Robert Spuck, president and CEO of Margate-based WineStyles, sees a lot of similarity between coffee and wine: the nuance of taste, the intensity of interest its drinkers take, and the fact that people make both drinks a significant part of their lives.
Last week the formerly-Orlando based Kana Cuban Coffee Roasters moved into offices at the WineStyles headquarters in Margate and leased a nearby warehouse for their roasting operation as the company joined with Spuck to grow their brand in a region with a deep love for Cuban coffee.
Moving back to South Florida is something of a homecoming for the three men behind Kana as CEO Troy Lee, creative marketing manager Chris Neetz and roaster Adam Daggett all grew up in the Miami area and expect to find a larger local market for the product.
Spuck, whose company is behind the Salad Creations and Rotelli Coffee franchises, as well as the national WineStyles chain of stores, discovered the coffee a few months ago and, while working the business side of the brand, now drinks Kana exclusively and is slowly getting his friends to do the same, he said.
Having closed the deal for Kana in less than a month, he said they expect the coffee to grow quickly as it is already in a few Fresh Market locations and a couple of Cuban cafe’s in Miami, as well as spreading its way through the offices of the Tampa-based Sysco food distribution company.
“We’re excited about it,” Spuck said. “It’s a little bit different and it has its own shtick.”
Neetz said the imagery on the coffee bags – a mix of classic 50s Cuban imagery and bright pop art coloring – is intended to cause an automatic identification of the product, as though it’s something customers already know even if they don’t, he said.
The other thing that Neetz points to as being distinct to the Kana coffees, of which there are nine roasts, is the small batches they roast beans in. This attention to detail also results in coffee that he said can be used both for espresso or as a regular drip coffee.
“It’s a science,” Neetz said. “No, not just a science, it’s a passion. We pride ourselves on innovation and pushing ourselves – it’s a big aspect of what we do.”
After becoming the official coffee of Silverwood Theme Park in Idaho, Neetz said the company started getting calls from all over the country and from a wide variety of people, which only showed them how much farther of a reach the coffee could have.
“It really spoke to the fact that anybody can relate to it,” Neetz said, “and now we’re starting to get ourselves into a lot of areas.”
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