Inside Distributed Energy for Commercial Customers: The Fresh Roasted Coffee LLC Story
Fresh Roasted Coffee (FRC) started with an experience nearly universal to all new parents: sleep deprivation.
Well, technically it started a little bit before that, according to founder Andy Oakes. Thirteen years ago, he had a Pennsylvania-based “little distribution business” delivering coffee to nearby restaurants. The lack of customers meant the business struggled.
“Somewhere along the way, my first son was born. My wife was a third-shift registered nurse and she went back to work. I was alone, three months into a new baby, only 20-something years old, and didn't sleep real well,” Oakes said. “I got into coffee and then I got obsessed with coffee and I really got obsessed with coffee. As I learned more about it, I thought, ‘this is something I could do.”
The FRC Story
So, he wrote a business plan. Just as he finished it, though, the 2008 recession struck. Despite being told that it was “the best business plan” one of the SBA lenders said they had heard in years, there was just no money to give.
“Two weeks ago, I'd have given you the money (but now) I can't loan for a car,” Oakes recalls being told during that recession. He didn’t let the dream didn’t end there; instead turning to private investors. By 2011, Fresh Roasted Coffee was officially off the ground and in a 6,000-square foot building.
But getting started was just one leg of the journey. It would be three years and six employees until Oakes took a paycheck; before that, he worked a normal day job and came to the factory on nights and weekends.
At some point, he said, online retailing giant Amazon called. After the initial disbelief on Oakes’ part, they worked out a deal and FRC continued to grow, both in reach and physical space required. In 2019, the operation moved to a 25,000-sq-ft building in Sunbury, PA.
COVID, while a tremendous challenge, ended up a bit of a boon for FRC, which Oakes says was “designed for online.” By 2020 the new building was again too small, and the company upgraded to an old, 84,000-sqft textile mill, which they spent two years renovating.
Three years later, FRC now has 80 employees, two buildings, and makes a combined 16 million coffee pods for Keurig and Nespresso-compatible machines. In all, it’s 2.7 million pounds of coffee made per year.
Brewing sustainability
As a self-described outdoorsy person, Oakes says sustainability was a “no-brainer” and is built into the core of Fresh Roasted Coffee. When he first went looking for roasters, he came across the Loring Smart Roaster. The machines come with a programmable logic controller (PLC) that allows them to operate independently and, perhaps more importantly, uses 80% less energy than traditional roasters.
Although the roasters were more expensive, Oakes doesn’t regret the move, as it saves him more in the long run.
“When you're in a competitive environment, [saving money] is a huge win and I then get to market [the coffee] as green-energy efficient. Because of the way it functions and recycles its own emissions, it's zero oxygen, so it's like 3 wins: There's no oxygen in the coffee, which makes it taste better. It reduces my emissions, and it costs less on top of it,” he said.
But the green initiatives don’t stop with the machines. FRC’s coffee filters, coffee, tea, and pod filters are all compostable, while its loose-leaf tea bags, tea pods, and packaging are recyclable. To Oakes, using compostable filters doesn’t just benefit the environment, but the taste of the coffee itself.
“There's less plastic, less stuff going into your cup, and less going into the landfill,” he said.
Solar initiative on the rooftop
Perhaps the crown jewel of Fresh Roasted Coffee’s commitment to green coffee is its new, 753-kW solar array, which completed installation on FRC’s new building in late 2024. The array consists of 1,310 solar panels on the company’s roof that’s estimated to be able to produce 900,000 kWh (or 900 MWh) per year, equal to the output of 83 residential homes.
In the winter, Oakes expects the array to produce only a third of FRC’s electricity due to the lack of sun and more than 100% of it from late spring to early fall. The decision to go solar was another no-brainer due to the costs of running such a power-intensive business.
“Our electric bill was horrendous with all these machines out here. Running it costs more than a car a month, so it was a great investment,” Oakes said.
In all, going solar will cost FRC about $2.1 million, including a new, insulated roof, and its founder expects to pay off what wasn’t covered by local grants, state programs, and equipment tax credits in under a decade.
“If you can buy a piece of equipment that pays for itself in under 5 years, I feel like that's a good investment. It lowers my carbon emissions and, At the end of the day, it's like roasters where it's just a win on every angle. It was a lot of money, but that’s par for the course,” Oakes said.
Going forward, Oakes wants to continue FRC’s sustainability journey in tandem with its expansion plans. He’s already had a price quoted for covering the parking lot and has a future goal of tearing down and rebuilding an old structure on their larger property.
“I would certainly build the structure to hold solar. And then, as I could afford it, I would put the solar on,” he explained.
His advice for others considering (or opposed to) solar? “I don't care who you are. You really should be willing to consider solar, because if it pays back in a reasonable amount of time, why wouldn't you do it?”
