. After consulting my plumber and calling the city to begin the permitting process, I set a date--a month out--for replacement of my sewer line. Although it was going to be somewhat expensive, the process hardly seemed to be difficult, dangerous or pressing.

The very next evening, after formulating the plan of action, my business life was about to take a decidedly crappy turn. While sitting in my office, I detected a foul odor emanating from the office locker room. On inspection, I discovered the shower drain was seeping raw sewage. My expensive little problem had become difficult and pressing almost overnight. Calling my plumber, I informed him that I needed the line replaced NOW. As he had little to no time, we reached an agreement whereby I would dig up the old line and he would come by in the evening of the following day and put in the new line. The only problem with this scenario was that the full 100 feet of the line went diagonally across my parking lot. Not only would I have to dig through the asphalt, but no one would be able to park there either. However, like many small business owners, I grabbed the bull by the horns.

The Plan

Since there was no time to waste, I quickly formulated a new plan. Young Don (the hulking Baby Huey of our organization) and I would meet at 6 a.m. to retrench and expose the existing sewer line. This would allow our plumber to come the next evening, run a new sewer line alongside the existing line and then affect a changeover. Immediately following the switch, he would remove the old line, and we would backfill the trench. Although conceived in haste, the plan seemed sound and had the added advantages of being cheaper and quicker than the original, plus the evening changeover would have minimal impact on the operations of the cafe. This plan was a rare thing indeed--a little too rare, perhaps.

Things Begin to Go Wrong

In order to get things rolling and try and get the majority of the grunt work finished before the afternoon sun would fry us (this is Florida, after all), I had scheduled a 5 a.m. wakeup and planned to leave at 5:30. I arose at 5, ground my coffee and put my Moka pot on the stove for my morning coffee. While the coffee brewed, I went out to the driveway to get the paper and immediately noticed MY CAR WAS MISSING. Now before I go on, I feel I must further explain ...

The Car

In early July of 2003, I celebrated my 40th birthday. In early April of 2003, embarking on my midlife crisis, I bought myself the car I had dreamed of since they were first introduced. Feeling my 40-year-old oats, I did this without asking my loving wife and business partner, Kathy. Although used, this car was a thing of rare beauty. I was now the proud owner of a 1992 Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon. And though my wife should have been angry, she just shook her head in resignation and sternly proclaimed that she would "not drive that boat." My friends thought I was crazy, my employees laughed and my children teased me unmercifully. And yet, I loved this simulated-wood paneled behemoth, and now it was missing.

Things Continue to Go Wrong

Had someone stolen my car?!? I loudly proclaimed to my still sleeping wife, "My Roadmaster has been stolen." She uttered a profanity in disbelief, rolled over and promptly fell back asleep. Getting neither sympathy nor respect at home, I called the police.
"Pinellas County Sheriff 's Department. Do you have an emergency?"
"No, but my car has been stolen."
"Year, make and model, please."
"1992 Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon."
"Sir, are you sure this car was stolen?" Did she just giggle?
"Yes," I responded, somewhat offended. "I have the only set of keys in my hand."
"Sir, your car has not been stolen, it has been repossessed."

Repossessed. I was shocked--incredulous, even. I had paid cash for my beautiful Buick and was now holding the title in my hand. The sheriff 's department gave me the name of the repo company and the company that had authorized the repossession order, neither of which were answering the phone at 5:30 a.m. (Actually, I was to find out later in the day that the Repo Man never answers the phone.) But as much as I loved my car, like any good action hero, Small Businessman had to labor on to complete the assigned mission: the replacement of my sewer line. The rescue of my beloved Buick and the ensuing revenge I was planning against the Repo Man would just have to wait.

The Big Dig

Slightly frustrated and 45 minutes behind schedule, Young Don and I arrived at the store and began to pull out the tools for the dig. I showed Don where to begin and how to score the asphalt with an axe in such a way as to "pop" it up in chunks, thereby minimizing the overall damage to the lot. I went in to make an espresso and to try to locate my car. Returning to the dig, I discovered that Young Don had done about six inches of the 100 feet we needed to accomplish. This being an old building, we had failed to notice that our parking lot was approximately four to six inches above the grade of the two adjoining lots. If we had noticed, perhaps we would have known the reason for the grade differences: We had two parking lots, one on top of the other. There was no way we could axe and dig our way through two parking lots in the few hours we had to finish the job. So, undaunted, Small Businessman formulated a new plan ...

The New Plan

Grabbing the yellow pages and finding a rental place, I promptly put out a call for a small, mechanized machine that would help me dig this ditch faster: a backhoe- type machine. So two hours late, we began the job again. Meanwhile ...

