Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick takes Tim Stinovich from Bloomberg Radio. New and Coffee
Speaker 1: It was founded by and is led by a first
Speaker 1: generation Vietnamese American. She's the daughter of refugees, and it
Speaker 1: is based in Brooklyn and appropriately so. Joining us on
Speaker 1: National Coffee Day is the founder and CEO of New
Speaker 1: And Coffee Supply. She's Sarah Newin. She's also an award
Speaker 1: winning documentary filmmaker, co founder of Lucy's Vietnamese Kitchen, aighten
Speaker 1: Google next Gen Tech policy leader, and yes, I feel
Speaker 1: like a slug in comparison Tim Well. Sarah Newin joins
Speaker 1: us now founder and CEO of New Win Coffee Supply,
Speaker 1: among the many other titles impress. Hey, what are you
Speaker 1: doing to celebrate Sarah National Coffee Day? Um? I'm having
Speaker 1: coffee and all my favorite brew, methanics. Is that different?
Speaker 1: Is that different than a normal day? Just so we know?
Speaker 1: Six cups? Um, it's just one more, Okay, just one more. Hey, listen,
Speaker 1: you have a great story. We have some time and
Speaker 1: we'd love to dig into a little bit of your background.
Speaker 1: Tell us you know about what moves and motivates you
Speaker 1: and got you to create this company because you've done
Speaker 1: different things along the way. Yeah, you know. You know
Speaker 1: when I discovered that Vietnam was the second largest producer
Speaker 1: of costing the world, this really blew my mind because
Speaker 1: I had no idea, and as a Vietnamese person, I
Speaker 1: was like, why don't I know this? And I realized
Speaker 1: it's because the lack of transparency. And so for myself,
Speaker 1: as the first generation Asian American, I've felt oftentimes really invisible, underrepresented,
Speaker 1: which is why I spent so much of my career
Speaker 1: in filmmaking and increasing representation for our stories. And so
Speaker 1: in a similar way, I felt like Vietnmese coffee the
Speaker 1: more importantly, Vietmese producers and communities have been rendered invisible
Speaker 1: in the coffee conversation as well, which led me to
Speaker 1: really carving out my own supply chain and bring invisibility
Speaker 1: to um to Vietnam as the second large producer and
Speaker 1: starting to win Contec supply. So what's different about Vietnamese coffee?
Speaker 1: Because I'm looking at your website and not all coffee
Speaker 1: of course, depending on where it was grown? Is created? Equal?
Speaker 1: Is correct? Is correct? Well? I stay for startusts um.
Speaker 1: It comes down to the variety. So the number one
Speaker 1: coffee variety that's grown and produced in Vietnam is the
Speaker 1: roebooster bene, which is a very very special bean. It's
Speaker 1: our beloved roboosta and in the in the conquer world,
Speaker 1: there are two main varieties are rabica and Robusta. And
Speaker 1: Roboosta beans have double the caffeine content and sixty percent
Speaker 1: less fast and sugars. And because it has such a
Speaker 1: high caffeine content there actually it actually acts as a
Speaker 1: natural pest repellent. And so it gets its name robust
Speaker 1: because it grows very robustly. And so in Vietnam is
Speaker 1: also the number one producer or roeboost of coffee beans.
Speaker 1: It's its entire coffee production. So that is i'd say
Speaker 1: the number one specialty um of the coffee is the
Speaker 1: bean itself. And how it says different and it's highly caffeinated.
Speaker 1: It sounds like you have a lot of caffeine. We're
Speaker 1: saying that with love because I'm someone who's been like
Speaker 1: bouncing off the walls a little bit today, probably because
Speaker 1: of a lot of sleep in a little bit of caffeine. Um,
Speaker 1: How easy was it to do? Because you know you're
Speaker 1: you're going up against coffee is a funny market. You've
Speaker 1: got Starbucks dominating, You've got Duncan doughnuts, and then you
Speaker 1: have lots of little coffee makers. Certainly, if you look
Speaker 1: at a city like New York or Chicago or San Francisco,
Speaker 1: how do you compete? How do you stand out? How
Speaker 1: tough is it? Yeah? Well, I'd say logistically when I
Speaker 1: was first, you know, starting to build a business and
Speaker 1: learning how to impore and learning how to roll to
Speaker 1: just figure out like all the things are on FDA
Speaker 1: and like importing and launching a company like that part
Speaker 1: was quite typical because I had their experience in the industry.
