As the recession marks plummeting stocks for coffee giant Starbucks, currently in the process of closing 600 franchise locations, the future of coffee for one Canton-based company remains rather perky.
Since conceiving the simply named Mississippi Coffee Company in 2002, owner Scott Allen has made it clear to his customers that he intends to be more than just their distributor; he wants his company to be a part of their lives.
Explaining his business model, Allen said forming relationships has been crucial to the success of Mississippi Coffee, in regards to both the company’s supply of quality beans and distribution to its customers.
“The coffee we sell, we’re not just in it to make a buck. We’re in the relationship business,” he said. “That’s probably where our business is unique.”
Allen said originally, functioning only as a distributor, Mississippi Coffee’s relationships were limited to his immediate community.
In its early years, in order to lend a hand to those on the fringe of society, Mississippi Coffee reached out to Willowood Developmental Center, a Jackson-based nonprofit, to hire several workers to do basic labor such as grinding beans and sealing them in bags.
Allen said he credits the work Mississippi Coffee has been able to do since then to the company’s addition of highly experienced roast master Mark McKee in 2008.
Allen said during his 20-plus years in the roasting business, McKee has done everything from consulting for a major Seattle-based coffee distributor to training vendors at Safeco Field, teaching them how to make a quality roast.
McKee said with the support of his foundation, Passionate Harvest, in the course of a single year, Mississippi Coffee has begun to work directly with farmers of developing countries like Papa New Guinea, Ethiopia and El Salvador to grow quality products by teaching sustainability.
“Churches in general are fantastic at giving handouts,” McKee said. “They don’t teach sustainability, and there’s a level of pride in that.”
He said the method Mississippi Coffee uses to proffer sustainability is known as relationship farming.
“Relationship farming started from a guy named Mark Griswald out of a company called Sustainable Harvest out of Portland, Oregon,” McKee said. “They bring the farmers up to meet the roasters, so they [the roasters] get an idea of what this farmer go through, and the farmer gets an idea of . the roasting process, the packaging, the labeling, the marketing, the advertising, being put into grocery stores.”
He said Mississippi Coffee pays above fair market prices to farmers, and works with plantations to diversify crops, establish medical facilities, create efficient water supplies, develop schools and create recreational activities, such as soccer.
Gary Davis, owner of Wired Espresso Café of Jackson, said when he chose Mississippi Coffee as his distributor, the company’s involvement in various causes was just a bonus to their partnership.
“First we went to them because we were looking for someone who had a micro roaster status,” he said. “They roast locally, so they have the freshest roast possible.”
Davis said since learning about the effects relationship coffee is having internationally, he has expanded his business to aid the cause.
“Up until now, I never sold bulk coffee, but now that I’ve learned the relationship coffee [McKee] supports, I now sell it by the pound,” he said
McKee said he is proud of his charity work, but like his business with Davis, he wants people to buy his coffee because it is a quality product.
“A lot of people have a great cause, but they have a lousy product to go along with it. And people will buy the product because they feel sorry for that cause,” he said. “I don’t want it to be that way. I want it to be, ‘Wow, that’s a great cup of coffee,’ and, ‘Wow, it supports something too.'”