The Car

While awaiting the delivery of the backhoe, I finally was able to get a hold of an employee of the loan company that had issued the repo order. While I explained how her company had authorized my car to be wrongly repossessed, she hung up. From my perspective, her company had not repossessed but had in fact stolen my car, and perhaps I had been a little frank. But hang up on me? "Hey, I'm the victim here," I wanted to scream. So I called the police yet again. They once again declined to become involved in what was a "civil" action. Meanwhile, out in the cafe, the regulars, many of whom had become my friends over the years, were having a jolly time at my expense. I kept trying to call the loan company, to no avail. Finally, I wrote a short description of my predicament and faxed it to the company. Shortly thereafter, I received a call from a manager from the loan company and was able to explain my situation and my dissatisfaction with the "stealing" of my car, as well as the inconvenience it had caused me. While I was on the phone, the backhoe showed up.

Back to the Dig

Putting down the phone and rushing out the back door, I was met with a much larger machine than I had expected. But being Small Businessman, I climbed aboard the small monster and began to move the very earth beneath my feet. Beginning in the middle of the lot and working back toward the city's water main, I began to make great and quick progress. With Young Don in the ditch to guide me so that I wouldn't break the existing sewer line, everything was rosy--except the stench. What we were uncovering was not an old sewer line, but a sewage soaker hose of sorts, slowly leaking 35 years of filth. As noon approached, the temperature was reaching the 90-degree mark, coupled with South Florida humidity. I feared Young Don would soon be overcome, so I sent him on break while I repositioned the backhoe to dig back toward the building. Feeling good about the progress we were making, I decided to begin digging without waiting for Don to return and spot for me. As I came up with the first shovel full, it began to rain.

Things Begin to Go Really Wrong , Really Fast

Well not rain exactly, because just in front of me was a geyser. I had severed my incoming water line. As this was happening, Don returned from his break. I yelled for him to turn off the main located in the alley, and I jumped into the ditch to investigate--the ditch that was quickly filling with water and $%#@. Things were moving fast now, as Don and I shouted at one another, me from the flooding trench and him from the alley.

Hurry up," I shouted. "Which one is ours?" he replied. "Turn all of them off until the water stops," I said back. So he did ... and nothing happened. As the stream from the busted high-pressure line began weakening the sides of the hole and raw (although now watered down) sewage began flowing across the parking lot, I started to fear the loss of my parking lot from erosion. With me standing in the now-knee-deep sewage and trying to use a shovel to divert the water from the side of the trench, Don ran into the office to call the water and sewage department.

The Cavalry Arrives

Literally two minutes after Young Don disappeared to call the authorities, they arrived. They grabbed a fitting from the truck to stop the bleeding and repaired the line, all in quick time. But not before I was humiliated and injured. Trying to move the backhoe out of the way, I tripped on a loose piece of asphalt and slammed to the sewage-covered pavement, hard--nay, really hard. Don helped me up, and I realized I could not stand on my left ankle. With Don helping me into the office, my wife kindly informed me that I should probably go the doctor. But with injured pride and smelling vaguely of sewage, Small Businessman would have nothing to do with doctors while my foe--the leaking sewage line--still existed. I grabbed an old crutch conveniently located at the office and returned to battle--a battle that was now little more than a debris-strewn battlefield. As I thanked the city guys, one of them turned and asked me a question.

CANDE, The Para de an d The Return of My Roadmaster

"Did you call for a CANDE?" he asked. I was sure from the look on my face that he knew I had no earthly idea what he was talking about. "You didn't just start digging without a CANDE permit, did you?"

I began to plead my case with the city workers, somehow sensing that they held the key to my salvation from this smelly little hell I had created. As I recounted the whole experience of my last few hours, the sewer line, the car, the dig and my crappy luck, a smile began to play on their lips and they took mercy upon me. Perhaps it was the vision of a 40-year-old man covered in filth and standing on a too-tall crutch almost laughing, almost crying, almost raging at his own story that convinced them, or perhaps it was just plain human pity that caused them to give me such a break.

"Don't worry," one of them said. "Call this number and tell them you have a sewer line break and that it is an emergency-- you will have a dig permit within an hour." Still not fully comprehending the gift I had been given, I thanked them and retreated to the office to call for my CANDE. Once inside, I was promptly greeted by a customer who had driven four hours to meet with me about opening a coffeehouse. I asked him to sit while I made a call: my CANDE call.

