Andy Oakes Of Fresh Roasted Coffee On 5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food or Beverage Brand
An Interview With Martita Mestey
“First, you have to have the right product. I chose coffee. Coffee is the 2nd most traded resource worldwide, after petroleum. It something almost everyone wants.
As a part of our series called “5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food or Beverage Brand”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Andrew Oakes.
Andrew Oakes, based in Sunbury, PA, US, is currently a Business Owner at Positively Tea LLC., bringing experience from previous roles at Fresh Roasted Coffee LLC and Oakes Coffee and Bottled Water. Andrew Oakes holds a 1992–1996 Bachelor’s degree in Construction Management @ Pennsylvania College of Technology. With a robust skill set that includes Food, Marketing Strategy, Product Development, Strategic Planning, New Business Development and more, Andrew Oakes contributes valuable insights to the industry. Andrew Oakes has 2 emails on RocketReach.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
“My family owned and operated an oil supply company that was started by my grandparents. I grew up watching and working within our family business. I saw my family devote themselves to their business for generations and I witnessed firsthand the hardships and struggles, as well as the benefits that come with all that. The experience definitely made me want to own my own business, but I didn’t want to do oil. That business was seasonal, so at some point I began delivering water during our ‘off’ season. All the other vendors who delivered water, also supplied coffee, so in order to remain competitive, I also began to offer coffee. I guess that’s where this whole journey really started”.
Can you share with us the story of the “ah ha” moment that led to the creation of the food or beverage brand you are leading?
“At the time that I had started delivering coffee, I also realized that I had to start drinking coffee. How can you sell a beverage that you don’t consume yourself? I couldn’t speak to customers about the taste or the quality, because I really didn’t drink coffee. At that same time, my infant son wasn’t sleeping and keeping me up at all hours of the night. Those were some rough days. I think it was less of an “ah ha” moment and more of a “born out of necessity” moment. Turns out, I really like coffee.”
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
“Coffee roasting isn’t as straight forward as a lot of people think. There was a lot that I needed to learn by just doing. I remember thinking early on that I could make a better, fresher product by roasting the coffee for my office frac packs, then immediately grinding, bagging and sealing them. Imagine my surprise when I came in the next day and every single bag had exploded! In retrospect, it’s funny but it wasn’t then. As far as what I learned? I learned that coffee needs time to degas after it roasts. But also, I learned that mistakes happen and are an opportunity to learn and grow.”
What are the most common mistakes you have seen people make when they start a food or beverage line? What can be done to avoid those errors?
“It’s a lot harder to create a market than to serve an existing one. If a large, national brand was making a splash with a unique flavor of coffee, I might try to capitalize on what they were doing by developing a product with a similar profile. Give your customers what they want — make it easy and affordable — and they’ll come back.
I’ve built this business on giving people what they want — more than that, really. I’m always looking for a better product than what I had before — better profiles, better cup scores — and using my volume buying power to get better pricing. That way I can consistently give my customers a better product for the same price.”
Let’s imagine that someone reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to produce. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?
“Research, research, research. People have access to so much information that it can be hard to get through. If you’re not sure, start at your local library. There are often people there that can help you with market research, patent and trademark information, and so on. Once you’ve taken those steps, remember to protect your product legally. Hire a good lawyer. Early on I made the mistake of not fully researching some names for our blends and then not fully protecting some of the names I did have. Trust me — it’s less expensive to protect your assets now than to have to change names or packaging later.”
Many people have good ideas all the time. But some people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. How would you encourage someone to overcome this hurdle?
“If it’s truly a good idea, don’t quit. I got here by being too bull-headed to quit. If you want to make it in any industry, you have to be resilient. There are always going to be road blocks and people telling you “you can’t” do something or “shouldn’t” do something. You won’t be successful by listening to them. The people you do want to listen to, are your customers. Who are you trying to sell to and what do they want? That’s your market, and their opinion matters more than anyone else. ”
There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?
“I never worked with a development consultant so I can’t really comment on that.”
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
“I started my business on my own, but was able to grow with the investment of venture capital — until I outgrew that. I was truly only able to spread my wings and get to the next level until I was able to pay out my investors. From that point on, I was the investor — and I re-invested everything back into the business. I will always be tremendously grateful to my prior partners that helped me start that business, but I’m also the type of person that doesn’t care to have people looking over his shoulder and potentially second-guessing decisions.
To answer your question, I think there’s a place for both. I’m no longer beholden to outside investors but it’s my responsibility to run Fresh Roasted Coffee for the benefit of myself, my family, my employees, and my community and that, honestly, might not be for everyone.”
Can you share thoughts from your experience about how to file a patent, how to source good raw ingredients, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer or distributor?
“My business is built on relationships. Just about all of them are. People can do business any where but they spend their money where they want to. We try to develop relationships so that people want to do business with us and the same hold true of our suppliers and distributors. If I treat you well as a customer, you’ll want to buy from me again. If I treat you well as a supplier, you’ll want to sell to me again. Sometimes, that’s as simple as paying your bills on time. The network of relationships you build as a business is what holds everything together.”
What are your “5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food or Beverage Brand” and why?
“First, you have to have the right product. I chose coffee. Coffee is the 2nd most traded resource worldwide, after petroleum. It something almost everyone wants.
Second, you have to offer it at the right price. If someone is used to buying coffee off the shelf for eight dollars, they’re not going to be impressed by your twenty-dollar version, no matter the quality. I knew early on that I wanted to offer quality coffee at a price everyone could afford.
So, if you can provide the right product at the right price then the third thing would be advertising. You have to figure out how to get your product to your potential customers. For me, reaching my customers online through e-commerce was the easiest and most cost-effective way of getting Fresh Roasted Coffee out there. In today’s day and age, I would say that is probably true for most trying to make it in the food and beverage industry.
My business really blew up during COVID. People were looking for online sources for good coffee and I was ready to provide it. So really the 4th and 5th thing kind of go together. That would be the right timing for your product, and being poised to grow as soon as the opportunity presents itself. In my case, coffee was in its 3rd wave, or so they call it, so specialty coffee was in high demand, and COVID made everyone resort to online shopping, which is where I had already sent myself up to be. You could call it the “perfect storm”.”
Can you share your ideas about how to create a product that people really love and are ‘crazy about’?
“It’s all about perceived value. If you can produce a quality product at a price that someone finds more affordable than what they are currently buying from someone else, you’ve got yourself a
customer. The higher they perceive the value, the more “crazy” they will be about what you are selling.”
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
“I’ve made the world of coffee a better place. That’s what I set out to do, and that’s what I’ve done, and continue to do. I’ve shown that it is possible to offer high quality coffee to everybody at the very best price possible, while using sustainable coffee roasting and production practices. That’s a win in my book!”
You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
“I would want to inspire the coffee industry, and others in the food and beverage industry, to strive to offer the best products, at the best prices, while leaving as small a footprint as possible. People shouldn’t have to sacrifice quality for cost and everybody should always have access to quality foods and drinks for their family. There are a lot of people out there that claim it’s impossible in today’s economy. It’s not. It just takes commitment.”
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Andy Oakes Of Fresh Roasted Coffee On 5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food or Beverage… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.