Westrock Coffee Company began with a bold vision: to revolutionize the coffee industry while uplifting smallholder farmers across the globe. What started as a mission to create a fair and transparent market for coffee farmers in East Africa has blossomed into a global enterprise, sourcing premium coffee, tea, and extracts from 35 countries. With a deep commitment to quality, innovation, and sustainability, Westrock Coffee isn’t just brewing beverages—it’s brewing change. From farm to cup, the company ensures that every step of the process benefits those who make it all possible, creating a ripple effect of positive impact worldwide.

Company Background and Mission 

OU Kosher: Can you tell us about the history and mission of Westrock Coffee? 

Westrock Coffee’s journey began with a mission to transform the coffee industry by ensuring equitable benefits for every participant within the supply chain, from our farmer partners to our customers. Westrock Coffee started with the vision of providing smallholder coffee farmers in East Africa with a transparent and fair market in which to sell their crops. This mission resonated, leading to global partnerships and the company’s early success. Today, Westrock Coffee sources coffee, tea, and extracts from 35 countries and operates facilities worldwide, offering comprehensive beverage solutions tailored to a wide range of industries. 

Our mission is to be the world’s most competitive and innovative provider of beverage solutions, helping smallholder farmers in developing countries improve their quality of life and economic well-being. We are dedicated to creating sustainable and impactful change, ensuring that everyone in our supply chain benefits equitably. Driven by innovation and a commitment to sustainability, Westrock Coffee continues to uphold its founding values, striving to make the coffee industry better one cup at a time. 

OU Kosher: How did the company start, and what inspired the founders to enter the coffee industry? 

Westrock Coffee was founded by Scott Ford and Joe T. Ford, inspired by Scott’s experience in Rwanda, where he saw smallholder coffee farmers, mostly women, lacking a fair market in which to sell their crops. Driven by a vision to ensure equitable benefits throughout the supply chain, they embarked on a mission to provide fair compensation to these farmers while maintaining profitability. This mission quickly resonated, leading to partnerships and early success. 

Commitment to Quality 

OU Kosher: What steps does Westrock Coffee take to ensure the quality of its products? 

Westrock Coffee takes several steps to ensure the quality of its products, beginning with a commitment to transparency and sustainability in our supply chain. We source coffee, tea, and extracts from 35 countries, working closely with smallholder farmers to implement sustainable practices and ensure fair compensation. Our research and development team includes 28 food scientists, a Coffee PhD, over 30 Q Graders, 3 CFS Certified Food Scientists, and 8 BPS Better Process School graduates, who collectively bring extensive expertise to our quality assurance processes. 

We use state-of-the-art facilities to maintain the natural characteristics and nutritional value of our beverages. Our comprehensive approach includes product and taste profile development, strategic sourcing and risk management, and rigorous production standards. Additionally, we offer regular training to our farmer partners to help them increase yields and improve crop quality, ensuring that our products meet the highest standards from farm to cup. 

OU Kosher: How do you select and source your coffee beans? 

We have established long-term relationships with strategic suppliers who comply with Westrock’s responsible sourcing and quality standards. This allows us to purchase more and/or new coffee from farms that have been in our supply chains for years, or efficiently build new supply chains depending on our customers’ needs. 

Sustainability and Ethical Sourcing 

OU Kosher: How does Westrock Coffee approach sustainability and ethical sourcing? 

We exist to empower smallholder farmers to build sustainable livelihoods through profitable, sustainable farming. Sustainability and ethical sourcing are the reasons our company started, so we take a long-term, methodical approach to building transparent partnerships from farmer to customer that can grow with us and foster reinvestment in sustainable supply. 

OU Kosher: Can you share some examples of initiatives or programs that support coffee farmers and their communities? 

Raíz Sustainability™ (Raíz) is a Westrock Coffee-owned capacity-building program for coffee farmers and a sustainable product solution for customers. Raíz empowers farmers to increase their income, continuously improve sustainable practices, and maintain a high standard of environmental, social, and economic farm performance. Raíz is collaboratively implemented by Westrock Coffee, select suppliers, and a dedicated group of farmer partners across Latin America. Raíz guarantees farmers multiple on-farm technical assistance visits and group training sessions every year, sustainable market access, and premiums on all Raíz sales. This, paired with Raíz purchases from the same farms dating back to 2015, creates successful and sustainable growth opportunities for the whole supply chain. Find out more about Raíz in our 2023 sustainability report. 

Kosher Certification Journey 

OU Kosher: What motivated Westrock Coffee to pursue OU Kosher certification? Why did you choose OU Kosher? 