The woman on the phone gave me a list of about a dozen agencies that would have to get back to me within the hour to tell me if I was clear to dig. I could not dig until I heard from all the agencies listed or an hour had passed, whichever came first. I said "okay," thanked her and hung up the phone. Almost immediately, the phone and fax began to ring: Florida Power said I was clear to dig; Clearwater Gas said I was clear to dig; Verizon said I was clear to dig; Brighthouse Cable said I was clear to dig; and on and on. I tried to keep up with the list.

Meanwhile, I had a potential customer and watching me try to recover. I tried to answer his questions, giving him as much of my attention as I could as I watched the clock and fielded calls from the utilities. With my foot on a chair surrounded by ice and my clothes encrusted with mud and filth, I attempted to be pleasant while multitasking. But I couldn't help but ask the gentleman, "Are you sure you want to open your own business?"

I told Young Don that everyone had called and to get back on the backhoe, as we were now clear to dig and were quickly running out of time. And then, in walked Donald Harrell, Monin syrup's salesman extraordinaire, to survey the wreckage that was my parking lot.

As I began to recount to Donald and my customer the trials and tribulations of my day, back came Young Don with what could only be described as a NASCAR cowboy in tow. The man, who was from AT&T, was wearing a large western hat and dark glasses complete with the tell-tale bulge of dip behind his lip. He was apoplectic that we would begin digging before the emergency CANDE was complete. I tried to calm him down while Donald and the customer watched in wide-eyed amazement, but this time it was to no avail. Then just as I thought all was lost, the cowboy spat on my floor. I stared in amazement as the AT&T cowboy stood, looking slightly bewildered and embarrassed, as a string of tobacco juice dangled from his lower lip. And then I caught my second break of the day. The cowboy accepted my excuses and apologies, apologized himself and retreated. Young Don returned to the backhoe with me close behind him. As I emerged into the blinding light of a Florida afternoon, I glimpsed a vision. It was my car.

Thinking I would get even with Repo Man, I stormed over to his tow truck and quickly reevaluated my position--this was one bad-looking dude. I was sure he probably had at least a pistol in his unmarked, tinted-window tow truck. With everything else that had occurred this day, I did not wish to push my luck any further than I already had. I found myself thanking him for bringing my car to me at work instead of dropping it at home, where he had originally stolen it.

Young Don climbed back on the backhoe and finished the dig while I said goodbye to my slightly shaken potential customer. We finished as the equipment rental company returned to retrieve the backhoe. At the end of the day, we had completed what we set out to do, and I was bloodied, stinky, filthy and completely unbowed. I was Small Businessman.

Lessons Learned

Yes, this is a true story. I still drive my beloved Roadmaster, Donald Harrell still stops in at the shop, Young Don still makes fun of my backhoe skills, and my potential customer decided not to leave his corporate job. And while my tale may seem a bit extreme, many parts of this story are played out by small businesspeople throughout the country everyday. Oftentimes, it is our own hubris and pig-headedness that gets us into situations such as these, and just as often it is our amazing ability to persevere--even against nearly insurmountable obstacles--that saves us. Tasks such as creating markets, competing against chains, dealing with permit officials, taxes, contractors, suppliers and customers are the bane of our daily existence. And yet, most of us would just as soon sleep on the streets as work for another. We carry within ourselves the true spirit of entrepreneurship, of do-it yourselfness that continues to change this and many other industries. If you wish to see us do something, all you have to do is tell us we can't. We are what make this industry and this country so great. And yes, we are still a pain in the @#$.

Movin' on Up

Movin' on Up ...or Not Do you need a larger roaster? Or just a Vacation?

WORKING TOO MANY HOURS? Haven't had a vacation in a couple of years? Spending your weekends trying to get prepared for the coming weeks production? Or trying to catch up with last week's? Are you killing yourself and your little roaster too?

Most small roasters dream of the day when they can pick up the phone and tell their roaster manufacturer to "go ahead and pull the trigger on that larger roaster." It is no doubt a milestone in the life of your business--a business metric that is both true and tangible and a sure sign of your and your business's success.

But wait, before you pick up that phone and commit to that down payment, there are some important factors that need to be considered. The questions range from the obvious "What size roaster do I need and can I afford it?" to the less obvious, but just as important "Can my current facility handle a larger roaster?" and "Will my coffee taste the same out of a larger roaster?"

All of these questions and more should be considered when you are thinking of moving to a larger capacity roasting platform. This decision, more than any other, will require all your experience and knowledge--of roasting, packaging, material handling, general operations and personnel management.

Additionally, you should plan on doing some serious research as well, asking yourself some tough forecasting and growth questions. In the everyday business environment that most of us operate in, this problem is potentially the most dangerous to the overall health and long-term survival of our businesses.

