and the recession of the polar ice caps. During the same period, Phoenix transitioned from Carl's .... MUSIC. We create
2017
TRANSPARENCY REPORT
phoenix—
FROM THE DIRECTORS
A unique bird that “lived” for centuries in the Arabian desert prior to burning itself on a pyre—obtaining new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor.
In 1990, Carl Jones began roasting coffee under the Phoenix Coffee Company moniker. By 2014, Phoenix operated just three coffee shops, down from nearly a dozen in its heyday during the mid-1990’s. We were “has-beens,” “once-weres,” “second wave.” The company was in the midst of an existential and experiential crisis1 . In the 27 years since Phoenix’s founding, we’ve witnessed three presidents term limit out of office, the rise of the Internet 2 and the recession of the polar ice caps. During the same period, Phoenix transitioned from Carl’s leadership to that of Sarah Belzile, then beginning in 2014, to the team that leads Phoenix now.
F
rom the inception over 27 years ago, Phoenix has embodied the characteristics of this creature. From the founder, Carl Jones, to Sarah Belzile, to the company leadership today—Phoenix continues to rise up from the ashes with a renewed youth. Today, Phoenix Coffee Company is one of Cleveland, Ohio’s premier coffee roasters with 5 cafés around the city. A new location on the rise, a rebranding to reflect the renewed vision and a continued effort to nurture community around great coffee in the process. A new Phoenix is rising.
Certain years in history seem to arrive with peculiar tenacity: 2017 was such a year. Facing an uncertain global economy, tumultuous political realities, and the continuing pressure of climate change, we turned toward our communities and looked within ourselves to create the world we wanted to live in. Central to the core of Phoenix is the idea that we are, as a company, defined by the relationships we have. Through these relationships and through pursuit of our mission, we navigated our existential reorganization and found rebirth 3 . To mark this new birth, we adopted a new logo and branding as a way to better communicate the soul of the company today. We retired 4 our 25-year-old roasting machine and replaced it with a state-of-theart, energy efficient and low-emission model. And we opened a new café—our fifth— a block from where a previous café had failed just 6 years ago.
We asked ourselves: Would Phoenix join the 27 Club? Okay, the ‘27 Club’ isn’t bad company to keep: Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse... Regardless, we had other plans for 2017. 1
2
R.I.P. AOL Instant Messenger, 1997-2017.
A year ago, we set goals for ourselves in order to better serve our community, our employees and our world. This report seeks to reflect on how well we achieved our goals to: ADDRESS climate change by reducing our carbon footprint and resource consumption and utilizing our supply chain in pursuit of this goal; INCREASE the quality of our products by connecting more deeply with our suppliers; STRENGTHEN our local economy by creating and preserving jobs while growing wages; CREATE stability in our communities by retaining employees; SUPPORT the global economy, human rights and worker welfare. As we leave 2017 behind, we hope to make our world happier, healthier and filled with delicious coffee.
Christopher Feran & Shane Hinde Co-directors, Phoenix Coffee Company
It seemed appropriate to us, of course, that a company named for a mythical bird that rises anew from its own ashes should periodically experience rebirth. 3
We hit it with a sledge hammer in a field while listening to early 90’s hip hop. 4
THE NEW LOGO
BRAND
Designed by Type Twenty Seven (Ohio City Phoenix regulars who bill themselves as “Professional coffee drinkers...Design & Letterpress enthusiasts.” That works for us), our new logo depicts a Phoenix in flight and was adopted June 2017.
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Phoenix Coffee Company Phoenix Coffee Company Phoenix Coffee Company Phoenix Coffee Company
ABOUT TYPE TWENTY SEVEN Founded in 2012, Type Twenty Seven is a graphic design and letterpress studio in Cleveland, Ohio. Located in the heart of Midtown on E.30th, the studio mixes modern technology with lead type and vintage printing presses. Whether it’s a fully integrated campaign, a website or a large letterpress poster, Type Twenty Seven collaborates with each client to deliver effective results.
2017 IN REVIEW
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
ROASTING
COFFEE SOURCING
In August 2017, we began to roast our coffee using Loring Smartroast technology, which uses just 25% the amount of natural gas as conventional roasters by cleaning and re-circulating exhaust air back into the roaster, also eliminating smoke and particulate pollution.
We continued to shift our coffee purchasing to fully traceable, sustainably-produced coffees. We purchase from producers who demonstrate a commitment to innovative methods of production that lower environmental impacts of producing coffee and reduce the risks posed by climate change.
WASTE REDUCTION We incentivize customers to reduce paper waste by offering a discount when customers bring their own mugs as well as offering the option of using our ceramic mugs in the cafe at no additional charge (we cover the “for here” tax).
LOW-IMPACT PRODUCTS We source as many of our products as possible from local vendors and began to make syrups and almond milk in-house.