Speaker 1: But in terms of standing out, honestly, I feel like
Speaker 1: it's actually really easy because as crowded as a coffee
Speaker 1: market feels, actually there's literally no one else offering a
Speaker 1: single origin Vietnamese roboosta coffee, right, And it was because
Speaker 1: like we we pride ourselves and being a direct trade importer,
Speaker 1: because no one else was offering this, and I couldn't
Speaker 1: even buy single or digging these coffee from a green
Speaker 1: bean buy or importer because no one was paying attention
Speaker 1: to Vietnam as especialty coffee producer. Right, so where do
Speaker 1: where do Vietnamese beans usually go? Um? Well? Actually, interestingly enough,
Speaker 1: the top two import is the venice coffee beans are Germany,
Speaker 1: United States and Italy. Right, However, it's often being pushed
Speaker 1: into you know, non discrete blends or maybe instant coffee products,
Speaker 1: and so a lot of people aren't aware that they're
Speaker 1: drinking Vietnamese coffee already. What about when it comes to
Speaker 1: brew methods here, because you said that you are celebrating
Speaker 1: National Coffee Day by doing different brew methods. And one
Speaker 1: thing that you can buy from new in Coffee supply
Speaker 1: is the fin filter collection. How how is that explain
Speaker 1: how that coffee is brewed? Yeah? So okay, so I
Speaker 1: can describe that things feel the filter has. Imagine if
Speaker 1: the V sixty pore over and the French press had
Speaker 1: a baby. Okay, So I know what those things are
Speaker 1: because I'm a big I'm a big coffee fan, So
Speaker 1: I know that the har O V sixty is a
Speaker 1: pour over. So you put a filter in and put
Speaker 1: your put your grinds on top, and it makes a
Speaker 1: single cop Just for to explain, right, and then the
Speaker 1: French press, of course, is the pot you can make
Speaker 1: for you know, a few people, and it's like a
Speaker 1: courser ground. Yeah. The freen selter is like right in
Speaker 1: the middle. It's a stainless steel brew tool where you
Speaker 1: put the cloth be inside the brew chamber and it
Speaker 1: sits right on top of a cup of coffee. He
Speaker 1: has a poor of experience, a like of V sixty.
Speaker 1: And it's also a grab extraction, so it's dripping into
Speaker 1: your cup. However, you also get the full immersion like
Speaker 1: a French press, and it's a little bit there's a
Speaker 1: little peep that goes inside called the Grady press, very
Speaker 1: similar to the French press, because you know, the friend
Speaker 1: of the France. The French colonized Vietnam for many years,
Speaker 1: so there's a lot of French influences. Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 1: I think, um, Tim see some buying in his future.
Speaker 1: Do I don't have this brewing that at home yet,
Speaker 1: it's like the only one missing. Do you sell? We're
Speaker 1: gonna do some news in a moment, but before we go,
Speaker 1: uh and then bring you back, we've got about thirty seconds.
Speaker 1: Do you sell? Also into the commercial space, restaurants and
Speaker 1: so on. Yeah, So we're currently about four percent director
Speaker 1: consumer in sixteen whole scale. So we do have some
Speaker 1: restaurant cafe partners across the country and also some retail
Speaker 1: grocery super partners in New York City. All right, sit tight,
Speaker 1: we're gonna do a little bit of news. Have another
Speaker 1: cup of coffee. No, don't, don't, don't, don't don't of coffee.
Speaker 1: Maybe we'll have a cup of coffee. We're gonna come
Speaker 1: back with Sarah new And she's founder and CEO of
Speaker 1: New and Coffee Supply. She's really had an interesting life
Speaker 1: so far and her company based over there in Brooklyn. Hey.
Speaker 1: One thing I want to talk about, which we talked
Speaker 1: about this week, was how does she deal with the
Speaker 1: fluctuating costs of coffee beans right and supply chains right now.
Speaker 1: I'm really curious about the costs to exactly. So we'll we'll,
Speaker 1: I don't know, we'll find out. I feel like people
Speaker 1: will pay a lot of money for a cup of coffee.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm you're addictive. I'm good with the Bloomberg
Speaker 1: coffee upstairs. I gotta have something before I get out
Speaker 1: of bed. Basically, I can't get off the door with
Speaker 1: our coffee. All right, we'll come back with her in
Speaker 1: just a moment. Carol mass So, Tim Sdanevik. We are
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio. Let's get back to our guest, Sarah new
Speaker 1: And she's founder and CEO at New and Coffee Supply,
Speaker 1: still with us on the phone from Brooklyn, as we mentioned,
Speaker 1: a ten Google next Gen tech policy leader and award
Speaker 1: winning documentary filmmaker. So let's get to it, Sarah um
Speaker 1: Tim brought it up. We talked so much with heads
Speaker 1: of companies, uh, leaders of institutions. We're talking about supply chain,
Speaker 1: managing mint and the bottlenecks. What are you seeing specifically
Speaker 1: and then has to do with getting your coffee beans
Speaker 1: but also workforce and let's talk about beans first. Can
Speaker 1: you get everything you need? And does it cost more
Speaker 1: or less? Yeah? So at this I'm sure we're able
Speaker 1: to get everything we need and candidly, our prices have
Speaker 1: not changed because a lot of the price fluctuations that
Speaker 1: we're hearing about the news is really related to Arabic
Speaker 1: of farms UM that in like South America and whereas
Speaker 1: yet now because their primary production is ROBUSA, we haven't
Speaker 1: been affected yet. You haven't, But when it comes to actually,
Speaker 1: when it comes to supply chain and freight, freight has
Speaker 1: just been abysmal. Yes, okay, so so just because you
Speaker 1: mentioned Arabica beans, they sort over a six day stretch
Speaker 1: in late July. We talked about this yesterday with our
Speaker 1: Big take talking about Brazil. So what about when it
Speaker 1: comes to shipping. We checked in earlier this week with
Speaker 1: I'd love though he was at the port of Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: Dozens of ships just stuck there. Um, yeah, how much
Speaker 1: is it costing you to to to get your beans? Yeah,
Speaker 1: shipping has been horrible, It has been stupid. Back from Congesta,
Speaker 1: I say, the cost of shipping for us we're getting
Speaker 1: container has quadrupled, um, and and we're super backed up. However,
Speaker 1: we've been preparing for this, so we've just been calling
Speaker 1: our orders way away in evance. So we haven't run
Speaker 1: into any inventory issues yet fortunately. Okay, if the cost
Speaker 1: is quadrupled, have you had to raise the price of
Speaker 1: your being of your beans when you sell them to suppliers,
Speaker 1: when you sell them the consumers as a result. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so yeah, we have not raised the prices of beings yet. Um,
Speaker 1: we're trying to see what we can do to hold off. However, UM,
Speaker 1: we may we consider once we engage the income and
Speaker 1: container with the extra cost. What about workforce? Can you
Speaker 1: get everybody you need or you're having to pay up
Speaker 1: um for those employees. I'm not quite sure how big
Speaker 1: your company is and how many workers you've got. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so our company is currently five full time and it
Speaker 1: will also have about eight part time people in production. UM.