Here are 10+1 questions that can help you determine what size roaster would be most beneficial to your business. These questions fall into three categories: capacity questions, facility questions and money questions.

CAPACITY QUESTIONS

1 What is the largest batch size I need/wish to roast?

One answer here has to do with freshness. When you are considering a larger roaster, you must also consider your ability to adequately store and/or quickly package coffee for freshness. After first purchasing a larger roaster, you may for a short period (hopefully very short) have the ability to run all your production in a shift or two. This ability requires you to more carefully manage your roasted coffee stocks for freshness. If roasting all your coffee in a day causes you to store coffee for too long, then this roaster may be too large for you. For freshness' sake, you would like your roasted coffee out of your facility within a week--less if possible.

Another answer has to do with growth. If purchasing a larger roaster today gets you to a place where you are just able to cover your expected production within a short period of time, then you might need to consider a roaster that is even larger. You do not want to go through the heartache and headache of installing another roaster soon after you have installed a larger one. Constantly installing roasters is inefficient and potentially disruptive to production. Likewise, if you only do a few blends (or origins of coffee) then you can consider a roaster with a much larger capacity than a company that is doing 30 plus types of coffee--even as you do similar levels of production.

The final answer has to do with quality. Very simply: What is the largest batch I believe I can roast and still have enough control to maintain my award-winning profiles? Finding this answer requires a good understanding of the science of roasting and may require you to challenge your own long and dearly held beliefs about coffee roasting, coffee roasters and yourself. The answer here may force you to buy two roasters or more to get the desired production capacity.

2 What is the smallest batch size I need/wish to roast?

As roasting equipment gets larger, the smallest controllable batch size also gets larger. So, if you need to consistently do 15-pound batches, a 60KG roaster is going to make your life difficult. More importantly, your marginal per-pound labor will increase as it should take the same amount of time to roast 15 pounds as it would 100 pounds. In addition, it will take more skill and a more watchful eye to roast the 15-pound batch than the 100-pound batch.

A good rule of thumb is: If you are going to continuously be doing batches below half-batch capacity, then the roaster you are considering is probably too large for your needs. Of course, this problem can conceivably be solved by keeping your smaller roaster when you buy a new larger one.

3 How many days per week do I want to run production?

How many days a week do you wish to operate the roaster to fulfill your current roasting production? If you are the only operator and you need to package and ship the coffee as well as roast it, then you need to spend less time overall on the roasting stage. In this case you may only wish to roast two shifts per week to free up the rest of the week for your other duties. On the other hand, if you have many full-time workers, you may wish to roast four, five or even six shifts a week, or even double it by running multiple shifts. The first scenario would require a larger capacity roaster, the latter a smaller.

A word of caution: When running your production too lean on one piece of machinery, scheduled maintenance tends to get neglected in favor of production realities; this can have disastrous consequences if the equipment then "goes down" for something a routine maintenance program would have avoided.

4 How many hours per shift do I want to run production?

This labor question is closely related to the days-per-week question above. It matters little whether the labor is your own, your family's or an employee's--as a business person you must always be aware of labor costs, as they are likely your most expensive input. It is unrealistic to think that a single roaster operator can handle eight straight hours standing next to and efficiently operate a roaster. Operating a roaster, especially a larger one, is a very fatiguing duty. So, if you are basing your projected production on a single operator cranking out three batches per hour for eight straight hours, you are more than likely going to run into a number of issues, including overtime, the need to hire additional employees, a higher employee turnover, increased roasting errors and possible workplace injuries.

Additionally, maintenance comes into play here as well. If the roaster operator is also the maintainer of the equipment, you must allow for adequate time for the cleaning and servicing of the roaster.

This is an equation that you can use to figure out your roaster capacity per hour: Desired roaster production / desired shifts x Desired hours per shifts = Needed roaster capacity/hr.

5 Is the roaster large enough to handle my projected growth over the next two years? Five years? Ten years?

This question is one that forces you to sit down and realistically evaluate your growth potential as well as set goals. Market segment, product, geography, potential new markets, competitors and your own personal goals can all help you determine what size roaster will best suit your needs in the foreseeable future.

FACILITY QUESTIONS

Here are four more questions based on what size roaster your facility can handle that you need to ask yourself before you purchase.

6 Will my current facility realistically handle a larger roaster?

Is your facility large enough to handle the size roaster you believe you need after answering the questions above? Is the ceiling high enough to allow for easy loading? Is there enough space for the roaster and any other production equipment (grinders, packaging equipment, material handling equipment, etc.) to be safely operated without roasting with your back against the wall, or running the risk of running over someone with a forklift? Will the roaster fit through the door? It is very difficult to modify a roaster to fit in an inadequately sized or shaped space. It is almost always preferable to modify the space if possible.

