WELCOME TO PHASE ONE

WHO ARE YOU?

My name is Jazz Feyer-Salo. I have worked in a coffee industry for nearly a decade. Over five years of that time was at Madcap Coffee Company in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was at Madcap that my passion for quality, excellence, and equity was born and developed.

Toward the end of my time at Madcap I started to wonder what it would look like if I were to set out on my own. What would that business look like? What would it offer to customers? What would it's values be?

WHY SORTIE COFFEE?

It was in the asking of those questions that SORTIE Coffee Company was born. At its core, the goal of SORTIE is to continue the work of the best specialty coffee companies of the last three decades: to establish increasingly more transparent and equitable value chains through the sale of high quality coffee from long term, stable business relationships with coffee farmers. But just outside that core goal lies a number of yet unanswered questions: What does a specialty coffee company look like in the internet age? Do you need a cafe to connect to customers? Do customers care about the story of a coffee? What kinda of business is necessary for equitable supply chains? SORTIE is not the answer to these questions but rather an asking of the questions themselves.

HOWS IT GONNA HAPPEN?

Something I have seen hinder coffee companies throughout my time in the industry is leaping into debt or a demanding lease agreement before they have really had a chance to develop their business and prove they have a market for what they are selling. Pretty soon, whatever values or apserations they had for their business become subservient to their landlord or debt collector.

PHASE ONE
With this in mind I wanted to start SORTIE small, with resources and tools I could acquire without the help of banks or landlords. This is why SORTIE will start as a cottage industry business. As a cottage business I can start small with less overhead and slowly develop my businesses processes and build a customer base

PHASE TWO
Once the business has established a regular revenue stream and a certain average number of sales we will move the business to a food safe certified space. This will allow the business to sell to businesses and ship national wide and internationally. This move will not, most likely, be a facility build out. Rather, we will move to a kitchen rental facility. This, again, will allow for the business to broaden who it can sell to and how much it can sell without taking on large amounts of debt or a paralyzing lease agreement.

PHASE THREE
Finally, once a consistent revenue stream and average number of sales is established to justify (and pay for) a stand alone roasting facility we will make that move. The goal is to do a lot with as little as possible: "Small but mighty" as two of my roaster role models say it (Luna and Quietly).

SO, WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR YOU?

In many ways (but not all), Sortie will be operating with the least amount of costs when it is in PHASE ONE. This allows me to offer a significant discount as I get production off the ground. As sales increase and I get closer to maximizing production capacity the discount will decrease.

IF YOUR STILL READING THIS....

Thanks for taking the time to read this and possibly make a purchase. I plan on offering some really awesome coffee from farmers across the globe. I am excited to share their coffee and their stories with you.

-- Jazz