Silver Joe?s Brews in Fort Smith

(Click here (PDF) to see the chart of the coffee market.)

Two Fort Smith entrepreneurs have brewed up an adventurous company backed by an even more adventurous marketing scheme.

Steve Clark and Cameron Clement’s idea for their own brand of java was born out of passion for excitement. But to make that passion a reality, they needed a strong marketing hook to get the idea flowing out of Fort Smith and in to the nation.

After many years of planning, what they developed was Silver Joe’s Coffee Co., which became available for sale on its Web site, silverjoes.com, the first week of September.

With adventure in mind, the pair couldn’t imagine any other vehicle to help move their java than Airstream — the classic silver travel trailer that has toted Americans around for 75 years.

“If this is going to be our brand persona — a passion for adventure, a passion for personal independence — then the joining of an icon such as Airstream really seemed to make a lot of sense,” said Clement, CEO of Silver Joe’s.

Through a co-marketing scheme with Airstream Inc. and the use of new technology in roasting, Clark and Clement had a unique brand to sell to coffee consumers, an industry worth up to $18 billion per year in the U.S. alone.

Silver Lining

Last March, co-owners Clement and Clark approached Terry Smith to become president and chief operating officer of Silver Joe’s Coffee Co. His love for coffee and passion for the product was a perfect fit for Clark and Clement’s concept.

Smith understood the idea — there are a lot of coffees in the marketplace but none that combined the life experiences with coffee.

“People who are coffee drinkers need coffee every day, regardless of where you are and what you’re doing,” Smith said. “You need a great cup of coffee.”

And the idea of marketing to the adventurous coffee-drinking masses fit well with executives at Airstream of Jackson Center, Ohio. In October 2004, Clement flew to Airstream’s headquarters and had a three-hour meeting with execs about the coffee company concept. Not too long after he landed back in Arkansas, Clement received a call that eventually led to “the official coffee of Airstream” — Silver Joe’s.

“To me, the interest here is a quality product that’s relational, that is associated with good times,” Clark said, adding that when he sees an Airstream trailer, he automatically thinks about his grandfather who had an Airstream trailer. “Coffee is a universal language to me. There’s this, ‘I love coffee; you love coffee.’ Not that coffee is going to save the world, but over a cup of coffee, many of the world’s problems have been solved.”

One of the unique marketing concepts came in the design of the coffee can. Unlike the standard can (an icon in itself) used by other coffee products like Folgers and Maxwell House, Silver Joe’s container is a silver, tear-dropped shape can with rivets, like those found on Airstream trailers.

Currently, the coffee is only available in a silver 12-ounce plastic package, but Smith said by early 2007, all of its flavors will be offered in the distinctive can.

Consumers won’t find Silver Joe’s in their local grocery store — at least not yet.

“We certainly are in discussions and negotiations with grocery retailers that are in the natural, organic food type grocery stores,” Smith said. “We also have some big box interest from national retailers who love the concept and the brand and think it fits with the demographic they’re trying to reach.”

In the spring, one big box retailer wanted Silver Joe’s coffee in its stores for its back to school promotion, Smith said. That meant getting “hundreds of thousands” of units of coffee ready for 4,000 stores.

Smith wouldn’t name names, but did say the big box retailer is not out of Northwest Arkansas.

However, Smith, along with Clark and Clement, decided to roll out the line in a slow, methodical process. They didn’t want the business to succumb to growth. For now, the coffee — along with Silver Joe’s own clothing line — can only be ordered online, but Smith assured that it’s ready to hit the supermarket shelves tomorrow if need be.

The company is also in talks with a national mall to bring in Silver Joe’s coffee as a tenant throughout its locations.

The unique merging of coffee with Airstream is designed to help Airstream reach coffee drinkers while at the same time helping Silver Joe’s reach the traveling demographic.

“Airstream has a resurgence in popularity in terms of Baby Boomers,” Clark said. “They have a whole culture related to Airstream, like Harley-Davidson riders.”

Smith even has a 1965 Airstream that the company is retrofitting to use as its marketing trailer.

But even with a great marketing concept, if the trio wants to be successful, they had to have a good cup of coffee.

“The concept in and of itself is great, but you have to have phenomenal coffee,” Smith said.

Clement agreed.

“The one thing we agreed upon was if we’re going to do this together as a team, whatever is in the bag, whatever you tasted had to match that goodness of adventure,” Clement said. “It had to be excellent coffee.”

Coffee Talk

The brains behind Silver Joe’s may be in Fort Smith, but the actual craft behind the taste is in Seattle, the coffee capital of the world. The company leases 6,000 SF of space for its roasting process, with the option of 3,000 more, which Smith said it’s likely to occupy by the end of 2007.

At the facility, the roasting process — guided by a roast master — is almost as unique as the Silver Joe’s concept itself. The company uses a fluid-bed roasting process where the beans are “levitated” and roasted by extremely hot air that is pushed through the chamber.

The process is unlike conventional roasting that uses a drum roaster. As the beans are spun in the drum, some briefly lie on the bottom of the roaster and can end up charred.

From the method to the temperature to the length of time roasted, there’s a science behind producing coffee.

“What I came to learn is that coffee is much like wine or even beer in that it is all in the blending of certain beans together in ratios,” Smith said. “There’s a recipe in how that is done.”

And Silver Joe’s has been perfecting that recipe for at least a year.

“For our house blend, we put it up against other nationally offered coffee brands, and time and time again, regardless of region, Silver Joe’s won hands down,” he said.

Silver Joe’s purchases its beans from around the world in places such as Hawaii, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Sumatra and Ethiopia.

It has seven flavors (available in beans or grounds), priced slightly higher than coffee shop brands like Starbucks. The House Blend, French Roast, Mocha Java, Espresso Roast, Hazelnut and Vanilla Crème sell for $9.89 per 12-ounce bag. Kona Blend sells for $15, while the Organic Decaf blend sells for $10.40.

The company produces its decaf coffee through a Swiss water decaffeination process, which uses water instead of chemicals to remove the caffeine from the beans. Because the beans are shipped to Canada for this process, the price is slightly higher, Smith said.

Another unique aspect of Silver Joe’s coffee is the short amount of time between the roasting of the beans to the consumer’s cup. When a customer orders the coffee online, it will take no longer than two weeks for them to receive it, Smith said.

“It’s a very fast process,” he said. “Many national brands sit on the shelf or are warehoused for six months.”

An Airstream trailer may not be shipping the products, but it’s helping to get the word out nonetheless.

“Each flavor has an adventure,” Clement said. “We provide an experience that no one else is providing.”