7 Will I need to upgrade my facility to handle a larger roaster?

As roasters increase in size, they often have very different gas and power requirements. Here is a list of questions that can help you determine if your current facility will need to be upgraded:

a) Is my current gas supply large enough and does it have enough pressure to supply a larger roaster (or two roasters if you are going to keep your current one)?

b) Does my building have enough electrical power to satisfy my increased needs safely?

c) Does my building have the correct electrical power to operate a larger roaster safely and efficiently (single-phase vs. three phase, 100-amp vs. 200-amp service)?

d) Will I need to make physical changes to the building? [Remove or move walls, widen or move doors, move or add restrooms or other plumbed fixtures, increase A/C or add make-up air blower(s)?]

The four questions above are extremely important and may require some in-depth investigation. While it may seem to be a fairly simple matter to have your landlord or the power company upgrade your power feed, it is not always possible, say to get three-phase power, nor is it always cost effective. The same can go for your gas supply--it is not always possible or cost effective to get more natural gas volume or increased pressure, nor is it always possible to have a larger LPG tank installed at your current facility.

Physical changes to both the interior and exterior of your building may require your landlord's approval (not always given) as well as meeting local building and fire safety codes. It is always best to research these questions thoroughly before committing to a larger roaster and finding out that you may not be able to hook it up in your current location.

8 By increasing batch capacity, will I now need additional equipment?

The first piece of equipment that comes to mind here is a pollution control device-- will I need an afterburner where I didn't need one before? And do I have the required gas supply to run the afterburner and the roaster safely and efficiently? This is not always an easy question to answer, as it is often difficult to determine if your neighbors will be concerned with the increased volume of smoke and/or intensity of the smell from the increased batch sizes of a larger roaster. And while pollution control devices are, more than likely, the most important consideration when purchasing larger roasters, they are not the only pieces of additional equipment you may need or want. Loaders, destoners and degassing bins come quickly to mind.

Questions 6-8 all lead to one final facility question: Will I need to move to a larger or more strategically located facility?

9 Does increasing my capacity violate my business/use license?

This question applies primarily to retail roasters that are transitioning to wholesale roasting. Many retail roasters have business/ use licenses that allow them to retail only, and while it is nearly always possible to do some small wholesaling in these retail spaces if you install a larger roaster in one you may very well find a faceless, nameless bureaucrat knocking on your door and telling you, that you are in violation, or asking to audit your books, neither of which are pleasant situations. And both will no doubt lead to a forced move.

MONEY QUESTIONS

And of course the inevitable money questions--what size roaster can I afford to buy?

10 Where is the money coming from?

No analysis of needed equipment can be complete without looking at how you are going to pay for your new, larger roaster. Cash, cash and trade, home equity loans, credit cards, commercial leases, bank loans, family loans, or SBA loans are some of the most frequently used places where money is acquired for buying capital equipment.

11 Can I really afford this?

After all the questions are answered and financing is secured for your new, larger roaster; stop and ask yourself: Can I really afford this? If I'm using cash, is there a better use for this cash (opportunity cost)?

If financing, can I afford the payments with my current production? If borrowing from family, can I handle the increased stress? If you have done your research, have an adequate space, have secured your financing and can afford it, buy your bigger roaster and feel secure that, whatever happens, you did your research.

For the rest of you, you need to ask yourselves these questions: Is this really the best way to increase my production? Are there any alternatives?

Alternatives to Larger Roasters

IT IS NOT ALWAYS possible or even desirable to move to a larger roaster when faced with production bottlenecks or labor inefficiencies (too high labor costs). There are in fact two major categories of alternatives to purchasing a larger roaster: upgrading your current roastery or moving to a different location or both.

Upgrading Your Existing Roaster or Roastery

Perhaps your current roaster has enough capacity and flexibility to grow your business for a while longer--you just need to make it, and you, more efficient. Look hard at your current operation and you may find ways to increase your production without adding more labor or buying a larger roaster.

What can I do to get more capacity and run more efficiently with my "little roaster"?

