Posted by Thomas Blanche on Mon, Apr 28, 2008 @ 05:12 PM
The High Point Coffee Dodgeball Challenge was recently featured in the Commercial Appeal.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/apr/18/take-one-for-the-team/
Posted by Cindy Thomas on Mon, Jan 14, 2008 @ 02:56 PM
Coffee …You will never look at a cup of coffee the same way again.
A young man went to visit his mother and told her about his life and how things were so hard for him. He did not know how he was going to make it and wanted to give up. He was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as though just as one problem was solved, a new one arose.
His mother took him to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In the first, she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans! She let them sit and boil, without saying a word.
In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her son, she asked, “Tell me what you see.” “Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” he replied.
His mother brought him closer and asked him to feel the carrots. He did, and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the son to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, he observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the son to sip the coffee.
The son smiled, as he tasted its rich aroma. The son then asked, “What does it mean, mother?” His mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.
Which are you?” she asked her son. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?” Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?
Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and a hardened heart?
Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you.
When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean? The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can’t go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.
When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so at the end, you’re the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.
May we all be COFFEE!
Posted by Thomas Blanche on Sat, Sep 15, 2007 @ 01:45 AM
The Commercial Appeal
September 15, 2007
Four new buildings to house retail stores and two more to hold offices are rising in Germantown along Poplar west of Forest Hill-Irene. At a cost of nearly $20 million, Stonecreek Centre plans to begin opening its doors this fall. So far, its tenants will include the familiar: FedEx Kinko’s; Lenny’s Sub Shop; McAlister’s Deli, and High Point Coffee. And the not-as-familiar: New York Pizzeria; Kathy’s Nails; All About Pets, and Forest Hill Wine Merchants. An outbuilding will contain a Magna Bank branch. Brad Smith, chief executive officer of StoneCrest Investments in Austin, Texas, easily fielded the question of whether the Poplar corridor needs yet another pocket of stores and offices. In Germantown, the dwindling supply of land for commercial development means there won’t be many more, making those on the ground valuable, Smith said. “The bottom line is what attracted us to Germantown was the quality development and what land is left that is zoned (commercial) is going to be very valuable and we wanted it to be representative of that,” Smith said. Outside of the the city’s central business area, where city government is encouraging redevelopment with its Smart Growth plan, “there’s not much left for a development like Stonecreek,” said Jerry Cook, Germantown director of development. StoneCrest, owned by Smith and another former executive of retail properties and management for the Weston Companies in Memphis, had eyed the site south of Poplar and west of Forest Hill-Irene for years. Neighborhood opposition thwarted would-be developers of the so-called Hall Property since at least 1989. StoneCrest, however, worked with residents of Ashmont west of the property and others to develop an acceptable plan about two years ago. One key was agreeing to allow development of new homes as a buffer between the new development and the existing neighborhood, Smith said. The StoneCrest office and retail site includes about 14 acres. The architecture — four retail buildings will contain a total of 59,000 square feet and two office buildings will be 14,000 square feet each — will vary somewhat using brick and rock for the exterior. Smith said that as growth continues in the Memphis area, the intersection of Forest Hill-Irene and Poplar moves closer to becoming the geographic heart of the area. A real estate information company called CoStar estimated that the vacancy rate for retail space in Germantown this summer was about 4.6 percent.
The Commercial Appeal
Posted by Cindy Thomas on Fri, Aug 31, 2007 @ 01:34 PM
The Oxford Eagle
August 31, 2007
If the most exotic aromas you’ve caught steaming up from your cup are vanilla and hazelnut, it’s time to breathe in a little deeper. The ritual of smelling, slurping and savoring at High Point Coffee’s roasting and distribution center would rival a wine tasting. Master roasters Marci Carter and Kyle Walker sit down each week with owner, Thomas Blanche to test or “cup” the beans and blends they produce right here in Oxford. “There’s nothing like fresh roasted coffee,” says Carter, squeezing out a puff of air from one of the vacuum-sealed packs with an invitation to share the sniff. The smell of coffee may be as familiar as your mother’s perfume, but these folks can peg it a little more precisely with help from a chart that looks like a color wheel and acts like a doctor trying to narrow down your symptoms. Does it have a fruity aroma? Would you say it’s more apple or blackberry? Is the herby scent like cucumber or garden peas? Is the spice of it cedar or pepper or thyme? This range of various aromas and tastes guides the process of blending and judging the coffee beans after they’ve been roasted at High Point’s facility in the Oxford Commerce Park off Highway 7 South. The center ships out nearly a dozen different orders every Monday to corporate and franchise sites in eight states, including the original Uptown Coffee shop north of the Oxford Square. “We like to check the coffee quality ourselves,” says Blanche, who launched the coffee business five years ago and opened the roasting operation in Oxford this spring, moving it from New Albany. He worked with a San Francisco consultant to set up the roasting center to perfect the process. “It’s a very unique and technical business, and it’s not something that one can just decide to go out and do,” he says. “There’s a lot more than meets the eye.” Ready to roast
It’s midmorning on roasting day, and humans and machine are hard at work. Walker pours a bin full of Sumatra beans into the top of the roaster while Carter adjusts the gas flame inside and monitors the temperature’s slow rise to 425 degrees. The contraption itself looks like a bright red train engine and could have come from Willy Wonka’s factory line. At its feet, burlap sacks plump with dried beans lay on pallets at the center of the room, painted to show origins like Kenya Kona or Costa Rica. There are some 25 origins of coffee roasted here, mixed into about a dozen different blends. “We blend each one with different ratios and different roasts, like a recipe, Carter says. Precision in the roasting process itself has everything to do with the flavor of the beans that wind up in your cup. That’s why, although the computer attached to the roaster can be programmed to gauge the timing on its own, Carter stands over the monitor, adjusts settings for outside heat and humidity, and checks samples of each batch along the way. From the moment they’re released from the holding bin into the hot roaster, the beans are bounced around inside to keep the temperature even and keep any from scalding. The chemical process they undergo through the roasting process transforms them in color, smell, size and weight, allowing Carter to mark their progress at each step. Army green turns to bright golden yellow and finally dark brown. The raw, grainy aroma becomes peanut, then burnt popcorn.