Speaker 1: Workforce is challenging this UM. You know, always had to
Speaker 1: turn over and it is. It's like a workers market
Speaker 1: right now in New York City. UM, But fortunately we
Speaker 1: haven't had too many challenges there, meaning you haven't had
Speaker 1: to raise wages or you have not had trouble getting
Speaker 1: talent or holding onto them. Yeah, we haven't had trouble
Speaker 1: getting talent. We do have to hire, but we've raised
Speaker 1: we raised wages just out of our own principle. We
Speaker 1: want to just compensate people better. So you've raised wages
Speaker 1: and shipping costs have gone up, but you haven't raised
Speaker 1: the price of coffee yet. We have not yet. So
Speaker 1: you're just eating this, Yes, we are eating this right now.
Speaker 1: How much longer can you do? That? Great question? I
Speaker 1: believe when the new container comes in we're gonna have
Speaker 1: to take a serious look at how the cord Duople
Speaker 1: defector free is going to affect the bottom line, and
Speaker 1: we're going to try to hold off as long as
Speaker 1: we can for our consumers. Um, but our next container
Speaker 1: will be arriving in Q four. Actually does it come
Speaker 1: into just because we're all in a shipping mindset, right,
Speaker 1: it's not waiting off the port of l A. I'm
Speaker 1: guessing it's coming into New York ten months to meet
Speaker 1: the container in New work and correct, Yes, in New York. Um. Hey, listen,
Speaker 1: just got about a minute or so left. We know
Speaker 1: it's been an interesting rough couple of years between the pandemic,
Speaker 1: between what happened with George Floyd and other black Americans. UM.
Speaker 1: As an Asian American, a Vietnamese American female entrepreneur, how
Speaker 1: easy has it been for you in your path? I
Speaker 1: love that framing, Carol Um, because often people framing the
Speaker 1: negative way it's been. It's always a challenge, i'd say,
Speaker 1: you know, being an Asian American woman in business, Um,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of hurdles that I have to
Speaker 1: work through, a lot of perceptions and biases that I
Speaker 1: have to really challenge Um, it's challenging, but honestly, I
Speaker 1: would say that the support of the community in our
Speaker 1: customers just really keeps me going. Um, people haven't really
Speaker 1: open to a shifting narrative around Vietnamese coffee. I think
Speaker 1: one just related to the ticken anti Asian violence. Right.
Speaker 1: This idea of the valuing Asian lives is actually related
Speaker 1: to how people devalue Asian food and culture very often,
Speaker 1: and it relates to people the value Vietnamese coffee, right. Um,
Speaker 1: it's all related and so that how bit of challenge
Speaker 1: in itself, but really with our company where ships the
Speaker 1: narrative and bringing value invisibility to be these coffee and
Speaker 1: producers and and I hope that that will also translate
Speaker 1: to how people value our communities and lives behind our
Speaker 1: products as well. Well. We appreciate you coming on because
Speaker 1: you really help shape that narrative and get it out
Speaker 1: certainly to our listeners. Are you done with coffee drinking
Speaker 1: for the day though? We just want to know, Sarah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're hopping over with the happy hour right now with
Speaker 1: the boulevardiers. Okay, well done from coffee to whatever, Sarah,
Speaker 1: Sarah new and thank you so much, really enjoying, enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: Founder and CEO of New and Coffee Supply on the
Speaker 1: phone from Brooklyn. Which your coffee of choice? Uh? You know,
Speaker 1: I like a coffee that's brewed in Brooklyn cafe And
Speaker 1: to gral my friend runs the shop, small Nicaraguan coffee
Speaker 1: that sounds good, just playing them playing with cream or
Speaker 1: what espresso? Espresso