Advice Please: Starting a Roasting Company

[ZachyD]

I need advice for where to start on a roasting company. I've been home roasting for about a year now an would love to expand and sell my product. I need advice on where to start selling too and how to start selling. I'm still fairly new and need lots of advice! thanks!!:coffeemug:

 

[m962b]

There are really two ways to go about this in my humble opinion:

1. Roast on a small scale (no more than 10 pounds a week) and sell at farmers markets and to friends.

2. Roast on a larger scale, online and to restaurants and local businesses as well as to friends etc.

The first option is fairly easy depending on the state in which you reside. I live in Florida, and we have a "cottage food" law that allows certain products to be made at home and sold to the public. Roasted coffee has very little restriction as it really can get too contaminated and pose a safety risk. You can only sell $15,000 worth per year and cannot sell online. You may advertise online, but must deliver the coffee in person to the customer. you cannot sell to restaurants nor any other business. This law is in place to allow for farmers market type sales. You will red packaging and label that you can make easily that states a few mandatory things such as weight, contents, a statement that it is not prepared in a state inspected facility, etc.

The second options much more completed, or at least involves much more money up front. You may try to sell online, but then you must have a state inspected facility at which to roast. this compicates matters as a kitchen at home will not suffice. Most people get around this by hiring a contract roaster local to them to roast the coffee for them and they may even package it for you. you simply distribute and market the beans. Unfortunately most roasters won't do much less than a large amount of coffee at once, so you will have to have a larger order to begin with and perhaps on a regular basis depending on your contract. Further, packaging is something that will have to be sorted and depending on your needs, it usually requires a bulk order to get anything. Also, you will need more permits and things from the state as well as an online merchant service account to handle payments. (IN GENERAL, this may vary, but cost per pound of roasted coffee from a contract roaster is $3-$5ish.)

If you prefer to not use a contract roaster, then you will likely need a separate facility with a kitchen, bathrooms and approved storage facilities to roast. If you are home roasting, there is a good chance you have a consumer level roaster like the Nemohr 1600 or Gencafe. This is fine, but very time consuming. Further, you may find that after a couple long days roasting that you may have an issue with consistency and that your machine may break. This is when you would likely buy a commercial roaster or a sample roaster. A 1-2 Kilogram roaster can be had for about $4,000-$9,000. Again though, you are only getting about 4 pounds and hour. Larger commercial roasters that can handle larger batches with greater consistency get up in price and in complexity. venting and power are considerations and the cost of a large commercial style roaster can again vary a lot between Ambex, Probat, Dietrich, etc but are between $60,000 to well over $120,000. This would allow you to do much larger batches with great consistency, but also may break and are very expensive.

So in review- It's all about the time you have, the income you need, and the demand you have.

Most start small, see if they can get a following, then source a contract roaster, then if things are going really well, and you love what you are doing, then you begin to establish yourself as a roaster and invest in buying a facility and a roaster. All of this is very specific to your ability, circumstance and location. I would however believe that the information if have written is generally true across the US.

I hope this helps.

Mike

PS. If you'd like PM me and ill send you a link to my small website that supplies to family and friends and farmers markets.