As the little seam in each bean pops open once, then twice, the bean releases oxygen then carbon dioxide, doubling in size while becoming less dense. Those “Pop” sounds are landmarks along the roasting road; depending on the type of bean, they bang like fireworks or gently crackle like Rice Krispies. It’s here that Carter decides to bring the process to a screeching halt. A final cycle stops the roasting with room temperature water and the beans pour out into a cooling bin, stirred with metal arms and fanned from both sides. As they cool down, the dark brown beans don’t yet reward you with that rich coffee aroma. They’ll continue giving off carbon dioxide for a couple of days inside their vacuum bags, which is why every pack you buy at the store has a little round single release air valve on its front. The difference, of course, is that these packs of beans haven’t made a cross-country trek or gotten comfortable on a shelf. “The biggest difference is the freshness,” Blanche says. “If you go into the grocery store, at best it’s about six months old before it hits the shelves. But we can get coffee in Oxford that’s two days old.” lucy@oxfordeagle.com
The Oxford Eagle
Posted by Thomas Blanche on Tue, Aug 14, 2007 @ 01:58 PM
Associated Content
By Mike White
The java wars just got headed this week as upstart coffee bar, High Point Coffee unveiled its new line of frappuccinos. Known for their unique approach to all things coffee, including bean selection and dessert combinations, High Point has put Starbucks on notice with the new blended frozen beverage selections its customers now have to choose from in their stores. Anytime a new company is looking to take on another the size and scale of Starbucks, putting better products on the market is an essential. High Point Coffee has never failed to do that. With coffee blends that have a higher quality than Starbucks and an assortment of offerings that Starbucks does not, High Point is creating a massive brand and loyalty factor in the areas where its locations are positioned. With their release of the new line of frappuccinos which are inspired by an assortment of entities, High Point raises the bar for coffee bar goers as well as those looking for another reason to stop in and get their java fix.
Since High Point Coffee launched, Starbucks stores have felt the pinch. Besting the coffee juggernaut in customer service and experience, High Point has been able to encroach on Starbucks’ sizeable market share in cities like Memphis as well as in the new areas it has recently opened stores. Now with their commitment to innovative approaches to frappuccinos, High Point’s executive team and local store baristas raise the level and quality of the frozen beverage space.
With their Elvis-inspired Hound Dog Sensation frappuccino, High Point presents to customers an exciting blend that the King of Rock and Roll would find compelling. Rich and vibrant, the frappuccino merges peanut butter and banana together in frapp form. If you know anything about Elvis Presley, you know his favorite thing to eat was a peanut butter and banana sandwich. He certainly would be proud of the High Point combination.
With the Strawberry and Cream frappuccino, High Point brings together a rich cream sauce with fresh strawberries in a fruity sensation. Without any drama often associated with fruity frappuccinos that are too sweet or sugary, High Point is able to pull off the impossible with its approach to fruit-focused frappuccinos.
When ET treated Drew Barrymore and himself to Reese’s Pieces in the early 80s, I doubt the candy company ever envisioned some being able to replicate the taste of the peanut butter candy in frappuccino form. But that is exactly what High Point has been able to do with their Just Like Reese’s frappuccino. Not overwhelmingly sweet, but sugary enough to the palette, the Just Like Reese’s offering will be sweet relief to coffee drinkers and frappuccino lovers who want a satisfying, enjoyable frozen coffee drink.
The Banana Cream Pie frappuccino takes consumers back to the afternoon snack so many had when they were kids. Especially in the south, the banana cream pie was a snack sandwich similar to the oatmeal pie. With two bread sides with banana flavor and a cream center, the banana cream pie was the envy of kids and grownups alike. High Point Coffee’s Banana Cream Pie frappuccino is no less inviting. Marrying banana cream sauce, slices of banana, as well as a frozen coffee mix, the Banana Cream Pie has a wonderfully understated, but fruity taste.
