CAMANO ISLAND — A lot has changed in business since Jeff Ericson started the journey that would lead him to opening Camano Island Coffee Roasters 14 years ago at Terry’s Corner.
Born into a family of ministers, Ericson started his young adult life on a theological path, assuming he would follow in their footsteps.
“I was so conflicted,” Ericson remembered. “I didn’t follow that traditional theological process. In the day, you were either in ministry or you were not. There was no halfway mark.”
After realizing he was not made in the mold for the ministry, Ericson ended up following a path in business that proved extremely successful — first as an executive at Hickory Farms, then opening a printing business that enabled him to retire as a multimillionaire by age 30.
Then he experienced an epiphany.
He developed a serious case of hepatitis and was told he had about six months to live.
Thinking he was at the end of his life, Ericson realized that his business career, although successful, left him unfulfilled.
At the time, Ericson and his wife were living in Arizona. His dearest wish was to spend the final months of his life in what he considered to be the most beautiful place in the world — Western Washington.
The move saved his life in more ways than one.
First, he received great medical care. The University of Washington was testing some experimental hepatitis drugs and that proved to be a game-changer. But he also was able to do something about the definition of success that had been troubling him.
“People have to have their own journeys,” Ericson said. “For me, that had to be my journey to change my thought process.”
He learned about a Seattle-based company called Agros, which helps families in poor regions of Mexico and Central America to purchase land and establish the basic means to sustainably support themselves, such as growing tilapia, peppers and, notably, coffee.
Ericson found the Agros business model inspiring. There weren’t very many businesses around at that time focused on helping people to help themselves.
In fact, there wasn’t even a phrase to describe this kind of business model. It wasn’t until 2006, when Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi businessman, won the Nobel Peace Prize for pioneering the concept of microloans, that the phrase “social business” was coined.
So Ericson found himself located in the epicenter of coffee culture, the Pacific Northwest, where he could create a coffee-based business that could change people’s lives simply by selling a product that was organic, shade-grown and ethically produced.
The result was Camano Island Coffee Roasters. He saw his new enterprise as one that would appeal to the type of consumers most likely to consider the impact those products have on the people involved in the production chain.
Ericson wants to make sure people don’t make the mistake of thinking of Camano Island Coffee Roasters as a cause marketing company instead of a social business.
Consumers still use the terms interchangeably, he said, but there is a big difference.
Social businesses don’t just give money to a charity, he said. They work to develop a clean supply chain in addition to doing good works and promoting the business. Camano Island Coffee Roasters works closely with Agros Guatemala and World Vision to ensure a clean, ethical and fairly traded supply chain.
And he’s visited the regions where his coffee is grown, and, he said, observed the benefits “fair trade” practices can have on farmers and others involved in a coffee production chain.
Ericson believes that the time of social business is at hand. Consumers, especially younger consumers, pay attention to where products come from and refuse to immediately settle on the cheapest. They want products that they know are ethically produced and sustainable.
“If 80 percent of the people in Puget Sound made the right decision just with their coffee, we could transform the world just from that one region,” Ericson said.
And he believes that other companies are primed to follow. Ericson teaches the social-business concept at conferences around the world and he has noticed that the coming generation seems to intuitively embrace the ideas connected with it.
“The world is changing,” Ericson said. “And it is energizing to see.”
Over the last 14 years, Ericson has evolved Camano Island Roasters into something more than just coffee. It’s a teaching tool about what businesses can and should do.
The company is also partnering to develop new products.
In the near future, he said, look for a completely natural shelf stable cheese snack. It’s 100 percent cheese in bite-sized morsels that has been dried using a new technology to keep it crunchy and savory. Yet it is pure cheese with no additives, Ericson said.
Using the same new process, other healthy snacks — apples, cherries and other natural products, are in development. They have also developed an all-seed, dairy-free, gluten-free cracker that is sweetened with honey.
“We’re constantly innovating and creating products and the profits from those products go to create more social business opportunities,” Ericson said.
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