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Brewing An Empire: Rohan Marley On Building His Sustainable Coffee Brand

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Rohan Marley, one of the son's of the late Bob Marley and a former football player, isn't shy about promoting his entrepreneurial efforts to FORBES. In 2009, he launched his own coffee brand, Marley Coffee, that sources from Jamaica and Ethiopia, and in 2012, he started an eco-friendly electronics company, The House of Marley.

Recently, Marley Coffee has attracted some media attention due to high increases in volume up from $1.8 million in 2012 to $6 million in 2013 and with projections for $10 million this year. They're also boasting a partnership with Mother Parkers that's aligned them to be the first brand name coffee in a recyclable, single-serve capsule and a deal with Bevyz to start distributing cold brew coffee.

I spoke with founder Rohan Marley and CEO Brent Toevs to find out why and how they've been able to enter these new markets and get their product to stand out among the competition. Is it truly just about a name?

Kerry Flynn: What was your mission when you first started out, and have you stuck with that?

Rohan Marley: To create opportunities for the community and do something as an entrepreneur that creates a sustainable movement of something that can outlast a generation. We started Marley Coffee from a farm perspective and ever since we’ve been doing things in a sustainable way and organically.

Brent Toevs: When I saw Marley Coffee and met with Ro to listen to his vision, having worked with many of the large brands that are out there in the coffee and beverage sector, I really thought this was a brand that could make a difference. Instead of worrying about this year’s crops, we’re going to worry about it 10 years now, 20 years from now.

Flynn: If you wanted to prioritize sustainability, why offer single-serve k-cups?

Toevs: To change the game, you have to be in the game. We chose to get into the single-serve business with a company that had a real strategy for change. Not a blueprint for 2020. Mother Parkers told us within 2 years we will have your brand with the first recyclable k-cups.

Flynn: But when it came to partnering with this company, how could you trust them? What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs looking to partner up?

Toevs: Do your research. Decide who are you as a company and what your goals are. Every company has to generate revenues and be profitable. There’s an easy path, a hard path, and a lot of paths in between. Pick your partners based on how you can stay true to yourself. And if we wanted to walk away, we could have, but we were committed to what they were doing and vice versa.

Marley: For all the people we work with, we develop the relationship over time. Many people have visited our office, but Mother Parkers took the time to visit Jamaica, our farm. They’re a 100-year-old company, and we’re just starting out. We’re connecting our legacy and their legacy. That’s what we saw with each other — the trust level and being emotionally connected.

Flynn: I saw that you moved your headquarters from California to Denver. Why Colorado?

Toevs: We knew we needed a base in North America. We had a few people working remotely, but for efficiency, there’s nothing like sitting in the same room and brainstorming and talking. We looked at South Florida (Ro’s family is based there), NYC (Ro’s residence), and southern California (the market where we moved more product than anywhere else). Then we looked at Denver. It’s the whole center of organic and sustainability. People here live and breathe that. We started taking market factors into consideration: quality of life, cost of living. Denver is a main hub for a couple of airlines, so we could get anywhere direct, and with all the universities, there’s so much talent. The consumer is here and the business community here has thrown their support in this company.

Flynn: You’ve aligned yourself with a lot of sponsors in Denver. How do you choose who to work with?

Toevs: As a small brand you have to be really careful. We’re not a big brand, yet. We have to go to partners and work out terms that economically make sense for the marketing that you’re going to get out, and you also have to be able to leverage that relationship into dollars. Whether it’s access to their corporate partners or their fan base or do things that are way out of the box that introduce our product. With the name Marley, so many people approach us. Ro, how many people do you talk to?

Marley: I think if it wasn’t for Brent, I’d be talking all day. It has to be at least 50 a day. I get so many emails. Everyone wants to do business. Everyone wants to open up a coffee shop.

Toevs: All of those people that speak to Ro, they believe they’ll be good for the brand. What we’ve learned is how to say no. You can never burn a bridge. Everybody that we’ve said no to, we still listen to. They think, “Oh they’ve listened to us, and we’ve had ideas, and we might be able to come back to it.” People are offering you up great deals. You have to respectfully say no, and stay focused. What is your core business and champion that.

Flynn: So what roles and responsibility do each of you have? Where does Rohan fit into running the company?

Toevs: Ro is the visionary of the company. Everything comes from Ro in terms of what are our ethics and who do we want to be, what’s our sustainability message and where do the products fit. And for Anh Tran, he’s the president of the company. He answers, “What do we want to be when we grow up?” It’s all about hiring the right people and hiring people who are smarter than you. We have phenomenal support staff here that support that grocery side of the business. And we have great distribution partners. It’s all about you knowing where you want to get and in the end you know how many people are going to be needed. You almost have that fictitious organizational chart. As you start growing you just start plugging in those positions.

Flynn: What’s next for Marley Coffee?

Toevs: We want to lead that sustainability movement. Every coffee brand is trying to say that. Every brand is taking the easy road… If we can get that entry barrier lowered by staying independent and teaming up with equipment manufacturers, we can really make an impact.

Flynn: Let’s take a step back. What about the coffee itself? What makes Marley Coffee so good?

Toevs: Sometimes we forget about that. There’s a lot of great coffees out there. What I’ve always told our sales people, and I guarantee this to Ro, if people go in and do a blind taste test you’re going to win 9 out of 10 times. It holds true. If you look at singleservecoffee.com, our coffees got rated 98, 99, 100. We’re proud of that. A lot of athletes love the brand. Rohan played for the University of Miami and his teammates were Ray Lewis and “The Rock.” I don’t know if Lewis has any other clothes besides a Marley Coffee t-shirt right now.

Flynn: Do you think a lot of that success is from Ro himself and the name?

Toevs: With Ro being our ambassador, it’s a real nice advantage, but even with brands that I’ve worked with, it’s all about the relationships you create. It doesn’t have to be a celebrity. It can be a distributor for the town that you’re working with. We have some independent retailers up in the Toronto market. These guys took chances on our brand. We keep paying that back as much as we can. It’s about developing great relationships that are going to be win-win.

Flynn: Rohan, what would you say your biggest success has been so far with this business?

Marley: Meeting Brent and Ahn and the partnership we’ve developed with Mother Parkers. Seeing the passion with how they live and meeting the families. The team that we’ve created has been so successful. Without the team, without the people who really believe in who they are as human beings, you can’t succeed.