PUBLIC TRANSIT COMPOSTING All of our coffee grounds, chaff from coffee roasting, and food waste are composted by our partners at Rust Belt Riders, reducing landfill usage and creating nutrient-rich soil for farmers. Leftover almond meal from almond milk production that is not used by our local wholesale bakery partners is also composted. From January through November 2017, we composted 43,674 pounds of material, avoiding 15.7 tons of CO 2 emissions and producing 49 yards of nutrient-rich compost for Cleveland-area farms.
TO-GO CUP SLEEVES Our coffee sleeves are produced from post-consumer recycled paper and use less paper than a double-walled cup.
We offer a tax deductible public transit fare program for our employees through RTA and bike parking at all company locations, including our roastery HQ. We partnered with RTA to offer public transit riders a 5% discount when they show their fare card to encourage use of public transit.
WATER CONSERVATION Rather than Reverse Osmosis, which wastes 10–15% of water processed, we choose to use charcoal-based filters for our brewing water and retrofitted water-saving equipment into all of our pre-2013 bar setups.
STAFFING & COFFEE COMMUNITY
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
EDUCATION & DEVELOPMENT GRANTS
GIVING
ACTIVISM
In 2017, Phoenix made financial contributions directly to organizations that share our vision for the world. These organizations include:
We supported and hosted coordinators and volunteers for the Women’s March and League of Women Voters.
American Civil Liberties Union Planned Parenthood Center for Disaster Philanthropy
GATHERING
Specialty Coffee Association Coffee Exposition travel grants—4 awarded. Other trainings include Serv Safe, new roaster, roastery employee development, and 2 rounds of formal manager and company feedback.
89.47%
employees having tenure greater than 12 months
1132 HOURS
of PTO paid
COMMUNITY BUILDING JOB CREATION Two permanent part-time positions created for employees Social Media Coordinator Almond Milk Production
2Y 7MOS average tenure of cafe staff
SIX
full-time living wage positions created
Phoenix contributed to smaller local organizations in various ways, such as collecting money to help buy school supplies for children at the Fairfax Elementary School and providing coffee for volunteers beautifying the Coventry Road garden and playground.
TALENT RETENTION Excluding new positions created after January 1, 89.47% of current employees have tenure of greater than 12 months. Average tenure is 2 years 7 months for our cafe staff and 2 years 11 months for all staff.
LOCAL ART
6.5%
average hourly wage increase
$3300
awarded on education & training grants for employees
Phoenix uses wall space at each of its cafés to display and sell art from local artists. Every penny from the sale of art at Phoenix goes to the artist. In 2017 we featured 27 artists across our cafés.
MUSIC We create space for musicians at an open mic hosted by Charlie Mosbrook every Monday evening at our Coventry Rd. café and participate in the yearly Cleveland Heights Music Hop at our Lee Rd. café.
FILTER COFFEE, NOT PEOPLE We offer non-gendered, single-occupancy restrooms at our locations.
An important function of coffee shops is to serve as meeting space for the community. In 2017, Phoenix hosted regular meetings of the Cleveland Spanish Club and Cleveland Video Game Developers Club as well as events and meetings for Cleveland Heights City Council, CHUH School District, Lake Erie Ink teen poetry group, and Be Free Project.
BUSINESS OUTREACH & DEVELOPMENT As part of our wholesale program, we provide consulting and training at no cost to our customers who have earned the distinction of Brewing Partners. This program is driven by the needs of the customer and can include anything from help with architectural drawings and café layout to financial planning and budgeting. Our goal is to create stable, profitable businesses as a way to foster economic stability within our communities and grow the specialty coffee market. In 2017, we took on five new Brewing Partners: Passengers Cafe, Brew Nuts, 5 Points Coffee & Tea, Coffee Coffee Coffee, and Ember+Forge.
COFFEE PROGRAM
PURCHASING PHILOSOPHY
PRODUCER EXPERIMENTS & FINANCIAL SUPPORT
We work with producers who are committed to growing
We offer a $0.10 to 0.20 per pound premium to all producers
specialty coffee using economically and environmentally
we purchase from if they hire an agronomist or processing
sustainable methods. We seek out experimental producers
specialist from our network to improve their production.
who are willing to question the status quo of how coffee
In addition, we travel to coffee producing countries
is currently grown or processed.
to strengthen our relationships with producers, collaborate on projects and experiments, deepen our understanding
We commit to purchase directly from producer partners over
of the supply chain, and purchase directly from producers
multiple harvests in order to create trust and financial stability
so as to put as much money as possible in their hands
as well as encourage experimentation.
rather than the hands of middlemen.
We pay above-market prices and offer premiums based on quality as well as to subsidize hiring experts such as agronomists and processing specialists.
