The protests over racial injustice have caused many consumers to turn their support to Black-owned businesses all across the nation. A Black-owned coffee company has been receiving an increase in sales as of late. Russell Wiggins owns Russell’s Gourmet Coffee and has expanded his company to several types of coffee according to Black Enterprise.
Wiggins wanted to start his brand after seeing a lack of diversity within the industry.
“I [realized] there were no Black-owned coffee companies going after beverage service contracts. We were mostly in technology, janitorial, or security. So I teamed up with a couple of my business friends to start a coffee company in San Francisco, California, to compete for corporate and federal contracts,” Wiggins said in an interview with Shoppe Black. “This led me to learn so much more about the coffee industry, the beans, and the business. As a result, I became fascinated with the entire industry and I was hooked after that.”
The company has seen a large spike in sales in the last couple of weeks due to people calling to support Black-owned businesses. The recent incident with Starbucks employees being denied the opportunity to wear Black Lives Matter apparel brought even more sales to Russell’s Gourmet Coffee.
“Our site crashed for nearly an hour after Starbucks denied their employees from wearing any BLM paraphernalia in their stores,” continued Wiggins. “People were outraged and looking for another alternative. That was Russell’s Gourmet Coffee….Media exposure has been a huge help for the brand as well.”
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