SPECIALTY COFFEE ROASTING BUSINESS PLAN

I. Executive Summary

Company Description

High Peak Roasters takes its name from the peak-freshness promise: beans roasted to order at the top of flavor. We operate in the specialty coffee sector as a small-batch commercial roastery launching in 2026 in the United States. We sell single-origin, ethically sourced green beans roasted to order for direct-to-consumer subscription and one-off e-commerce sales, and we supply a wholesale program serving cafés and hotels. We roast in a specialized facility using commercial-grade equipment, quality-control protocols, and traceable sourcing documentation to ensure consistency and transparency. One-liner: Peak-fresh coffee, roasted to order and tracked from farm to cup.

Core activities include sourcing contracts with origin farms, cupping and QC, small-batch roasting on demand, subscription fulfillment, wholesale account management, and B2B training for partner staff. What sets us apart is Peak Freshness: a roast-to-ship cadence that reduces staling, vertical traceability, and a white-glove wholesale onboarding process. Target customers are urban, quality-focused coffee drinkers aged 25–45 and independent boutique cafés and boutique hotels that prioritize guest experience. Short-term goals: achieve breakeven within 12 months, 2,500 active DTC subscribers, and 30 wholesale accounts by month 18. Long-term goals: expand regional distribution, launch a flagship café wholesale training center by year 3, and reach $5M ARR by year 5. One-liner: Freshness, transparency, and curated service drive growth and retention.

Problem

Most U.S. retail coffee is roasted for shelf life, not flavor, so consumers receive beans that are stale, over-roasted, and lack origin or harvest information. Discerning drinkers and specialty cafes cannot reliably find accessible, fresh, single-origin coffee that showcases bright, nuanced profiles.

Customers face five clear pain points: stale flavor instead of bright aroma, unknown origin or harvest, over-roasted bitter profiles, missed peak-freshness windows, and weak ethical sourcing transparency. Existing mass-market suppliers and many roasters do not solve these simultaneously at scale.

One line: Consumers and specialty buyers lack accessible, traceable, peak-freshness specialty coffee that preserves flavor and ethical transparency.

Solution

Fresh, traceable single-origin coffee roasted in small batches to deliver noticeably better taste and verified ethics. We source lots from cooperative exporters, roast each lot to preserve its unique profile, label roast date and lot traceability, and ship direct to consumers and wholesale partners to minimize days-to-consumer—giving home brewers a premium, transparent alternative to stale supermarket beans and costly specialty shops.

Mission Statement

We elevate the daily coffee ritual by delivering peak freshness and exceptional flavor through artisanal roasting and ethically sourced beans. We connect U.S. brewers with the stories behind micro-lot coffees while maintaining transparent quality standards and sustainable practices that benefit farmers and the environment. We make the finest micro-lot coffees accessible to discerning home and specialty brewers across the United States.

Key Success Factors

One clear line: delivering peak freshness, exclusive beans, and disciplined economics drives our success.

• Roasted-to-order fulfillment — maintain strict cycle to guarantee peak freshness for customers.
• Exclusive green-bean contracts — secure high-scoring lots to keep product unique and defensible.
• Feb 2026 breakeven target — hit breakeven in February 2026 to preserve runway and fund growth.
• Digital marketing at 4.0–6.0% commission — maintain commission structure to acquire customers cost-effectively.
• Head Roaster quality control — sustain product consistency across 115,000 units by 2030.

Financial Summary

Brief financial snapshot: first-year launch in 2026 with rapid scale to Year 5 and positive cash metrics.

Financial requirements: minimum cash of $1,128,000 with breakeven targeted in Feb-26 (month 2) and full payback in 18 months; investors should expect the stated ROE 3.44% and IRR 0.1%.

Overall outlook: revenues and EBITDA scale strongly from 2026 to 2028, supporting fast payback and continued growth.

Funding Requirements

We require $1,510,000 in founder equity and specialty loans to buy equipment, build the website, fund Year‑1 payroll, cover lease, and hold a minimum cash balance of $1,128,000 by Feb‑2026.

Projected 2026 launch: 28,000 units, EBITDA $179,000; scale to 115,000 units by Year 5 and EBITDA $1,464,000 by 2030; breakeven in 2 months and full payback in 18 months; ROE 3.44 and IRR 0.1%.