Calling All Shop Owners

[YourAce]

I am asking for an opinion for those of you who have your own shop, and roast your own beans. I ask for this reason; I am in the process of opening my own shop and I am teetering on the idea of roasting my own beans (included in the set up of the shop), versus buying from a roaster. I have a couple of locations I am looking at, but I would need additional space for this set up, if I were to include roasting on the premises.

As there are the advantages of roasting your own, my inquiry is more towards a marketing perspective, rather than roast my own versus purchasing from a roaster. I am interested to know if you advertise that roasting occurs on the premises, and if you see a difference to your bottom line? I am really looking to separate myself from the rest of the local market, and wondered if this might be the advantage I am looking for?

Does it even matter to the average coffee drinker where the beans come from, in-house versus purchased else where?????? My guess is no, but that’s why I ask those of you who can speak about this topic.

Do you also feel that the ROI, in the long run, also brings an additional return?

All comments and advice is welcomed and greatly appreciated.

THANK YOU!!!!

 

[jax]

Just a thought

You might find that taking on a new venture in opening a new coffee house enough to occupy all of your time. Adding in house roasting to that might be taking on to much. I would suggest forming a good relationship with a local roaster just to learn all the in's and out's about coffee itself.

Using the knowledge you can learn from your roaster will give you a better idea as to rather your market is receptive to being educated about coffee, or if they are just after your blended iced drinks that have nothing to do with quality coffee. IMHO.

 

[YourAce]

Jax- Thank you for the reply, greatly apprecaited and makes sense!!!

 

[cafemakers]

I've commented on this subject before in my blog, here:

http://www.coffeestrategies.com/2005/05 ... er-or-both

Also check out the July edition of Tea & Coffee Trade Journal (will be shown as July/August online) that includes a much more detailed article by me on this same subject.

Best,

Andrew

 

[Muddycup]

ofcourse this is my opinion:

Bad idea to start out roasting your own beans on site, although people want fresh quality, roasting onsite is a tough buisness model, it falls into the catagory of a small bakery where you make everything on premisies. You can not sell enough coffee out of your own store to pay for the cost of roasting, the only way that some do is they have built up a large local whole sale business to justfy the cost, you have to do large enough quanities to get to a break even. It is one of those ideas that the theory sounds great but in practice doesn't work.

 

[YourAce]

Andrew & MuddyCup,

Thank you both for your help ands advice. Like MC said, it sounds great in theory, and to some one who is just jumping in to the business, i thought it was a great idea.

Great advice from those who have been there, and I thank you both once again. Your advice brings great clarity and saves time and money for a start up, like me.

Best Regards,

KD

 

[Rockcreekcoffee]

Roasting your own

I very much respect Cafemakers & Muddycup, but we went ahead and bought our roaster with our initial start-up costs for roasting our own.

Many factors came into play, and it was a decision we didn't take lightly (Due to cost factor etc..). After two years, we are now building our wholesale accounts & OCS. It's tough and I don't recommend everyone doing it, unless you have lots of time & energy to put into it.

There are really good roasters in many parts of the country. In Montana, everything has to be shipped and we are not centrally located that is a big factor with costs. Plus, there are no "small local roasters" that take quality into consideration.

The only roaster(s) we would trust would be either out of Seattle or Southern California.

Rockcreekcoffee

 

[Coffee Guy]

Hey YA:

I echo the thoughts in all of the examples above. I don't think it's a good idea to start off doing it all and hope that you do well. That may require additional staffing to take care of roasting while you concentrate on the other half of the business. This may open you a ton of unneeded pressure on yourself. There is nothing wrong with finding a good and knowledgable roaster to do your roasting initially, and once you've successfully operated your business long enough to see positive growth, then maybe look at the roasting end. However, in most cases roasting your own coffee will not really save you money in the beginning because there are other factors like, purchasing green beans, learning how to blend good coffees, the cost of the equipment, permits, building modifications, etc. Just a few things you have to consider. There are sometimes exceptions like in Rock Creek Coffee's case. However, in most cases the general rule is to start off small, then add on as you are able to afford to do so, and even then, have a plan. :wink:

 

[Fresh Roaster]

What if there were no equipment costs and no permits or building alterations (venting, safety, gas lines, ducting, etc.) needed?

 

[equus007]

what if

Then count yourself extreemly lucky.
Where will your shop be located by the way?(city and state...we might be able to be more specific if we have this info)

 

[Coffee Guy]

What if there were no equipment costs and no permits or building alterations (venting, safety, gas lines, ducting, etc.) needed?

Wow, that would be a perfect world. Unless you plan to build all of the equipment yourself and even then you will still have costs. Tell me why would you not want to put in the safety factors? It is for your own protection in addition to everything around you. I would advise that if you plan to build a roasting facility that you do it correctly or don't do it at all. Saving costs is one thing but skimping on safety is not an issue to take lightly. Roasting coffee commercially is not the same as home roasting where you may roast one or two pounds at a time. It's a little more involved than that and the safety issues can not be stressed enough.

 

[Fresh Roaster]

Who said skimp on safety? What if it weren't necessary? I'm trying to figure out if the traditional costs of roasting on site were eliminated, would it then be worth it? Seems to me to be a no-brainer. The freshness factor goes without argument. So, say someone GAVE me a machine that didn't require venting, had no hot spots (no safety issues) and didn't require any special expertise to use? Just plug it in and roast fresh coffee.

 

[Fresh Roaster]

p.s. Actually I'm trying to figure out what that's worth... the difference that is.

 

[NW JAVA]

Just look for my post about monster/sonofresco....and see how easy it could be.

 

[Fresh Roaster]

Looks to me like Monster is no longer involved with Sonofresco. They've even air brushed the roaster out of their web site pictures. What's the deal there?