 Hi, welcome to International Hawaii on Think Tech where we showcase local important export companies and the trade industry. I'm your host Cindy Matsuki and today we're chatting with Kelly Stewart of Big Island Coffee Roasters. Hi Kelly, thank you so much for joining me. Hey, thank you for inviting me. This is exciting. So how long have you guys been around and how did you get started? We took routes in around 2010. We moved to the Big Island after we saw a farm on Craigslist and we sort of jumped it off her. I know it's really scary and a lot of people have heard it now but I mean that's the truth. We came to the Big Island anticipating that we would homestead but we were in love with coffee. I've been in love with the specialty coffee industry since 2002 and very aware of it. Brandon was an organic farmer for a community source, agriculture co-op and so that was our vision and our dream was to like grow our own food and process cheese and do all of that. We fell in love with coffee and we fell in love with growing coffee and processing it and gradually after a couple awards and some press we realized that we could turn it into a small business, a passion business not really a business business just like a passion hobby business but it kept growing and it kept growing and so although we took route in 2010 we started really developing Big Island Coffee Roasters probably in 2013 and we didn't really know what we were doing in terms of running a business until about 2015. We were totally involved in the coffee and like doing coffee every day but you know we'd never take it we didn't know how to keep books we didn't I've never taken a marketing class. We were doing what we were doing and then around 2015 is when it really started developing. That is amazing and did people think I know because you've won those awards did people start coming to you goodbye or did you or did you have to go out and shop? No I'm not a sales person. They all came to us actually we didn't we didn't do any advertising or even have a sales role until within the last two years we didn't even start advertising until last year and so a lot of it came word of mouth referrals press awards and yeah word of mouth. That is awesome and are you guys mainly B2C or B2B? Before COVID we were mainly we're about 75 B2B and 25 D2C and then during COVID of course that flipped and so we had about a month we were where our wholesale accounts our B2B accounts just dropped and everybody fish out of water trying to figure out what to do. A few other things happened at the same time that I don't need to go into right now but it really helped develop our D2C and so one month we're mostly B2B in the next month we're mostly D2C and then the D2C kept going up and so now we're around 75% D2C. It's totally flipped but wholesale is coming back strong people are coming to Hawaii they're visiting in droves it's really exciting we're getting a different type of visitor right now than we were pre-COVID and our our wholesale accounts are really blowing up yeah but it's an exciting time. That's awesome are your wholesale accounts mostly in the tourism industry? Let me think about that a lot of them are in the tourism industry but we also service a lot of cafes community cafes like you know queues that you know of the curb morning glass coffee coffee shop 831 a lot of cute places around Oahu and in the islands we even have a few places like in Alabama Louisiana oh wow yeah yeah please you wouldn't expect uh-huh yeah oh that's very awesome and that's good for Hawaii and just getting absolutely getting the word out there and I know that in the coffee community you actually helped a lot of other farmers how did that get started and why did you start doing that? It got started in two ways and one I guess you could say was a little bit like I wouldn't say selfish but it was like you know we were in Puna and nobody had heard of Puna coffee. Our neighbors and folks in Kaua and Hamakua were selling their coffee to Kona mills and roasters which were then counterfeiting it as Kona coffee and they're counterfeiting it for a good reason I mean I understand why these farmers are selling it because Hamakua didn't have a name you couldn't sell Hamakua coffee online because nobody knew it they only knew Kona the same thing with Kona and so on one hand we were we felt the we felt the impact on our own situation of that and on the other hand we saw a niche in a market coming from a place where you know Portland and being total foodies where we love diversity we love varieties you give me all the obscure varieties of tomatoes and like it's just exciting it's like a discovery process and we didn't see that in Hawaii but we as we were tasting all these coffees from around Hawaii realized that that could easily develop and I don't know if anybody else would be interested in it but if we knew that we were interested in it and so we began working with other coffee or farmers and bringing in their coffees and showcasing them as the authentic region really tasting them getting to know what the region tastes like and sharing that with coffee lovers and foodies and yeah like people who really enjoy the flavor of terroir and their products like diversity in products nice so that's it sounds like you really elevated it to like wine level it's not just your everyday coffee but yeah you know I felt it was like the foodies it's you know