1 Fix that poor ducting installation. You have known, or at least suspected, for a long time that your current ducting installation may be hindering the efficient operation of your roaster. Incorrect diameter size (mostly too small), too many angles, long horizontal runs and incorrect termination of exhausts all combine to become the number-one cause of diminished batch capacity in roasters. Furthermore, any of these ducting deficiencies increases the frequency of cleaning and maintenance of your roaster. Additionally, poor airflow can cause per pound marginal labor rates to rise and potentially cause longer term damage to the equipment. So, if you think or know that you have some of these issues--get some help if you need it and fix that ductwork! Then see what kind of capacity you get out of your roaster. You should be able to produce a better-quality coffee as well.

2 Add a separate cooling blower. If you have a roaster that uses a damper (other than a table top) and a single blower to cool the coffee you may find that adding a dedicated cooling blower could help increase your roaster's production up to one batch per hour.

3 Update the controls on your roaster. If you haven't done this yet, you should. At the minimum you should be operating with a bean probe and a digital controller. The efficacy of this type of system has long been proven to be more efficient, safer and more consistent, and therefore it can increase the quality of your coffee. While you are at it, take a look at the newer generation of roast control systems offering more control, greater consistency and the ability to safely multi-task, making for a more labor-efficient roastery. These systems won't change the way your roaster roasts, but they can change the way that you roast.

4 Look at packaging possibilities. Sometimes adding a weigh-and-fill, band or foot sealer can help you run a more efficient operation overall. Remember, roasting is only one piece of the production puzzle. Conveyors and loaders also fall in this category. (For more information about packaging, see the July/August 2007 Roast magazine article, "The Bottom Line on Packaging.")

5 Reconfigure. Change the layout of your roastery. Perhaps all you need to increase the production of your little roaster is to change the way your production flows in your space. Reducing the distance from the raw coffee stocks to the roaster; putting the packaging operation in a more convenient location to the packaging personnel. If you are traipsing across the warehouse to load every batch, or if you have employees tripping over one another, you should look at changing the layout of your space. Visiting others roasteries can help you get ideas about making your own space more efficient.

MOVE YOUR ROASTERY

Maybe all you need to do to increase your production is move to a space that is more conducive to production, roasting and accepting deliveries. This can be especially true for retail roasters that have developed significant wholesale operations while still roasting in a retail environment.

In most retail environments space is minimal and distractions are at a maximum. Ringing telephones, customers looking over your shoulder, staff sending potential whole bean coffee buyers to you--all the things that made retail roasting such fun in the beginning can come together to make your wholesale operation a drag.

Worse yet, the slimmer margins of wholesaling make labor efficiency even more important; an efficiency that is very difficult to obtain in most retail roasting environments. Taking delivery of raw coffee, measuring, roasting, blending, flavoring, packaging and shipping all become more labor-intensive.

So, take a good hard look at renting a small off-site space or walling off part of your existing retail space, if it is large enough, and setting up your operation to run as a wholesale roastery. You may lose some of the "fl ash" of roasting in the front of your store, but you will sleep better at night and have more night in which to sleep, because you will spend less time roasting.

Moving and Upgrading

Of course, if you are going to undergo the pain of moving your roastery, you may as well consider upgrading at the same time. Whether you decide to add a control system to your roaster or an automatic scale to your new roastery, a good time to do it is when you are already planning a move.

GROWTH=PAIN

Of all the difficult problems roasters face, perhaps none is as difficult as successfully managing growth. It often seems that we need to spend more money just as we are beginning to finally make money. It is this dichotomy that makes growth so painful for all businesses. Managing growth in your roasting operation is not unlike trying to manage pain in your life. Try and avoid the pain by being too timid and your business may wither and die; try and avoid the pain by throwing money too quickly at the problem and you may find yourself growing while making no money; try and manage the pain by fully researching your options and judiciously increasing your production capacity and you may finally be able to take that vacation, and pay for it too!

Move it or lose it

Move it or lose it--moving your roastery

B O O M !

My head turns toward the sound, and in that split second I am pushed hard in two directions at once, and then to the ground. Quickly turning my attention back to where the forces came from, I am greeted with a horrifying sight. Everything slows and I watch in suspended disbelief as a 60-kilo roaster, turning in its sling, follows me to the ground. The red monster comes to rest a few inches from my still-extended left leg. I rise, cursing, shaking and nervously laughing, until I see the fear on the faces of the men around me. It is then that I realize that if I had not been pushed, I surely would have been crushed mid-body by this behemoth. In short, poor preparation and a half-second of inattention nearly cost me my life, or at best a limb. This was my first experience with moving a roastery. It was ill-planned, ill-timed, and the execution was completely chaotic. Moving can tax a business and its personnel nearly to the breaking point, and sometimes beyond. But relocating a roastery is fraught with additional danger. From disconnecting and reconnecting electrical, gas and mechanical systems to permitting and production issues, it can be the most stressful, threatening, and yes, even dangerous task that a roasting company can undertake. What follows are testimonies of roasters who have moved to larger facilities: their trials, tribulations and reflections.
--Terry Davis

