Oregon Based Coffee Sellers Perking Along

By Joe Mosley
The Register-Guard
Published: Thursday, September 22, 2005

Here's a little-known fact about an increasingly well-known local coffee outlet: they call it Dutch Bros. (pronounced Broze, not Brothers).

And here's a fact that may yet be unknown north of Seattle and south of San Francisco: a wave of Dutch Love (as the Dutch Bros. call their business culture) is rolling your way.

The Grants Pass-based and Eugene-inspired coffee-to-go juggernaut is wrapping up phase two of its five-phase expansion plan this year, working to fill in gaps in its franchise network between Seattle and San Francisco. Phase three is set to begin in 2006, with a goal of stretching the Dutch empire from border to border - Canadian to Mexican - and into the Rockies to the east.

Dutch Bros. currently has just over 70 outlets, a combination of company-owned and franchise operations. Locally, two franchisees operate a total of nine drive-through, walk-up locations - five in Eugene and four in Springfield.

"We want to keep going," says Dave Morris, the company's marketing director. "I lived in New York City for awhile, and my idea is to surround New York City and spread some Dutch Love around there."

But that would be jumping ahead to phase five of the Dutch Bros. grand scheme - a nationwide and even international network of franchise outlets.

Phase two is buzzing along, with almost weekly openings of coffee kiosks in Oregon, Washington and northern California. This weekend, for instance, outlets in Eureka and Redding will get the Dutch Bros. grand-opening treatment: two days each of free coffee drinks for all customers.

"Our grand openings are stacked all day long with cars," Morris says. "It definitely creates a big buzz."

Meanwhile, phase three of the expansion plan has quietly begun with the recruitment of potential franchisees in adjacent Western states and negotiations with a San Francisco shopping center developer to include build-to-suit kiosks in his future projects along California's Interstate 80 corridor.

The San Francisco deal, which could allow franchisees to get into the business for less than $100,000, may bring another 50 locations into the fold over the next 18 months, Morris says.

"But we're still growing at a pace that feels comfortable to us, and maintains the core values and concepts," Morris says.

That would include a decidedly upbeat and purposefully noncorporate approach to business. The Dutch Bros. Web site (www.dutchbros.com) lays down the law by stating "we're all about being positive and lovin' life," and spells out a company creed that stresses optimism, cheerfulness and prosperity.

"My favorite saying is that the cup is just the medium for spreading Dutch Love," Morris says.

He has known the company's founders, Travis and Dane Boersma, since childhood in Grants Pass. The Boersma family owned a dairy farm at the time, and Morris says the coffee enterprise has simply adopted an approach to life that was second-nature to the brothers and their family.

"It's the Boersma family put into a company," Morris says. "I couldn't ever get out of (the Boersma family home) without having hot apple pie and a big meal, or something."

But in the early 1990s, state environmental regulations were going to require the Boersmas to reduce their dairy herd by half and take expensive measures to protect a creek running through its pastures.

Instead, the Boersmas' father transformed the family farm into Dutcher Creek Golf Course.

Travis and Dane Boersma were intrigued by the growing Northwest espresso craze and after some research came to Eugene to discuss the business with Paul Leighton, owner of the Cape Horn Coffees Ltd., coffee brokerage. He set them up with 100 pounds of coffee beans, a two-handled espresso machine and a full-day lesson in barista arts.

Then the brothers assembled their first pushcart, arranged a lease from a downtown Grants Pass property owner and went into the coffee business. The pushcarts multiplied, then became drive-through stands.

Phase one of their growth included development of a franchise agreement that kept the company's personality intact, and expansion into Medford, Roseburg, Coos Bay, Eugene and other locations in Oregon and northern California.

Leighton still supplies the Dutch Bros. coffee beans, which are roasted at the company's facility in Grants Pass. While the Boersma brothers are far from his biggest customers, Leighton says they've set themselves apart in other ways.

"If I were to rank my customers in terms of success, I think they're the most phenomenal success story in the country right now," Leighton says. "And that success breeds more success."

He has already worked out a buying plan with the company through 2007 that makes a steady supply of coffee beans "the simplest part of their operation."

Morris says that as Dutch Bros. prepares for phase three of its expansion and looks ahead to phase four (the Midwest), it has become vital to plot the future with suppliers and distributors to ensure that the flow of everything from dry goods to dairy will keep pace with the company's growth.

"We have goals to keep going, as long as things work well," Morris says.

"The sky's the limit, and spreading Dutch Love is what we're doing."

Joe Mosley can be reached at 338-2384 or jmosley@ guardnet.com.



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