the foodie movement um we don't have as much of it in Hawaii as as there are in other places but I but it's developing and yeah that's what we were doing with coffee nice that is awesome and I'm sure the other farmers really appreciated appreciated that and was it also like to scale equipment sharing as well or yeah yeah so um it's like everything that has happened it's been an organic process where we didn't have a plan it was like oh yeah like yeah I mean that makes sense let's do that let's you know and so um we started selling out of our coffee and deciding to offer other people's coffee but then we realized that we needed more equipment and that our side of the island didn't have the equipment that we needed to produce a higher quality coffee one and that other farmers needed and so we got a grant to bring in the first coffee grater on our side of the island and at that time we were doing a lot of milling and grading for other farmers and roasting packaging um co-packing you know the whole thing and what grading does is it removes the size related defects from coffee and so that meant that we could produce a better cup of coffee and for our customers and help farmers do that for their is theirs as well very nice and then speaking of like packaging so you help with packaging do you import your packaging yeah yeah so um we work with a local company that's fantastic called Sable Brands I will promote them all day long yeah they're very cool and they uh they have their packaging manufactured and shipped imported Hawaii so we work with them uh there was one time and this was a while ago I don't remember if this was while we were working with them or not but we did try to import packaging from somewhere else and this coffee bag packaging and it was a disaster yeah we got a palette of five pound bags that weren't sealed very well they were sold as five pound bags so for coffee um at five pounds the seals would break and they would explode in transit which is a really expensive disaster to happen you know somebody ordered one of the most expensive coffees in the world and they and it arrives all over their package so we replaced so much coffee it was it was um it was a nightmare horrible and uh we're still like dealing with these bags and trying to upcycle them however we can but without using them for coffee packaging yikes and that's more of like um I guess a supplier qc yeah crazy and then I also we were also talking about how you do import raw material like raw coffee or coffee to Hawaii as well how do you find where you get your coffee from and how do you find those suppliers yeah so um in addition to working with coffees from all over Hawaii and bringing them in from our local farmers we also bring in international specialty coffees from outside of Hawaii and and uh we have standards with our international coffees one they have to be specially grade which means that they have to be a higher quality um two they have to be either a fair trade organically grown or rain forest alliance certified we want some sort of um uh like ethical promise within that coffee now we work with uh importers on the mainland who send us samples of various coffees um we sample roast and cup them and then we bring them in we roast them and then those typically go to hotels cafes and uh resorts where Hawaiian coffee isn't the main item it is the add-on item that you can purchase got it so you don't actually work directly with the international coffee growers you work with like a mainland company that brings them in for you at the opportunity to work with some mainland coffee growers but there's there are a lot of logistical issues that happen when like for instance um there's a there's a producer I would absolutely love to work with in El Salvador she has one of the best expresses I've ever had in my life was her single origin coffee was really good and um I would love to import her coffee but there are all kinds of logistical issues that that um get in the way of importing that happen in El Salvador permits that you need licenses that you need and then of course it needs to go on a barge um and usually it goes to the mainland like up port in California and then it's shipped over hmm so he doesn't turn out prepared to do that I wish for yeah that's too bad I mean it's challenging just being here in the middle of the ocean to actually get things in yeah that is tough and what is um so you say you haven't marketed too much what do you think is the most effective way that you've been finding new customers well we didn't start marketing until last year and so now we're marketing a lot more the most effective way that we have how we've grown in a few different ways um of course referrals and being in the locations where people walk by you know of course like the airports and they can take back a coffee home and then look us up that's of course uh very effective um we also do a lot of partnerships and partnerships work out really well when you can align yourself with another local company and um do some type of collaboration together oh great like other manufacturers or like other manufacturers do you even look Hawaiian airline we like for instance uh Hawaiian Airlines and Mana up uh will they will be visiting us next week and we're going to do a uh live event with them and some brewing um 101 some uh brewing tips taken through the farm and so that is something I would