Bellwether Coffee has launched its latest impact program, Roast Accelerator, which offers minority-owned coffee retailers a Bellwether Roaster with no start-up costs, subsidised financing, and full access to support services.
“We are beyond excited to announce the launch of Bellwether’s Roast Accelerator that aims to lower many common barriers to entry for the coffee industry,” said Ricardo Lopez, Founder and CEO of Bellwether.
“We designed the program with the understanding that not all small business owners have the same opportunities when starting a business and believe that empowering diverse communities to sustainably source and roast their own coffee will create positive change for the entire coffee industry.”
Through its Roast Accelerator program, Bellwether says it’s committed to creating a more sustainable, accessible, and equitable coffee industry by empowering businesses that typically experience barriers to capital and infrastructure to be able to roast their own coffee in-house.
The company says roasting on a Bellwether can reduce a business’s carbon footprint from roasting by 87 per cent and save them 30-50 percent on coffee costs compared to wholesale.
The program’s first recipient, Mir Marshall, Owner and Coffee Director at Verb Coffee Roasters, runs a small batch coffee roasting company in Atlanta, and will receive a Bellwether Roaster that will be installed with zero upfront costs and a subsidised monthly rental rate for the first year.
“To be the first-ever winner of Bellwether’s Roast Accelerator is huge and is changing everything for us,” says Marshall.
“It’s a game changer to have a roaster with a larger capacity and that I don’t have to go through a bunch of crazy financing to get.”
Bellwether Coffee’s second round of applications is currently open to small business coffee retailers, specifically located in the San Francisco Bay Area, who are looking to grow their business through roasting and will continue to open applications for various metro areas throughout the year.
Businesses must have been in business for a minimum of 1 year and must be minority-owned to be eligible.
To learn more about the Bellwether Roast Accelerator, visit www.bellwethercoffee.com/roast-accelerator-program/.
