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Meet Tim Thwaites of Coda Coffee Company

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Tim Thwaites.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Tim. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I started Coda in July of 2005 with my brother Tommy. We grew up in the Northwest and cut our teeth in coffee at a very young age. I started roasting coffee in 1996, him in 94. As the years went by we both attempted to get out of coffee but I guess fate brought us back in. We had always talked about opening our own coffee roaster but didn’t have the means (money) necessary to do it. Fast forward to 2004, I was selling door to door life insurance and Tommy was selling subprime mortgages to get by. It sucked. Our dad was having some heart problems and had to retire early with not much to retire on. He had a 401k of $150,000. He offered that to us as a three-way split for the business, and we took it and ran with it. It was quite possibly the worst business decision anyone could ever make with their life savings, but our parents trusted us.

We set out to start a business that offers extraordinary customer service, amazing coffee, and having a business model with an emphasis on social and environmental responsibility.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
NO! Its been a very bumpy ride. We all moved in too low-income housing for the first two years of starting Coda. My wife and I survived off of her student loans, and my brother’s wife Patty had a job as an interior designer, so that brought some income to the group. We survived the housing market crisis and economic downturn, the worst coffee pricing crisis in the history of coffee in one of the most competitive businesses in existence. So ya, there have been some bumps in the road.

One of the lowest points of my life was when times were tight from the coffee pricing crisis. I had to let go of an employee with special needs. We were his entire world. That crushed me at the time… I have since hired him back and recently he received his watch (we give an engraved Garmin watch to those who have worked with us for ten years) he is one of our longest-tenured employees.

My folks were retired but came to work as free labor around 2009 since we could not afford help and we had more work than just to do it all ourselves. We enjoyed that free labor for several years. One day my Dad was on the order picker. This is a forklift that raises you up on a pallet to collect product off of higher racking. He didn’t have his safety harness on and he fell through the pallet about 10′ above ground. He managed to grab the handle where the horn is located.

We were in the break room enjoying coffee, and a Navy Veteran who worked for us at the time Seok Lee (Tommy’s brother in law) thought he heard what sounded like was S.O.S. We thought he was crazy, but he was persistent with telling us what he thought he heard was the signal for S.O.S. So all went out in the warehouse to investigate and sure enough Dad is hanging by one arm and entire body through the pallet. He tore his shoulder and needed corrective surgery but he would eventually have a full recovery. After that day, we decided Mom and Dad should try and enjoy their retirement and we need to fight even harder to make this company work.
Overall, Id say our struggles stemmed from not having money. We enjoyed great growth but you must fuel to fuel that fire.

Today we have worked passed that. We have a large line of credit with our bank that helps offset financial bumps in the road.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Coda Coffee Company – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
I learned a lot from the roaster I worked at in the Northwest. They taught me the value of customer service. Customer service is extremely important to us and is one of the pillars of Coda Coffee. Some other things that Tommy and I just cared about in life were great environmental responsibility and great social responsibility.

On the environmental side, we have one of the world’s first eco-friendly roasters. Similar design to a modern-day Loring Smart Roast. We offset our power usage with wind credits at both plants. We have an advanced composting and recycling program that reduces our waste by 75%. We offer customers “bag free” coffee where we will drop off empty bins and refill them on deliveries. We donate burlap sacks that coffee comes into local nurseries. We are one of the only roasters in the world to take a waste product from the US and sell it as an organic fertilizer to a coffee-growing community. Although unsuccessful, I have traveled to a coffee-growing community to present a project on biodigestion via coffee pulp. We offset our airline travels with carbon credits.

On the Social side of things, we are all about traveling to and working with coffee-growing communities. The fundamental idea is to help a coffee-growing community start a quality control program so they can improve quality, we got awesome coffee, and they get at much higher premium for their coffee. We are typically introduced to a community via Atlas Coffee Importers, but not in all cases. Through this process, we’ve really helped a lot of people. In 2006 we were one of a few roasters that helped build 80 homes with electricity and running water, a road to their community, a school, and a church in the A’achimbal community in Guatemala.

One of our key coffee producers is the Monserrate community in Colombia. The Monserrate community used to grow Koka for cocaine production, and poppy seeds for opioid production. I had an opportunity to travel there in 2008 and offer our assurance that if they grew coffee Coda, we are there to buy it at a premium. Coda buys the majority of their coffee produced to this day. We’ve held a kegger to buy a cupping lab for community in Brazil. We’ve done a “Men of Coda” sexy calendar to raise money for a school in El Salvador. There are countless incidents where we have gotten creative with fundraising. All in the name of social responsibility and to create amazing coffee.

Our Social practices reach out locally as well. We partner with Chanda Foundation. A wonderful program that provides a clinic for those that cannot walks on their own. We provide free welcome kits to each individual at Chanda Foundation as well as free coffee and iced tea for the facility. We provide free coffee to Project Sanctuary, a sanctuary for veterans that have been stricken with numerous war ailments, mainly PTSD. We are a sponsor of Girls on the run 5k, Jodies Race, and The Great Candy Run all that help benefit many charities. Our newest endeavor is planting trees. Last year Coda Coffee paid to plant 25,000 trees to help offset global warming.

What is the most important take away from all of this is we are a certified B Corporation. B Lab is a nonprofit that audits for profit businesses (in this case Coda Coffee) to ensure that they use their business to better the world first and foremost before profits but understands that in order to remain sustainable as a business you must be profitable. Essentially B Lab ensures that what I am telling you is true.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Plans for the future are to grow Coda. We need better distribution across the US to service big business sich as C-stores, large restaurant chains, hotels… We would like to cover more healthcare for our employees. Currently its only 50%. We recently started a 401k program. We would like to be able to match what employees put in. We would like to increase sales in home-delivered coffee.

Pricing:

  • $30 for two bags of coffee delivered to your door
  • $9.25/lb and $9.95/lb for wholesale customers

Contact Info:


Image Credit:
The coffee roaster picture and the other warehouse picture is courtesy of Mark Piscotty (middle 2 images)
The smiling faces in the warehouse and front desk are courtesy of Tia Curan (top 4)
The rest are on our own cell phones (group photo at coffee fest, and me next to Chanda Hinton at Chanda Plan

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