Good Things Are Brewing At Java Moose
SAINT JOHN — Despite the challenges brought on by Covid-19, a Saint John-based coffee company has expanded its reach across the country, launched an app — and has some big plans brewing for the rest of 2021.
Java Moose, established in 1995 by founders Glen McLean and Randy Pederson, operates three coffee shops in Greater Saint John. It also supplies coffee to around 250 other businesses and organizations, including restaurants, schools, and stores across New Brunswick and Canada.
But like many businesses, when the pandemic first hit in March 2020, their wholesale numbers plummeted.
“Much of our wholesale evaporated on March 16 last year. A lot of the IT companies, a lot of the hospitality industry. Tourism, of course, went bust,” said McLean in an interview with Huddle.
But as the initial shock of the pandemic subsided, McLean said Java Moose started seeing an increase in online sales, picking up new individual customers as well as retailers across the country.
“We pivoted fairly quickly and our online presence through social media and our website has brought back quite a bit,” he said. “Right now, we’re seeing new accounts right across Canada and that’s been fantastic for us.”
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The new accounts mostly include retailers like convenience stores, co-ops, smaller independent grocery stores.
“For instance, we have a presence up in the North West Territories. Most of it was through our website, and every week we’d be shipping up 20, 30, 40 pounds of coffee,” said McLean. “One of the retailers, N60, decided to pick us up and now we’re shipping directly to them and they’re distributing up there as well.”
Java Moose has also picked up more business in Alberta.
“Many Saint Johners and New Brunswickers have moved to Alberta for jobs,” said McLean. “Again, we’re shipping out there, and other retailers are seeing that and calling us so we now have a presence out there.” `
On March 16, 2020, Java Moose lost about 35 percent of its retailers. McLeans says that loss in revenue has now been gained back through the new accounts. As the world opens up again as the vaccines roll out, he says many of the clients they lost, such as IT company offices and hospitality businesses, will likely return.
“That doesn’t mean the accounts that are no longer open are not going to be open again, it’s just they’re waiting for improvement in the situation,” he said.
Java Moose has also seen growth in its fundraising campaigns not just in New Brunswick.
“Fundraising is important to us. So we’re doing a lot of fundraising for schools, sports teams and religious organizations and that is not only in New Brunswick,” said McLean. “We are as far afield as Ontario, Newfoundland, into Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island.”
Java Moose has three locations throughout Greater Saint John – one in Rothesay, one in the McAllister Mall on Saint John’s east side, and one on Prince William Street uptown.
McLean said the company still plans to reopen its Saint John City Market location, which was closed for a complete renovation. Java Moose has signed a new five-year lease for the spot, but he said they are waiting to open when there is more foot traffic in the market,
“If we were to open right now with no traffic, it just would hurt us too much,” said McLean. “We’re waiting for that vaccine roll-out to really begin in earnest. We’re figuring March, early April is when construction will actually start and probably be open by June or July.”
The new location will have a more industrial design, featuring a 6-foot replica of a Java Moose takeout cup, steam and all.
“The new store is going to cost us $100,000. It’s going to be the most incredible store that I think uptown Saint John will see,” said McLean. It’s sort of an industrial contemporary look utilizing both digital media, traditional signage and just a lot of fun stuff.”
Java Moose also launched a mobile app in February, which took about nine months to develop. The app allows customers to earn rewards, access promotions, and place orders for in-store pick-up, similar to what you see with bigger coffee chains like Starbucks and Tim Hortons. McLean said the pandemic allowed the small company the time to develop the app.
“Because we’re small, there’s only so many things you can do in the course of a day,” he said. “There’s just so much to do to maintain our current existence, but with Covid, it gave us a lot of extra time to really think and say, ‘hey, let’s try this now.’ There are benefits for our guests and there are benefits for the company.”
Looking ahead to the rest of the year, McLean said the company will waiting on some new equipment from overseas that will allow Java Moose to amp up its production. This will give them the ability to sell in larger quantities across Canada and up its fundraising offerings.
“That’s absolutely critical. That’s a game-changer for us,” he said. “It will employ quite a number of people and our presence should be fairly strong right to Vancouver at that point.”
After 26 years in business, McLean said both he and Pederson still have “a lot of fun” with Java Moose.
“You get up in the morning and you’re not going through the same old grind, you’re actually going someplace where it’s fun,” he said. “We got a lot of great people working for us. We have great guests walking in the stores, and the sky’s the limit with the technologies that are out there. We’re little, but we’re still growing so let’s do it and let’s do a good job.”