MARLEY Coffee has secured a landmark deal to supply Kroger and Safeway — the largest retail stores in the US with roasted coffee products prompting another US$2.5-million ($255-million) round of investment.
Large US retail stores rarely carry roasted Jamaican coffee and it will result in the hiring of roughly a dozen staff. It comes amidst the company moving its headquarters from Beverly Hills, California to Denver Colorado — the hub of organic America.Marley Coffee operates a local and US division under the chairmanship of Rohan Marley — son of the reggae legend. Kroger and Safeway are both listed on the New York Stock Exchange and are described as the largest and second largest grocery chains in North America.Management declined to give figures or volumes under the deal but Bali Vaswani, CEO of Marley Coffee (Jamaica), indicated that the company has completely emptied its inventory until September to meet the initial order.“Our current supply is sold-out,” added Vaswani in an Observer interview. “These are two milestone deals. Buyers can walk into a Kroger and Safeway and pick up products made from Jamaica. This is what I feel proud about doing. So right beside Folgers and other brands they will see Marley Coffee.”Brent Toevs, chief executive officer of Jammin Java, which trades as Marley Coffee (USA), said that “its the single biggest order” for the company.“We are pretty excited about that,” he told the Business Observer in a phone interview.Marley Coffee sales grew 350 per cent year on year to US$1.8 million based on securing similar deals across the globe. Despite the growth in sales, Marley Coffee recorded a US$4-million loss for its year ending January 2013, or two-thirds more than a year earlier. The loss was due to staff benefits and coffee costs.The company, however, remains silent on a projected timeline for profitability. Toevs acknowledged the existence of a five-year plan but declined to indicate profit or loss projections under that plan.Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee is amongst the most expensive coffees in the world due to its aroma and lack of bitterness. It can retail for some US$50 a pound (454 grams). Retailers mostly opt for cheaper US$5 a pound commodity coffee despite the bitterness.In fact, most coffee from Jamaica enters the US as green beans or cheaper unroasted beans. Then respective US roasters or specialty cafés roast the beans themselves and resell for greater profit.Last week, Marley Coffee announced that it settled trade payables totalling US$2.5 million removing those obligations from its balance sheet in exchange for the issuance of shares of its common stock to Ironridge Consumer Co, a division of Ironridge Global IV, Ltd.It’s the third time this year that Ironridge has helped the company reduce its trade payables, according to a company release posted to the US Securities and Exchange. Toevs said that Ironridge has invested about “US$5 million in total but holds under 10 per cent of total shares”.“The company recently added Safeway and a few other regional grocery chains to its distribution network, which prompted the need for increased access to capital and inventory. The company now has distribution in place with the two largest grocery retail chains in America,” stated a company release.“Jammin Java’s management team has done one of the best jobs we have ever seen of executing a business plan, increasing sales and driving growth,” commented John Kirkland, managing director of Ironridge Global Partners. “The company has been able to double its stock price, while at the same time achieving nationwide penetration into virtually every major supermarket chain. As a purely passive investor, once we have written the cheque we must rely entirely on management to execute. Ironridge Global could not be more pleased with Rohan Marley and his team’s performance. Our bet on them has paid off very well for us, and it was an easy decision to double down.”The release indicated that Ironridge allowed the company to take advantage of growth opportunities.“Ironridge is absolutely the best investment partner we’ve ever dealt with,” explained Rohan Marley, founder and chairman of Marley Coffee, in the release. “With each round of investments, we have been able to grow the company in a way that the market and our shareholders have supported. We recently consolidated operations into Denver and we’re hiring personnel to help increase sales and support the company.”View the original article here
Marley Coffee enters Krogers Safeway