call a collaboration um it's beneficial for Hawaiian airlines because they want to give their community content on what's happening in Hawaii and then of course Mana up supports entrepreneurs and then we benefit from both of those and I hope that we provide as much as we get that's awesome and is this like content that Hawaiian Airlines would share on flights is that they do share some content on flights and I know that um Mana up has some content uh on on some of their flights I'm not sure if it's still there but I know it's on their blogs and I know I'm pretty sure it's in Honoha that's awesome and I'm I'm excited because I I've registered to attend and you mentioned that you yeah that you aren't starting tours yet and so I think this will be an awesome way to just get the virtual tour yeah have your place which is awesome so I think that's really good um I'm just gonna ask I guess during the pandemic you mentioned that your your customers kind of flipped like did you have to change anything internally with your business yeah absolutely um we we had to bring in more customer support for for um those DTC customers that have small questions that are really you know uh quick like for instance having a chat bot we have a chat bot on our website um wholesale customers generally don't care about that they'll send an email and make a couple of days DTC it's nice to have an immediate answer we also decided during the pandemic um it really felt like human touch was missing because nobody could touch each other nobody was going outside and so we hired somebody to start writing little postcards and slipping them in the packages of coffee let's say like have a great day reach out if you need anything and so we went from having a support team to sample products and to service our wholesale customers to having a support team to really nurture our um DTC customers and let them know that we really do care and that there are people behind these products it's not like it's not Amazon this is really a um artisan business um with people who live in Hawaii behind the scenes oh that's a nice touch that's awesome and then I guess do you have plans to scale like so your business has flipped but has it actually grown since I guess since 2019 and throughout since 2019 it's probably let's see three x in total wow yeah it's awesome yeah yeah and we're at uh we're at um we're bursting at the seams so we are we're we're growing we have plans to grow and we are um we're in a I guess it would be like a a point in which we need to make a decision really quickly about this holiday season because last even last holiday season we were getting really close to capacity um this holiday season we're going to have to strategize with doing a couple of extra shifts and uh meanwhile we're procuring new equipment and we're looking at at least for a new place and so yeah we are looking at uh locations that we can really grow into for the next decade that is awesome very cool we are going to take a quick break this is International Hawaii and I'm speaking with Kelly Stewart from Big Island Coffee Roasters um Think Tech Hawaii and we'll be right back I'm Mitch Ewan host of Hawaii the state of clean energy on Think Tech Hawaii Hawaii the state of clean energy is about following the many clean energy initiatives in Hawaii Hawaii the state of clean energy appears weekly on Think Tech Hawaii at 4 p.m. on Wednesdays thank you so much for watching our show we'll see you then aloha hi welcome back this is international Hawaii I'm your host Cindy Matsuki and today we are talking to Kelly Stewart of Big Island Coffee Roasters and she it sounds like she's running an awesome successful small business that's growing rapidly and so I wanted to ask you about some of the challenges that challenges that you're facing in I guess starting and growing in Hawaii and on the Big Island too what are some of your bigger challenges in terms of products and we don't have much for resources here and it's quite expensive to get things shipped in and to get things imported that's a challenge that we all face throughout Hawaii um more so on the outer islands because Honolulu does have a little bit more in terms of resources and so not only do you have the issue of the expense of importing and exporting and shipping but also the there's less awareness of the options that exist and I would say that leads into a big issue that we have in the outer islands especially and one that we've been you know tackling as we grow which is just network network mentorship being surrounded with people like us have the same issues and the same solutions one of the nice things about being in a small business community is that it's almost therapeutic in that you're dealing with these challenges and they're very real challenges because you have to do with your employees they have to do with your customers and the products that you ship and your ability to grow and the money that you invested into something and when you're dealing with when you have when you have a network of other businesses that are facing the same struggles it's almost therapeutic just to talk about it and to figure out those solutions together whereas like you can do that a lot easier on the mainland when you have a bigger community and you can do that quite as easily like on the outer islands especially mona up has been really helpful with that but I guess in this