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[ Up ] [ The Coffee Business...after 50 years ] [ 2 Colorful OCS Pioneers ]
A Pair of Aces for All Seasons:
Two Colorful Coffee Pioneers
Copyright © 1983 by Stuart Daw
(Originally appeared in Tea
& Coffee Trade Journal)
There are good and bad people
in any industry, but there is a human tendency to put down rather than give
praise where praise is due. But where it is due and where it has been earned it
is far better to acknowledge the good than to cite the bad.
We should hold up as fine
examples those whose personal standards of conduct make them admirable as
virtuous people. Their achievements can be living proof to others that there is
no conflict between the practice of good ethics and a high degree of success in
business.
Such men possess certain common
characteristics which set them apart. In a time when we are all concerned with
"standards and ethics," it helps to see role models, strong examples
of the good in coffee service.
ARLO ROBERTS
Arlo Roberts
was a big man, physically and spiritually. You could easily spot him at a
convention with his white main towering high above the crowd, his size and
booming voice a commanding presence. His early history is interesting. He got
his feet wet by starting his own business in statistical contracting, market
analysis and research. Called away for a stint in Korea, he later swashbuckled
home to set his private world on fire, winding up at the peak with 175
employees. But he did, as he put it, "over-expand out of my shoes. "
(That must have been real over-expansion -- Arlo wore size 15 Texas boots.)
Back in California with an
electronics company, Arlo was playing handball one day with his friend Art
Linkletter and another friend, Herb Hyman, owner of a successful chain of coffee
bean stores. It was 1962. Hyman told Arlo about a new coffee maker, the
Columnware CIA, which Arlo felt would enable him to cash in on what he saw as
inevitable, a freeze-dry revolution. Such a revolution never really happened in
the away-from-home coffee market (excluding vending), so he turned to the Hava
Java, an ingenious little unit that brewed one cup of fresh ground coffee at a
time, the principles of which are a bit too complicated to describe in a short
article.
To start his coffee service
based on that machine, Arlo literally lived in a warehouse for some time. Soon
his operation spread across a wide territory, including Dallas, Houston,
Oklahoma City, Tyler, and Abilene. He went into green coffee importing, and his
United Coffee Company soon boasted its own roasting plant. He bought, operated,
and then sold a hotel in Big Springs, Texas. He was a fine poet. He wrote
articles on coffee service for national magazines, was a generous contributor to
the National Coffee Service Association, and headed up his local Chamber of
Commerce.
In his business dealings, Arlo
reflected the wisdom and fiscal conservatism of one who has not always had good
fortune smiling upon him. His was a practical, common sense view of commerce. He
was a tough bargainer and negotiator, but fair, and one of the most open
businessmen I ever knew in terms of sharing operational data that had been
undoubtedly learned at great expense to himself. I had dealings in the tens of
thousands of dollars with Arlo and not one of them ever required a contract.
Not long after I wrote the
above, during a severe drought in Brazil, Arlo was caught short in coffee
futures. The strain was too much for his stout heart. With much sorrow I acted
as a pall bearer at his funeral.
GEORGE VAN KOUGHNETT
George Van Koughnett
in his time was the most successful and respected coffee service operator in
Montreal. His place of business was a showcase of good taste and smooth
operations. He was a wine connoisseur, having taken formal training in the art
of wine tasting in Europe. He headed his local historical society and served as
president of the local Advertising and Sales Executives club.
He was a talented painter. One
of his canvasses hangs on a wall in my office. His book, In Quest of Success, a
Guide for the Entrepreneur, is an excellent discourse on business organization
and management. George was the founder of the International Coffee Service
Association and the Montreal Coffee Service Association.
He had a natural flair for
marketing. Who else but George, when faced by FDA regulations requiring the
labeling of the word "chicory" on coffee bags, could come up with a
bag face that made chicory into a virtue: "Custom Select is a gourmet blend
of premium coffees surpassing American Epicurean standards, is in the cordon
bleu tradition and contains a pinch (I gram) of chicory, a natural seasoning
renowned throughout the south and continental Europe?"
George was a large private
label customer of mine for many years. Not only was he a customer, but he was
also a competitor, and his Executive Coffee Service was located a mere city
block away from our Java Coffee Service. This was an embarrassment to me and did
not sit very well with George either, so one day out of the blue, George phoned
me long distance to say, "Let's get out of competition with each other.
Either I buy you or you buy me." "Which do you want to do?" I
asked.
"I don't care, " he
replied. "You come up with a formula, and I'll choose whether I buy or sell
under it." With George as a good customer I couldn’t lay the
responsibility for the format on him. There was no graceful way out, so I bent
to the task of coming up with a universal equation under which I could be
content to buy or sell, for George had given me no operating data. The result
was a complex formula involving every conceivable variable. Receiving the
formula, George heightened the suspense by considering it for a couple of weeks,
then telephoning me and after a pregnant pause saying, "I'll buy." My
recipe must have aimed too low. This made him an even bigger customer, but as a
customer, competitor, or friend, George was a pleasure to deal with.
Shortly after writing this,
and a week before I was to give a speech at his invitation to the local Montreal
association, George was taken instantly by a massive stroke, while en route to
make a bank deposit, his Lincoln Town Car crashing under a transport trailer.
His replacement as program convener asked me if we should go ahead with the
meeting. We did, feeling George would want things to proceed as planned. There
was only one George Van Koughnett. There could never be another quite like him.
The Bottom Line
As businessmen, the differences between Arlo
and George were superficial, but their similarities were striking in all
important aspects. They were always in focus, ever alert. They bore the hallmark
of all great men in that they were never petty, preferring the long-range view,
with good humor, impeccable integrity, and a zest for living. They could well
serve as models for other business people to follow.
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