My business plan for a coffee roaster business is nearly a hundred pages long. I've broken it down into four phases over the course of about two decades. There are measurable milestones which will trigger the beginning of each phase. There's a list of preferred outcome predictions, and of course, there's a list of potential roadblocks.
The end goal is to rearrange the way we think about food production and logistics, moving away from a just-in-time model to a localized-production model that with the use of scaled-down industrial automation and agile methodology will give us a competitive advantage by cutting out the middleman and producing fresher, better-tasting food, connected directly to the community it came from.
Better quality, locally roasted coffee. Fewer logistics touchpoints.
I love food, but I really don't like being pretentious about it. Quality food products can be achieved without spending a ton of money, and we're proving that with our wholesale coffee model.
The cost of shipping is increasing with the increasing demand for e-commerce products and it's creating strains on our logistics infrastructure. People aren't taking jobs in warehouses, factories, ports, construction, and retail. Because of that, we're seeing the price to move stuff around increase exponentially over the past few years, and especially throughout the pandemic.
With new technologies available for food manufacturing, we aim to scale down production to serve our local community with products created especially for them. This means you'll get fresher, better-quality products at a price comparable to what you already pay at the grocery store. The difference? It's fresh. It's local. It tastes better.
Most of our coffee is shipped within a few days of being roasted. It doesn't sit in a warehouse for months getting stale and losing it fresh-roasted quality like most grocer brands, and because we're local, we deliver all of our coffee by hand, so you'll either get to see me or another Tenpoint staff member regularly as we help you find new ways to keep our money local.
Reducing our carbon footprint
We use all-electric roasters powered by clean electricity generated in the Tennessee Valley. Within the next two years, we plan on adding afterburners and explore the use of solar power and battery storage to power our facilities and rainwater reclamation as a water source for non-food service uses.
Our goal is to begin the solar program during phase two of our long-term plan and have our first afterburner installed by the end of phase one, well before the FDA-requirement for an afterburner, which is a million pounds of coffee annually.
We've already started reducing our carbon emissions by making all of our coffee deliveries using electric vehicles and we have no plans of turning back.
Connecting With People In My Community
The most rewarding part of my coffee business adventure has been meeting people in the communities in and around Chattanooga, TN.
I live here. I love it here. I've been all over the world and seen some pretty incredible things, but the Tennessee Valley is home, and I don't think I'd ever want to pick up and live somewhere else.
My kids go to school here. My wife grew up here. And I am proud to be a business owner, community member, advocate for buying local, and Tennessean to my core.
Thanks for reading and I hope your day is beautiful. With grace and provision, Chris Moreland Tenpoint Coffee Monger