The kosher market is expanding significantly both domestically and internationally. Given Westrock Coffee’s entry into these markets with a range of coffee and tea products, obtaining kosher certification was a strategic decision. As one of the largest and most recognized kosher certifiers globally, OU Kosher was a natural choice for us. OU boasts experienced personnel who are proficient in guiding companies through the implementation of a robust kosher program, from plant design to product marketing. 

OU Kosher: How has the certification process impacted your production and business operations? 

Having OU as part of our facility design review, production, and sanitation process has helped Westrock Coffee build our new facility in accordance with kosher requirements and has enhanced our employees’ understanding of kosher principles. Westrock Coffee offers a wide range of kosher-certified products, giving us a competitive edge in today’s market. 

Product Range and Innovations 

OU Kosher: Can you highlight some of your most popular coffee products? 

Our cold brew products are still the top/first choice! We have the ability to work with customers to offer our stock cold brew products or customize unique coffee blends and roasts into finished ready-to-drink products and concentrates. Cold brew continues to be what customers need or want for their coffee brand or foodservice solutions, although an increase in espresso-style drinks is definitely evident! 

OU Kosher: Are there any new products or innovations in the pipeline that you’re excited about? 

We love talking about our espresso solutions and our Flash Brew coffee products. Espresso-style drinks are definitely on the rise, and we have also created a new Flash Brew coffee concentrate that takes the best flavors of both hot and cold brew, being both complex in flavor but smooth and sweet. We also love our Coffee Leaf extract, which uses an upcycled ingredient and tastes like green and black tea, but without bitterness. We also love to see the new flavors that customers are asking for that we can add in – regular vanilla, caramel, and mocha, while important, are making way for plays on these such as bourbon vanilla, dark chocolate, and salted caramel. We also really enjoy finding international flavors to bring to the U.S. market, such as cherry blossom and café de olla! 

OU Kosher: Are you currently selling direct online? 

Yes, we sell select products via our online store at westrockcoffee.com. 

Customer Experience 

OU Kosher: What feedback have you received from customers about your coffee and the OU Kosher certification? 

As one of the top private label coffee suppliers, Westrock Coffee provides the world’s most iconic brands with the most transformative coffee, tea, flavors, extracts, and ingredient products. The kosher certification that is associated with our products gives our customers an added advantage in the competitive beverage market both domestically and internationally. 

OU Kosher: How do you ensure a great customer experience from purchase to the final cup of coffee? 

Westrock Coffee provides our customers with transformative product development, scalable manufacturing, custom packaging, and global distribution, all fueled by leading market research and data-driven insights. Starting with high-quality raw materials, multiple quality testing steps during the production process ensure consistency in every cup. Standardized processes through effective training and a focus on customer needs at every step help us ensure a great customer experience from purchase to the final cup of coffee. 

New Facility in Conway, Arkansas 

OU Kosher: Can you tell us about your new facility in Conway, Arkansas? 

The new Westrock Coffee facility in Conway, Arkansas, is a state-of-the-art manufacturing center dedicated to developing, producing, and distributing coffee and ready-to-drink (RTD) products. Built for efficiency and scalability, it represents the pinnacle of innovative beverage production. 

OU Kosher: How will this new facility enhance your production capabilities and product offerings? 

The facility produces finished products in cans, bottles, and multi-serve bottles, all at a single, environmentally conscious site. It also offers a variety of packaging options, including glass bottles, cans, bag-in-box, pumps, totes, and drums. This facility significantly enhances our capacity to produce these products at scale. 

OU Kosher: What innovations or advanced technologies are implemented in this new facility? 

The Conway facility is equipped with the latest equipment and robotics, ensuring highly efficient manufacturing and packaging processes that enhance the overall quality of our products. It manages every stage of production under one roof, from roast and grind through extraction and filling multiple packaging formats, emphasizing sustainability and efficiency. 

Challenges and Triumphs 

OU Kosher: What challenges has Westrock Coffee faced in the industry, and how have you overcome them? 

At Westrock Coffee, we’ve faced several industry challenges, including supply chain disruptions, quality consistency, intense market competition, and the demand for environmental and social responsibility. We’ve overcome these by establishing strong relationships with coffee growers, investing in advanced technology and rigorous quality control, focusing on innovation and customer-centric solutions, committing to sustainable practices, and staying agile in response to market trends. These strategies have strengthened our position as a leader in the industry and enabled us to provide high-quality, responsibly sourced products. 

Future Plans 

OU Kosher: What are Westrock Coffee’s goals for the future? 

Westrock Coffee’s future goals focus on advancing our leadership in the global coffee, tea, flavors, extracts, and ingredients industry through continuous innovation and expansion. We aim to leverage our comprehensive, end-to-end beverage solutions to meet evolving consumer trends, exemplified by our new $300M, 500,000-square-foot extract and ready-to-drink facility in Conway 

https://westrockcoffee.com/