About Zoka Wholesale

 

On behalf of Zoka Coffee Roaster & Tea Company, congratulations for taking the time to perform extensive, due diligence in researching your business plan. And thank you for considering a relationship with Zoka. Let us assure you that we are humbled and grateful for the opportunity to share The Zoka Way with you. As we all know, not every roaster, or vendor for that matter, is a perfect fit for every coffeehouse business plan. This letter offers a brief overview of the Zoka Coffee Wholesale Program, in the hope that it will help you decide on a coffee supplier.

When Jeff and I first discussed putting our business model in motion, we agreed to keep it simple, to make it easy to do business with Zoka. Right off the bat we agreed: no contracts and no hidden or incidental charges, with a focus on solid execution that would develop solid long-term business relationships. We felt that if we concentrated on world-class coffees coupled with unrivaled training while offering the finest equipment available, we could create a following loyal enough to sustain our business. So began Zoka Wholesale, a way to share what we've learned in building successful Zoka retail stores by partnering with independent, like-minded operators across the globe.

The Partnership:

To contribute to a long, successful relationship, we share everything with you that we use in our own formula for success.

We will share expertise and advice on every line item pertaining to your P & L statement, as well as templates for employee manuals, training manuals, suggested menus, and overall business operations approaches from which we've learned.

The Coffee:

It is The Zoka Way to find amazing coffees at their source. Wherever coffees grow, we witness production and preparation first hand.

It is The Zoka Way to cultivate ongoing, sustainable and mutually beneficial relationships. Together we are committed to improving the livelihoods of our producing partners, bolstering the environment and superior quality in the cup.

The Zoka Way draws a solid line from the farm to the consumer. Our lots are traceable through reliable infrastructures.

The Zoka Way functions within the highly competitive sellers market. We regularly buy award-winning, reliable lots at auction where our bid history and final price are easily obtainable.

We blind cup every coffee two or more times before agreeing to offer it to our customers. We cup every production roast to double check one more time before it leaves our dock. We package in state-of-the-art, foil-lined, gusseted, 5-pound bags. We could use 10-pound bags, but prefer the fresh-step insurance that a smaller bag offers. In these bags we package single origins, blends, decafs and, of course, our award-winning Espresso Paladino, the one and only choice of multiple Regional and United States Barista Champions.

The Training:

It's no secret that three of the last seven U.S. Barista Champions have worked for Zoka, not to mention a throng of Regional Champions since day one. As a result, we have bottled up the outline for Barista training success, and published a manual for our wholesale partners. Like all of our quality control measures, this manual insures consistency to you and your staff, so each drink your customer receives will be the same when made by any given Barista on any given day. The hard work put into providing world-class coffees is backed when your staff is prepared to expertly deliver the final product. All of our wholesale customers have Zoka training centers at their disposal any time of the week at no cost in Seattle, Kansas City and Boston, merely by scheduling time with one of the pros.

Working on a business plan while trying to juggle another job? No problem. We offer weekend training sessions (a.k.a.: Jams) every other month.

The Equipment:

All the forethought in the world would not be complete without the right equipment to produce the finest pours possible. That's why Zoka offers only La Marzocco Espresso Machines, the choice of the World Barista Championship. Check them out at www.us.franke-cs.com. Two boilers means uninterrupted recovery time for those busy morning rushes. More importantly, it means one boiler for brewing shots and one for steaming milk, unlike less expensive models that rob both from one boiler. (Open up the valve and see how long it takes to run their single boiler dry, and how long it takes to heat back up to start serving drinks again.)

We learned the hard way, after making customers wait as our business was trying to grow, then made the investment in La Marzocco and have never looked back. Knowing this, we had to offer these machines at a price comparable to those with single boilers that make up for their performance inadequacies with pretty bells and whistles.

For brewed coffee, Fetco has improved the process so much that they are in a category by themselves. Their machines are not brewers, but Extractors. Check out the CBS 2030 and CBS 2050 series at www.fetco.com. When we were struggling to give up the reliability of our old urn-style brewers at Zoka, along came Fetco with easy-to-use, simple but consistent workhorses that meet or exceed every SCAA brewing standard in the book. All of that, and with portion controls help keep you from throwing out coffee from fully brewed batches when you need half batches. It doesn't take long for these machines to pay for themselves.

Should you see the benefit of partnering with Zoka and purchasing your equipment from us as well, we will personally come to your shop, install and tune equipment at the same time, and train your staff on site, again, at no additional cost. As mentioned earlier, we share everything we know about running successful coffee shops with each of our wholesale customers.

Pricing:

To be fair, we want to reward loyalty and growth in the best way we know how. With our focus on independent coffee shops (not restaurants, grocery stores, etc.), our pricing levels are based on total weekly volume. We begin with Category 1 for one to 40 pounds per week, going forward with price breaks at 41, 81, 101, etc. Once you are buying 100 pounds or more per week, Zoka will pay the costs associated with standard ground shipping. We use nitrogen flush technology to preserve fresh-roasted coffee for up to 30 days.

To briefly outline what you can expect should you decide to partner with Zoka, we will be happy to ship you an assortment of Zoka single-origin coffees, blends and award-winning espresso to enjoy while sifting through all the due diligence to make the right choice for your coffee shop. About a week or so afterwards, we will call to see how we fared. If you have question before you hear from us, you can reach us at 866.ZOKA.NOW (866.965.2669).

The worst that can happen is that we make another friend in this wonderful, rewarding industry. The best is a long-term, successful business relationship doing the best we know how, to be sure every customer who comes though your door has their expectations met or exceeded every time they enter.