Moving for Growth

It's rare for a company's first address to be its last. Growth in the coffee industry can likely be captured in two ways: increasing margin or increasing production, and ideally both. Even a savvy business that grows its margin within the context of an original location may at some point be pushed to move into larger digs based on a growing reputation. Soon, the physical toll of roasting becomes unsustainable, and the efficiency of a small roasting machine is called into question. Freight charges for constantly moving coffee become untenable. Warehousing packaging material can become problematic. And don't forget about the challenge of finding the space to allow efficient workspace for new employees. The problems begin to compound in both happy and stressful ways.

For John Johnson of Berres Brothers Coffee Roasters in Watertown, Wis., a move was not only essential for growth, but also practical. "Our old building was getting too small for the amount of coffee we were roasting," says Johnson. "It was very old ... and had many code violations."

Paul Thornton of Coffee Bean International (CBI) says his business had a less urgent need to move, but like many roasters experiencing steady growth, he had a vision for the future of the business that didn't fit with its current facility, so he is now deep in the planning stages of moving CBI to a new location. "Recent growth patterns suggest we need to expand our capacity, and the current location we are in does not have the space for us to add more equipment and warehouse space," he says. "A second roasting plant was not a reasonable option for us and simply did not make sense for our business. We had plans to invest into more state-of-the-art equipment, up-to-date controls and a facility facelift. At this point, it made sense to find a location we like and just do it."

Don Merritt of Blackstone Coffee indicated a need for moving that both wholesalers and roaster-retailers can identify with: the desire to capture the "other" side of the business. For Merritt and Blackstone, this meant making the jump from wholesale to retail as well. "Our previous location was wholesale only, and we had been waiting for a specific retail space that was well-suited to our growing business," he says. For roasters entering the world of retail, a move also includes the complications of parking, traffic counts and visibility.

Planning the move exists in a kind of nether-region between luxury and necessity. A roaster's business plan may show growth and the necessity for a move in the distant future, but a lost lease, a major new client or a code violation may lay the kibosh on those best-laid plans.

Show Me the Money ... Er, Your Budget and Plan

Once the decision has been made that a move is necessary, the next obvious question may be, "How much is this going to cost?" This should be the focus for any roaster in the planning stages of the move. "Our approach was to invest a lot of time into planning," says Thornton of CBI. "We spoke to many people who have built roasting plants and had the experience of dealing with just this sort of thing. For us to properly plan a budget and have a chance at getting close, we needed to determine who our suppliers were likely to be and obtain as many hard figures as we could. This leaves the overages variable to the unknown, such as permit startup delays or problems, equipment setup delays or even just equipment arrival delays--things that can't be planned, but an expert can sure give a pretty close estimate."

For Merritt, even precision planning could not prevent the element of surprise. "The move came in over budget for several different reasons, but the biggest budget overage was caused by an overzealous and ill-informed local building inspector," Merritt says. "A great deal of additional work relating to the roaster installation caused the unanticipated expense."

Johnson comments on how the Berres Brothers move was an exercise in budgetary discipline: "We cut much of the original plans so the building project would fall into our pre-determined budget. This meant less square footage, a smaller cafe, a smaller conference room and less office space."

Handling Production

Once the budget is balanced, a plan is hatched and perhaps ground has even been broken, a new question arises: how to roast coffee when the roasting equipment is temporarily out of commission?

At Berres Brothers, significant planning went into the production schedule prior to the move. Opposed to the notion of paying another company to toll-roast its product, the Berres team prepared a month in advance of its move by pre-roasting product. Johnson elaborates on the acquisition of a second and larger roasting machine, which eased the transition: "We bought our second roaster, which roasted five times the capacity of our first roaster. We put the roaster on a big metal skid anticipating that some day we would have to move to a larger location. This came in handy the day we moved. The roaster went out the door around 10 a.m. and was running that same afternoon in the new location." Clearly, owning multiple machines relieves some pressure.

At CBI, Thornton credits his company's plan for what he hopes will be a seamless move. "We are actually in a very good position for this. We can set up a secondary shipping process in our new plant, put in our new equipment, get it up and running, and off we go. We may plan to roast and package in our old plant and ship to our new plant to distribute for a few days. We are expecting very little production downtime. Again, this all comes with the planning. The success of hitting the plan is in good part a credit to how good your consultant is, the planning of your engineers and management, the abilities of your movers and supplier support." For Thornton, the ability to produce at the old plant while simultaneously moving to the new one is crucial.

