5/21/2009
Coffee merchants abide by generous way of doing business
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| Coffee merchants abide by generous way of doing business |
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Ed Langlois
Two young entrepreneurs in Portland are sticking to their social-justice-minded business model, despite the sluggish economy.
Augusto Carvalho Dias and Jason Lesh, members of St. Ignatius Parish, run Nossa Familia Coffee, a small Portland-based distributor. Their stock-in-trade is the coffee grown on a Brazilian highlands farm owned by the Carvalho Dias family for more than a century.
When the two University of Portland graduates started their business venture three years ago, they decided to donate 50 cents to non-profits for every pound sold.
They already knew that the coffee was winning awards for its quality and that workers on the plantation receive top wages and treatment. But Carvalho Dias and Lesh wanted to link their values to local issues, too. Last year, Nossa Familia, with less than $1 million in revenue — that’s not profit — donated around $30,000 to charity.
The two men say their commitment has been shaped by Catholic culture, especially UP’s expectation that all students serve the greater good.
“Coffee is a great product, but we are not going to save the world by selling it,” says Carvalho Dias, 32. “We are not curing cancer or bringing water and electricity to the developing world. So we decided we wanted to share what our company did. It feels right.”
At first, the contributions were small. Carvalho Dias remembers the first year, sending a $39 check to Engineers without Borders, a group that designs and builds water systems and other infrastructure in needy lands. The non-profit groups appreciated the checks, but liked the business model even more; donations were an automatic result of sales, not a token amount plucked from profits.
“I would hope anybody would do the same,” says Lesh, 31.
The two keep office in one corner of a Southeast Portland warehouse, where they have put a few desks, couches, a ping pong table and an espresso machine. Shelves are packed with coffee.
Nossa Familia is growing, maybe just not as fast as hoped. That won’t deter the giving.
“Our donations will not be less this year as a result of the economy,” Lesh explains. “Part of the reason is that people are still going to drink their coffee.”
A business major, Lesh knows that a generous spirit can foster buyer loyalty and even create apostles of the brand. “It becomes a self-feeding circle,” he explains.
Carvalho Dias and Lesh know that many coffee companies trumpet fair trade as of late. At Nossa Familia, conscience is a long tradition.
In 1890, four brothers from the Carvalho Dias family founded a coffee farm in the volcanic highlands. Four hours North of Sao Paolo, the soil and micro-climate proved ideal.
Five generations later, the family still runs the farm, with 50 worker families who live on site enjoying their own houses, cars, school, dance hall, health clinic, church and even a manicured soccer field.
Carvalho Dias grew up in the tradition and came to Oregon in the late 1990s to study engineering at the University of Portland. He wed and began working as a water resources engineer.
On a trip to Brazil, his family was talking about how they could bring the farm’s story and the coffee to more people in the U.S. They sent Augusto back to Oregon with a few boxes of the award-winning beans, which he gave out to rave reviews.
The idea of a business was born and Carvalho Dias invited his college friend, Lesh, to help create it. The two formed Nossa Familia in 2004, and started operation two years later. Now, there are four employees.
The first big customer for Nossa Familia was UP. The school’s food service — Bon Appetit — uses the brand throughout campus, from the student cafeteria to the dining room of the Holy Cross priests and brothers. Intel serves the brew in its offices.
Habitat for Humanity, which helps low-income people build their own houses, gets a regular check from Nossa Familia. The coffee company also gives chunks of revenue to groups promoting environmental sustainability.
Coming up, St. Ignatius School families will be selling Nossa Familia coffee to raise money. Carvalho Dias and Lesh are inviting Catholic schools statewide to join in. The institutions get the coffee at the wholesale price and can sell it at the market rate, keeping all proceeds.
Carvalho Dias’ daughter attends kindergarten at St. Ignatius. Lesh’s wife teaches second grade at All Saints School and their 19-month-old child is a future Catholic school student.
Before long, the founders of Nossa Familia hope not only to donate to non-profits, but to help the agencies with ideas and connections.
Carvalho Dias is now taking more time to meet with directors of the non-profits. He has just joined the board of the Community Cycling Center, which fixes up bicycles for low-income children. Lesh is getting more involved with Habitat for Humanity.
Nossa Familia coffee is available at local stores like New Seasons and Whole Foods. It’s also available on-line at www.familyroast.com.
It’s not just about money
The business school at the University of Portland teaches students about a triple bottom line: in addition to financial success, businesses must also gauge their social and environmental status.
“We sort of pride ourselves on our links to the Catholic Church and on service being a big part of what we do here,” says Jon Down, director of the school’s Center for Entrepreneurship.
Down and other business professors remind students that caring for the social and ecological good is not really a trade-off when it comes to finances. The three can go together.
Compared to other Oregon business schools, UP puts more emphasis on the service component of entrepreneurship.
The Center for Entrepreneurship this spring held its sixth annual business plan competition. About half of the entries included strong social and environmental components.
— Ed Langlois
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