community you have people that would face the similar challenges I guess being on this island yeah yep yep definitely and and that's exactly why the communities on this island are so important is because like you can't really go to somebody in california like we do definitely have mentors in other places that that we can talk to you about distribution but but they don't know anything about the challenges that we face here in hawaii community is so important here it is so important that's awesome I was going to say patrick from saber brands he would be an awesome resource because I don't know I didn't even know that's what I was good yeah yeah yeah he has built it sounds like an amazing amazing distribution like just his supply chain yeah so I think I love watching and grow I mean it's like very exciting because we're all we all started there many of us that started the same place several years ago and I remember seeing patrick at a great show and it was like just a couple of people in the company and I think he's got like 30 or 40 and they're developing new products all the time it's just awesome it's like watching your family grow mm-hmm yeah he used to be a tenant here at the foreign trades on him he just got too big he got too impressed which is good which is the goal but yeah I mean just I think having someone like that to help you build your supply chain so that you don't have to do it right is is a big help especially for small businesses yeah um let's see oh as far as like your tour for next week do you know where we can get information about that for people that do want to join yeah absolutely um you can go on our instagram page uh mona ups instagram page that would be probably the easiest place to look immediately uh you can also go find it more information on uh mona ups website but it might be a little tricky to navigate to the point I think the easiest thing to do would be to go to one of our instagram pages and then just follow the direction sign up for the virtual tour it's going to be on facebook it's going to be facebook live um there's a package of three coffees that you can take with you what we're going to do is take you behind the scenes um into coffee processing and what that looks like and how it's so it's vastly different from coffee producer or coffee roasters on the mainland so this is what makes Hawaiian coffee special this is what makes the experience that you're getting so much fresher and more interesting that sounds awesome um yeah it's it's it's fun uh and then we're going to take you through a tasting of all three coffees very cool I think I'm gonna have to do that and then um one other thing I like to ask companies that I interview is what advice would you give to somebody that is starting a business and I know it's kind of interesting because it started out as like a passion project and kind of morphed into a business so what would you recommend to somebody thinking about starting a business I would recommend asking a lot of questions to everybody and that doesn't mean taking everybody's advice um but this will sound funny but don't get too too confident because you can't learn anything if you're too confident um ask get advice weigh your options find somebody that you trust uh to help guide you hmm very cool would you recommend someone getting into farming oh well yeah I would yeah I would but uh acknowledging that it's a big decision it's a lot of work um it is uh rewarding and it's fulfilling yeah I mean it sounds like it's something that you do have to be passionate about like just to just to keep going either passionate or strategic I would actually say passionate and strategic because you can you see a lot of like not so strategic farmers out there um and and and they're uh maybe working harder than they need to yeah because I read a lot about how just how challenging it is to be in agriculture in Hawaii yeah yeah it's especially challenging for sure yeah yeah it's very challenging um it's it's again there's not the kind of resources that you would find in other agricultural um community so he's like cold storage um even enough lumber to build facilities I have a we know a farmer in in Kona who there wasn't enough lumber in the home depots on the island held what he needed to build wow that's crazy yeah that's a unique challenge to Hawaii yeah it is and so we we very much appreciate any like financial grants I think all the farmers do any like support grant um things like low interest loans um education all of that is really appreciated that's awesome and one last question since you are on the big island where would you recommend to eat or what is your favorite place to go to eat oh you know my favorite place right now is temple it's this it's a cute little place with uh like uh hoops and appetizers nice and um it's very it's almost like an LA style Portland style and how intimate it is uh the design in the food yeah I really like it temple I'm gonna write that down yeah next time I visit okay I think we're gonna leave it here thank you so much you've been watching International Hawaii on Think Tech Hawaii and we've been chatting with Kelly Stewart of Big Island Coffee Roasters thank you so much for sharing your time with me Kelly thank you and thank you so much to our viewers for tuning in I'm Cindy Matsuki and we'll be back in two weeks with another edition of International Hawaii we'll see you next time