Making the Move Happ en

A well-known bumper sticker reads: "Yes this is my truck, and no, I won't help you move." This goes for moving roasteries, too. Even if you operate a micro-roastery with less than a few bags of green beans and maybe a handful of modified popcorn poppers, you likely don't want to disassemble and reassemble everything yourself. A friend with a truck is always helpful. A larger company is no different; it just requires more friends with more--and bigger--trucks. Also, being handy and having a good understanding of gas lines, plumbing, electrical needs and your machinery can help you manage the move, the movers, the landlord and the inspectors.

Merritt of Blackstone Coffee saved money and maintained control of his move by utilizing his own skills. "I am a licensed contractor, so my company was able to perform about 90 percent of the work," he says. "This helped to significantly control costs, and the issues we had with our local building department were resolved relatively fast. We performed all our own planning, building, moving, and the installation of the roaster and its venting system."

For larger companies like Berres Brothers or Coffee Bean International, moving and installation concerns were complicated due to the scale of their operations. CBI visited the roasting plants of friends in the industry and interviewed several contractors before making decisions. Its corporate size played an advantageous role in getting players involved in the building process. "One of the advantages of building a large roasting plant is that it's a big project that many want to be a part of," Thornton says. "Yes, we did spend a lot of time looking, but honestly, once the word gets out that you are building a roasting plant that will produce over 20 million pounds, people start to come to you from all over."

Keeping it in the community trumped other priorities during the Berres Brothers move. The company hired local building contractors even though their bid was higher than some from out of town. They also hired an architect to design the space and draw blueprints, and hired a professional moving company that was fully insured to move highly prized equipment.

2 0 / 2 0 : Hind sight and Lessons Learned

"I ran out of gas. I, I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake. A terrible flood. Locusts. IT WASN'T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD."
- Jake Blues, "The Blues Brothers"

Even with a brilliant plan in hand and a litany of contingencies in tow, even with a backup roaster in place and great contractors and the most pliable inspectors, things can fall apart.

Merritt was candid about his move and some details he might have handled differently: "The biggest thing I would do different would be to work more closely with our local building authority during the plan review process to insure that the plan review department is on the same page as the building inspection department. Our building plans had been thoroughly reviewed and approved, but we failed our final mechanical inspection due to our local inspector's lack of knowledge of a coffee roaster and its venting system. With tremendous support from my roaster manufacturer and our local gas company, we were able to finally satisfy the building inspection department requirements and passed our remaining inspection. This event delayed our opening by 10 days and caused significant budgetary strains."

Coffee consultant Victor Allen Mondry echoes Merritt's sentiments almost exactly, recommending that roasters focus on two things during a move. "Number one, get all inspection requirements in writing in advance," he says. "Number two, order long lead-time items, like chimneys, sooner."

For the Berres Brothers, the greatest challenge was timing. Although production continued to flow seamlessly, the company maintained two separate facilities while the glitches were worked out on the newer one. This meant additional unforeseen transportation costs on top of the stress of the move.

Terry Davis recalls the 2007 Roasters Guild Retreat, where he ran into Thornton of CBI while both were working on laptops in the lounge of the resort:
"As we talked, I realized that, while technically we were working on different projects, we were both working on budgets for moving roasteries. And neither of us was having an especially good time of it. As a production manager, Thornton was looking at the move for CBI. I had been hired as a consultant in an eminent domain case for a state highway department that was seizing property from a medium-sized, 40-year-old roastery for a new limited-access onramp. I was attempting to reconcile the cost differences of three estimates to move this facility and get it up and running with a limited amount of production disruption. There was about a $3 million spread in the estimates to move this one facility. One estimate was nearly 50 pages long, and indecipherable. The huge split from the $500,000 to the $3.5 million estimate and the estimate in between, I believe, reflected the difficulty of moving equipment that was operational but nearly obsolete--or in the case of conveyors, loaders and storage bins, may have been built on site. What made the situation even more tenuous was that no one could foretell whether any of this old equipment would survive a move without a major rebuild or pass muster when re-inspected by the building and fire inspectors, or what the costs of bringing this equipment up to code would eventually be. At the end of the day, lawyers were brought in and it cost everybody, especially taxpayers, a hell of a lot of money."

Moving a roastery is seldom as simple as it appears. But like many of the projects you will attempt in your coffee career, a little homework can go a long way toward lessening the stress and hazards of a move. And then your business ideally will be more productive and efficient until the next time you outgrow your facility. By that time, you may well be retired. You hope.