One Man's Journey in The Coffee Industry and Life

Hi Everyone, That was a very emotional post to write, or should I say posts. It was a devastating time, personally, yet, my business was doing better that ever. I wish i had the time to enjoy it, but, that just wasn't the case. My daughter collapsed into a deep depression and I did too. My wife was the rock during this whole time. It got progressively worse before it got better. My daughter ended up in Milan with my American Express card, it took me five days to convince her to come home. When she finally did, we had to commit her. It was the worst of times. Fortunately we could afford the best of health care, so we put her in a rehab out in Western, Ma, that was run by McClean hospital. It was dark times. I would show up at the office but after the initial Hi everyone gave, you could see the fear and pain in my employees eyes! I wasn't the same, and they knew it. It took me really 4-5 months before I was really back to a somewhat normal state. I have never felt so much g

So we had just suffered the worst of the worst right? I mean I don't know about you but losing a child is in that .1% of things that are too awful to think about! I could go into details but believe me, I don't want to shock and depress anyone at the same time. This is a blog about my business adventures and life. It always has been, and maybe parts of this will be in a novel someday. We'll see. During this crazy time my daughter passed out from exhaustion at 8 pm the night of the funeral and was rushed to the hospital. It was the same ambulance crew that responded to the baby's call the weekend before! It was 100 degrees that day, just brutal! No one knew what to say, and frankly, there was nothing that could bring comfort at that point. It was ridiculously hard. As I have said though, I was really on top of my game business wise. I don't really remember this but it happened. The Monday after Brady's death, I was on the phone with my lawyer's to request

So there it is. A man and a family who thought they had everything. but unfortunately, that wasn't the case. I don't think I really remember too much the first 3 weeks after Brady passed. I was obviously in shock. I only knew, that I had to keep my family going, that was it. My focus. But by doing that, I was just running, running from the truth. I was shattered, but by trying to do the right thing, would keep me focused. Yeah, right what a crock. Things got progressively worse. The funeral home called and asked that we bring a diaper down to the funeral home, I couldn't go, my wife did. The service was full, had to be 700 people in the church that day. We had to pick out a gravesite, a casket that was 3 feet long and get the mass in order. Somehow we did that. I still to this day say, that was the measure of the family we built! Not a lot of people could go through what we had just been through and pulled this off. The folowing weeks blended together, I had never been

You know, this is a story about my life and business, in order to understand everything that is going on you MUST read the last 2 posts! It won't make sense if you don't, trust me.  If you are at all interested in the story this is a must. there will be much more after this but it is a time line, and to understand it read the last 2 posts. Please. Thank you Joe P.S. also I have changed auto- responder's!! So please enter your email address on the right hand column of this blog, so you can receive, news and Special offers, that this blog won't cover! Like discounts on services, consultations etc... 

My last post had me in a really good spot. It was 2006, we had just bought a fantastic batch roaster, which would enable us to really do some special things with our gourmet coffee line. The roaster was ordered and would be installed by the end of March 2007, I couldn't wait! Our Beacon Hill Gourmet Coffee line was really created then, and the R&D,  myself and our quality control people did was, some amazing stuff. We came up with a superb line of blends and varietals, redesigned our packaging, which was a major upgrade from our foodservice line, and we set up our exact ad campaign and roll out strategy. Those were busy times, but it was great to have the ability to really make another major impact in my company. The orders from Trader Joe's were steady if not increasing from time to time and our bread and butter business, the foodservice side was steady and profitable. It was extremely satisfying to finally look back at what I inherited, which was a virtually bankrupt com

So there I was making all this money, helping out people. I was sending my parents and in -laws on these crazy vacations! I was happy to do it. Hey why not, they deserved it! My parents and Susan's parents were very simple people. That is not a knock, that is the prototype of that depression era soul! So anyway, we are rolling on the river!! I decide in December 0f 2006, that we need a real Small batch roaster. I have been working with the three bag Jabez-Burns models forever. They are workhorses, but hardly precise, batch roasting quality! We needed that extra ooomph in the business I decided to buy a Probat 100 lb roaster, the cadillac! Why not we were rolling. This thing was magical, it had 99 pre-set blend or temperature controls, no quench, and a great destoner and cooling system! It was great, the quality was amazing. So was the price, I think the base model was $265,000 at the time including the afterburner's. If you are in the business, you'll know what I mean

So, by now you must know I jump around like a kangaroo on Adderall! Here we go again! I want to move or jump my story up until 2007. The company was blasting, absolutely killing it! We had a great, loyal base business of local shops, small chains, respectable hotels, caterer's, distributor's and the like. A good stable business. We were making money hand over fist, I think our gross margin was running at 63%!! Let's put it this way, there wasn't a lot to worry about. However there was an elephant in the room, Trader Joe's. Now keep in mind, we started with Trader Joe's as, providing them with one SKU, it was called "Smooth & Mellow" and if you have read any of the blog, it is very much like the old Mister Donut blend(aka Dunkin Donuts Blend) , which is somewhere in this content. Anyway, Trader Joe's when we first started dealing with them was extremely partner friendly!! amazingly enough, their business model I believe to this day was abso

Hey, On the right column of this blog is 2 great company's. Yeah I am still trying to figure out the distribution of my own blends, but, hey I am not the only kid on the block! Caffe Britt, who actually own farms in Costa Rica, Brazil and Peru have come out with a blend of coffee that is very good! You can find it to the right of this blog! And yes I get a small commission for selling their coffee. But as I have said in the past. I will not advertise coffee on here that doesn't meet my stringent standards. This limited edition coffee does, The Heritage Blend. It is Costa Rica in a nutshell ,so i am giving it a 5 star thumbs up! They own the farms and they can cherry pick the best beans at the height of their flavor! I commend anyone that can do that, because coffee is my life, it is my passion. So give it a try , the company is value driven and they do things right!  So coffee lover's everywhere should try it at least once, because they deliver great coffee! Now, the ban