Exploradora Coffee | Application Preview
Exploradora Coffee is seeking government funding to support its new roasting and cold brew operation in Oxford, Mississippi. The funds will be allocated toward two years of rent for a facility, purchasing green coffee beans, packaging materials, and essential equipment such as espresso machines, coffee brewers, and grinders. Exploradora aims to establish a public roastery to allow customers to buy coffee in person and expand into a retail operation with a coffee shop. The business intends to grow wholesale accounts, targeting local restaurants and corporate buildings in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, while also selling coffee in grocery stores like Whole Foods.
The company, owned by a mother-daughter duo, specializes in sourcing coffee from women co-ops to ensure equitable treatment for female producers in male-dominated regions. They have a strong track record of partnership and community impact, donating a portion of sales to support low-income families in Mississippi through the nonprofit Springboard to Opportunities. With over 15 years of experience from a successful coffee business in Arizona, the family aims to replicate that success in Mississippi, creating jobs and enhancing the local economy.
Exploradora's competitive edge lies in its wholesale focus compared to local competitors, which primarily operate retail coffee shops. Their expertise in coffee roasting, particularly medium roasts tailored for restaurants, differentiates them in the market. Moreover, their mission-driven approach attracts consumers who value empowerment and sustainability in their purchasing decisions.
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General Information
Business Registration Number: EIN 85-2323657
Location: Water Valley, MS, United States
Length of Operation: 1-5
Number of Employees: 1-10 Employees
Annual Gross Income: Less than $100k
Annual Gross Expense: Less than $100k
Open to Loans: YES
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Funding Usage
Exploradora would like to pay for 2 years of rent on a building in Oxford, Mississippi to bring our roasting and cold brew operation in-house. We will also use funding to purchase green coffee beans to roast, as well as for all of our packaging for coffee beans and cold brew cans. For our new building we would also like to purchase an espresso machine to offer coffee to visitors, as well as BUNN Coffee and Tea Brewers, and Mazzer Coffee Grinders (preferably a few grinders on hand for restaurant customers to use on loan). Bringing our cold brew coffee operation to Mississippi would also mean purchasing a cold brew container along with kegorators that we fill the cold brew in.
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Business Plan
We plan to open up a roastery in Oxford, MS and make it open to the public so people can buy our coffee in person as opposed to solely online. We are also in the process of discussing opening a small coffee shop with a window to build a retail operation which would double our income presently. We also plan to grow our wholesale accounts - tapping into local restaurant markets across Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama. A typical wholesale account purchases 25-100lbs of coffee per week. We also will increase our selling operation into more corporate buildings. We currently supply coffee for Hewlett-Packard's headquarters and have distributors working on growing additional corporate office accounts. We will also be selling our 10oz coffee bags in grocery stores such as Whole Foods. Exploradora offers a new story to coffee. We are a mother-daughter owned coffee roasting company that exclusively sources our coffees from various women co-ops. We source this way to ensure equitable treatment and payment to women at coffee origin, which are countries that are traditionally male-dominated. We have strong relationships with every coffee producer we work with across the globe. We are known in the coffee industry as excellent partners given our investment in uplifting women across coffee origin. Additionally, we donate $1 of every coffee bag sold to Springboard to Opportunities, a nonprofit based in Mississippi that provides guaranteed income to mothers living in affordable housing. Our mission is clear: empowering women from coffee country to main street America. The backstory is that my step-dad ran a wholesale coffee operation in the Arizona market (Roastery of Cave Creek), roasting for James Beard award winning chefs and routinely winning awards for best coffee in the Phoenix Valley. My mom and I have spent the last 15+ years learning the ins and outs of the business, and now moving back home to Mississippi, we would like to bring our own operation to the Mississippi market. Having worked in Oxford restaurants I have strong relationships across the market and interest from owners of restaurants to bring quality coffee to their businesses. We also have relationships across the coffee industry, including large-scale distributors, who are committed to growing our brand across the southeast through corporate accounts. With our 15+ years of expertise in running a large scale coffee operation in Arizona, our goal is to bring the same quality and expertise to Mississippi, creating more jobs and coffee roasting experts in Mississippi. Our ability to grow our business provides more purchasing power so that we can commit to more women coffee producers and create a more sustainable coffee supply chain. Likewise, we will have the ability to donate more from our purchases to Springboard to Opportunities, thus providing more financial empowerment for low-income families in Mississippi.
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Self Identified Competition
The two main competitors in the Oxford, MS market are Heartbreak Coffee and Highpoint Coffee. Comparing Exploradora to what is presently in the Oxford market is that Heartbreak Coffee and Highpoint Coffee are predominately invested in their own retail coffee shops. Instead, Exploradora is a wholesale operation providing quality coffee to restaurants, other cafes not roasting their own coffee, and corporate offices. Exploradora's collective expertise in coffee roasting and cold brew coffee also spans 15+ years and the present market in Oxford does not have a large-scale cold brew coffee operation. To be even more coffee specific, Exploradora's coffee flavor profiles are more suited for restaurants than our competitors. For example, Exploradora roasts our coffees for restaurants primarily to medium roasts. Presently in the Oxford market our competitors are roasting on a lighter scale or too dark of a scale. Exploradora is also a mission-driven organization with empowerment at the core of the business. Consumers are drawn to our company given this aspect.
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Contact Applicant
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