$1.35
coffee market average price per pound
$2.34 average price per pound paid by Phoenix Coffee in 2017
$3.97 average price 2017 project/relationship coffees per pound
86.60
average cup score of project/relationship coffee
13
number of countries we bought coffee from in 2017
90,000
estimated miles our coffee traveled to get to Cleveland
COFFEE PROGRAM
COFFEE ORIGINS WE PURCHASED FROM IN 2017 São Vicente, Brazil
OUR TRAVEL & EXPERIMENTS IN 2017 INCLUDED…
Palestina, Colombia
Finca Betania Colombia
San Agustín/Acevedo, Colombia
Lino Rodriguez’s coffee is consistently outstanding—we’ve featured his coffees since 2016. Lino also processes coffee from his sisters and mother. His sister Graciela has Castillo trees planted on her farm, a coffee leaf rust (roya) resistant cultivar not known for cup quality. However, due to the threat of roya, more and more farmers in Latin America are replacing their trees with inferior-cupping resistant cultivars. While Graciela transitions this part of her farm to more high-cupping varietals, we designed an experimental processing protocol to attempt to improve the quality of the Castillo while committing to purchase the resulting coffee at a quality premium regardless of the experiment’s outcome. This lot will be arriving January 2018.
Quito, Ecuador Santa Ana, El Salvador Bonga, Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia Acatenango, Guatemala Quetzaltenango, Guatemala Guajilquiro, Honduras Eastern Highlands, Papua New Guinea Nyeri, Kenya Jaen, Peru Gaseke, Rwanda Mandheling, Sumatra Mbeya, Tanzania
Finca la Florida El Salvador
Finca Esperanza Guatemala
Working with renowned coffee producer Aida Batlle and processing specialist (and new Cleveland resident) Lucia Solis, we designed a protocol that would improve the cup quality from the last picking at Finca la Florida. Typically, the beginning and end of the harvest shows the worst quality. Through a custom-designed fermentation protocol, we were able to improve the cup quality and increase the shelf life of the unroasted coffee in spite of the challenges posed by processing in the hot climate of Santa Ana.
We worked with Ana and her son Diego to implement a custom fermentation protocol for Phoenix’s upcoming lot as well as to improve picking and sorting of cherry at Finca Esperanza’s new mill. This improves overall quality and helps to reduce production costs by ensuring that workers are not paid to pick, transport, sort and process unripe coffee. Unripe coffee compromises the lot quality and overall sales price, depriving producers of potential future earnings from that cherry if it were picked fully ripe. Phoenix provided ripeness bracelets to help workers pick only ripe cherry. Through these efforts Finca Esperanza was able to raise the wage of pickers by 40%, bringing the wage paid by Finca Esperanza to double that of the regional average.
Fazenda California Brazil Luiz Rodrigues exemplifies a quality-focused producer, employing technologies and machinery to offset labor shortages as well as challenges faced in his farm’s microclimate. His innovative methods result in coffee far better than anyone would expect of a farm at just 600 meters above sea level. We pre-committed to a lot designed for Phoenix by Lucia Solis and assisted in the development of a cupping roast profile for his new controlled fermentation coffees. This lot will be arriving in January 2018.
OUR MULTI-YEAR & RECURRING PARTNER PRODUCERS FEATURED IN 2017 INCLUDED… Aida Batlle El Salvador (2017, pre-committed for 2018) Finca Betania Colombia (2016–2017, pre-committed for 2018) Finca el Ciprés Peru (2017, pre-committed for 2018)
Finca Chelín Mexico We conducted 16 processing experiments alongside Lucia Solis with Enrique Lopez at Finca Chelín, testing various strains of inoculated yeast and hydration percentages for coffee fermentation. We expect to taste the windfall of these experiments when our first lot arrives from Finca Chelín in 2018.
Finca Esperanza Guatemala (2017, pre-committed for 2018) Girma Eshetu Ethiopia (2016–2017, pre-committed for 2018) Komothai Coffee Growers Cooperative Kenya (2016–2017) Sero Bebes Papua New Guinea (2016–2017)
We look forward to growing this list in the harvests to come!
THANK YOU to our local partners!
Thank you to our local bakery vendors: Bon Bon, Cleveland Bagel Company, Philomena, and Metro Croissants. You make our days more delicious. Thank you to our café suppliers, Joshen Paper & Packaging Co (for helping to supply us with our beautiful new bags and making sure we’re always stocked with the paper goods we need) and Instantwhip (for making sure that we can keep pouring cappuccinos with that sweet, sweet local whole milk). Thank you to Type Twenty Seven for working tirelessly to help Phoenix find a way to express itself. We know—we can be a handful. Thank you to AoDK for helping us in three dimensions at our new café in the Warehouse District (and again outside our Coventry café), to Trinity Contracting Group for getting the job done, to Xacto Sign for your help with our sign, Julie and the A1 crew for coming through in a big way, to Bill McCarthy and the team at 5-4 Management, and to the City of Cleveland and Historic Warehouse District for helping us bring this thing to life. Thank you to our innumerable partners at home and abroad who help us continue to make our world look more like the world we want to live in, such as Rust Belt Riders and Lucia Solis. Thank you to the staff and crew at Phoenix—the most incredible humans we’ve ever had the pleasure of working alongside. And finally, Thank you to you for being a part of the Phoenix Phamily in 2017. We look forward to growing together in 2018 and the years to come.
phoenixcoffee.com • @phoenixcoffeeco
