Success Story - Coastal Coffee

Coastal Coffee: Starter Company Plus Success Story

Coastal Coffee is on a mission to bring the best specialty coffee the world has to offer to Ontario’s West Coast. Partnering with global coffee farmers who produce the highest quality of premium, specialty coffee, Coastal Coffee is a small batch roastery located on the shores of Lake Huron, near Amberly. Proudly offering crazy fresh, ethically sourced and artisan roasted coffee, Ben and Bri Gingerich offer their customers “the good stuff.”

Ben and Bri discovered a new innovative single-use product at a food show in New York and fell in love with it. “For the first time, we found a single-use coffee design that was eco-friendly and matched the specialty level of our brand.” The couple was really excited about the potential to expand their coffee offerings beyond the whole bean market and they realized that this expansion would fit under the umbrella of the Starter Company Plus program. “The technology is not new, it’s from Japan, but it’s new to the Candian market. We’re the first coffee roasters in our network to be launching this product.”

“I found out about the Starter Company Plus program by attending one of the events put on by Huron County Economic Development. I had no idea that it was a program that I could apply to because we were an established business. Essentially, the staff looked into it and they learned that we would qualify because we wanted to launch a new product,” said Ben.

Ben went through the program and pitched to launch a new product called The Traveller. “We were really excited about launching a new single-use product that aligned with our commitment to exceptional coffee and environmentally sustainable practices. The Traveller is a way for our customers to enjoy a crazy fresh cup of coffee anywhere. It’s perfect for camping, hiking, hotel rooms, office coffee, or a simple coffee at home. And It’s compostable, easy to use and brews a high-quality cup of coffee that our customers are used to.”

After learning about the grant program, Ben participated in the virtual training and coaching. “They were excellent – it was time well spent taking the courses provided by the Huron County Economic Development. They covered different elements of launching a new product, looking at marketing and sales and everything that goes into a business plan,” stated Ben.

Ben emphasized the importance of the business plan for launching a new product. “It helps you prioritize the parts that are important and to work the numbers. It can be common that entrepreneurs don’t want to spend a lot of time on the process, but it’s really important to understand if your idea is going to work, before you go and do it.”

The Traveller is now available through Coastal Coffee and local retailers. Shop online, explore the curated coffee collection and learn more at coastalcoffeecompany.ca/. The Coastal Coffee Roastery is open Saturday mornings – stop by for some crazy fresh, ethically sourced and artisan roasted coffee.

To learn more about the Starter Company Plus program, please click here.