One of North America's best-known green coffee importers has changed hands — to its own staff. According to Daily Coffee News, Minneapolis-based Cafe Imports is now 100% employee-owned through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), a federally regulated US retirement vehicle in which eligible employees accumulate company shares in their retirement accounts.
The company's story began in 1993, when founder Andrew Miller brought a container of coffee from a Brazilian friend's family farm to Minneapolis. It has since grown to 68 employees across four offices, with team members from 17 countries and regions, and became a certified B Corp in 2023 — the same year it launched its ed+u coffee education platform. Miller said his main priority was to preserve the integrity of what he had spent most of his life building, and that employee ownership lets the company stay independent over the long term.
The transition comes at a difficult moment for the coffee trade, marked by the bankruptcies of Mercon Coffee Group and Brazilian traders Atlantica and Cafebras. The valuation, financial terms, eligibility rules and share allocation were not disclosed.
Source: Daily Coffee News