Two Dartmouth graduates are serving up coffee with a conscience. Tom Kilroy Tu'05 and Ryan Myers Tu'05 joined forces recently to found Contra Cafe, a new coffee business that uses beans grown by former Nicaraguan freedom fighters known as Contras.
So far Contra Cafe is causing a stir, drawing both criticism and praise for its political ties. Left-wing critics say the Contras were supporters of former Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza. Kilroy, however, asserts that this is a misconception.
"When we put [Contra Cafe] up on the Internet, it got picked up by some left-wing blogs and they were saying these guys were terrorists. These are farmers that I know as friends," he said. "There is the idea that the Contras were the force of the former dictator. but I think that is a misconception on the left side."
The controversy is not hurting business; Contra Cafe has seen a huge increase in sales following recent press surrounding the company, Kilroy said.
"It has been an interesting last week. If you asked me a week ago, I would have said [business] was going really slowly," Kilroy said. "We had sales of about 15 bags a week. Then the [Miami Herald] article ran on Friday and that led over the weekend to an explosion. We almost doubled the business we had done in the past six months, so that was great."
Kilroy believes the political aspects of Contra Cafe will help the company distinguish itself in a market already saturated with socially-conscious firms.
Kilroy conceived the business idea after spending a year in Nicaragua working for TechnoServe, a non-profit company that supports entrepreneurs in developing countries, in 2002.
"I spent a year in Nicaragua working for TechnoServe, and my job was to work with a conglomerate to get coffee farmers to market their coffee [to buyers]," Kilroy said.
Over the course of that year, Kilroy said he met and worked with several coffee farmers. All of the farmers belonged to a cooperative of former Contras, who had fought in the 1980s to overthrow the Sandinista government.
Following his visit to Nicaragua, Kilroy attended the Tuck Business School, where he met Myers. In January of this year, Kilroy and Myers launched their the cafe.
Similar to Fair Trade, Contra Cafe strives to provide farmers with a better price for their goods. The company currently pays farmers $1.50 per pound for coffee beans and shares 50 percent of profits with the Contra farmers.
The Contras turned to coffee farming at the end of the war but found themselves unable to compete with low coffee prices, Kilroy said. He added that the farmers faced difficulties trying to get their crops sold, partially because of their political history.
"I met a group of farmers and found they had been frustrated selling their coffee through Fair Trade," Kilroy said. "They were put on a waiting list and weren't sure they were going to get off it."
Kilroy attributes their inability to get off the list to their former political ties.
"There were some political aspects -- the people that control Fair Trade [in the region] tend to be from the Sandinista, but it could be more because they didn't want to share the economic wealth," Kilroy said.
Despite the media hype that surrounds socially-conscious coffee companies, Kilroy said that such companies typically represent a small market share.
Kilroy added that the politically divisive mission of Contra Cafe may create a limited market for the company.
"The thought going in was that it would cause some controversy, so this is a unique way to stand out," Kilroy said. "Then by alienating people you definitely limit your market, but you might find a niche that's large enough for you to have a viable business."
Kilroy is hopeful that the new company will soon make its mark and can begin giving back to the farmers and helping support projects within the Contra community.
"I haven't figured out how we are going to give the money back to them," he said. "We are coming close to breaking even, so we are getting to the point where we can give money back."