Each of the frappuccinos as High Point Coffee is available in the standard 12, 16, and 20 ounce varieties. When High Point executives tested samples of the new frappuccinos in one of their Memphis stores, consumers were overwhelmingly excited about the new items on the High Point Coffee menu.
In High Point Coffee, coffee bar enthusiasts receive coffee blends that are rich and soothing. With their early success, executives are pushing to move the company forward with expansion through franchising. With their new approach to frappuccinos the sky certainly is the limit for this non-Starbucky coffee bar. If you are anywhere near Union Avenue in downtown or midtown Memphis, stop in to their store at 1680 Union Avenue and ask for Diana. She’ll treat you like you are the most important person on the planet. That’s the High Point way.
2007 © Associated Content, All rights reserved.
Posted by Thomas Blanche on Sat, Jun 30, 2007 @ 02:02 PM
Associated Content
July 30, 2007
Seattle-based Starbucks recently announced another price increase for all milk-based beverages at the largest coffeehouse/coffee bar chain in the world. With its trendy appeal and shop on every block personality, Starbucks built itself into one of the premiere brands in the world alongside Google, McDonalds, and Coke. With growth comes competition from all directions. Along with longtime Starbucks enemy Dunkin Doughnuts, a new contender for the java king title has emerged as new java joint, High Point Coffee pushes its way into the fray.
Based in Mississippi, the newbie java spot has only been in business for less than five years. However, with its surge in revenues and customer retention, executives recently decided to push the brand nationally, going into direct competition with what they call the 100-lb gorilla, Starbucks. With its 12,000 stores, it would seem far fetched to compete in a head-to-head battle; however, the founder of High Point Coffee, Thomas Blanche is confident that the High Point Coffee brand will be equal with that of Starbucks.
As noble as that goal is, very little is known about High Point nationally. When Starbucks went national fifteen years ago, it was in a similar place as High Point. With mass appeal in Seattle and the surrounding areas, Starbucks’ brand had little immediate buy-in for consumers. What Starbucks had that High Point will not is first to market ability. When Starbucks began its growth spurt, if a person wanted a cup of coffee, they went to McDonalds. And they certainly did not pay five dollars for it. When a Starbucks opened in a community, it did so without competition. High Point Coffee will be entering saturated territories with Dunkin Doughnuts and other independent coffeehouses and coffee bars in addition to Starbucks.
With that fact it would seem impractical to create a war with such a dominant force. But in Memphis, High Point Coffee placed a newly opened location one block away from an entrenched Starbucks locale. Let the war begin!
The Deciding Factor
In any battle between products and services, a company has to choose a focus of which to perform superior to the entrenched business in order to make a legitimate war occur. Beyond just opening up 12,000 stores, revenues and numbers rarely if ever give a real indication to the appeal and loyalty factors involved. Some wars are fought based solely on bottom line numbers like revenues and profits. Based on what can be learned from talking to staff, the drive for building the High Point Coffee brand has a much more tangible feel than dollars and cents.
With its free WI-FI service, High Point Coffee is a magnet for laptop users who are looking for a hi-speed internet connection while enjoying their coffee. Starbucks has a partnership with one of the wireless carriers with a per minute usage charge attached. For coffee drinkers who value using their laptops while getting a java fill-up, free WI-FI is priceless. Another immediate difference between the two is the artsy nature of High Point. Local artists’ works fill the walls of the High Point coffee bars. Along with the closed circuit television, art displayed, and store design, the feel of High Point separates itself from any coffee bar around.
It is obvious that this battle has not really started yet. With High Point Coffee choosing to franchise its growth as opposed to corporate development driven growth, the question will become can High Point maintain the quality of its product with franchisees running the coffee bars independently as opposed to the established Starbucks style of growth. When you walk in a Starbucks, you will get the same offerings nationally. A High Point location in one part of Memphis will have some offerings the High Point in another area does not. This is the independent nature of High Point where such items as juices, bagels, and pies are at the discretion of the owner/operator of that particular location.
If you were to bring a Seattle resident into a High Point Coffee bar they might just tell you that High Point Coffee reminds them a lot of what Starbucks used to be, before its commercialization and push to go global. There have been complains from Starbucks’ most loyal customers that it has lost a bit of its personality and ambiance for the sake of processes and efficiencies in making and selling coffee. There was an experience that was to be had in the early Starbucks coffee shops. When you walk into a High Point Coffee locale you are greeted by a staff whose job is to know you and your favorite drinks. The personal feel and touch of the High Point Coffee bars is opposite what you feel when you walk in Starbucks today. Where they want to get you in and out as quickly and efficiently as possible.
One can only imagine that with growth, such a problem will always erupt. But when customers place value on a coffee bar, touch and feel are critical elements. With issues like price and coffee products being similar, other variables must be assessed. I mean, how many ways can you make an espresso or mocha? Can you put a value on High Point looking and feeling local and personal? If so, then you have your winner.
Associated Content
Posted by Thomas Blanche on Fri, Nov 10, 2006 @ 02:47 PM
Memphis Business Journal
November 10, 2006
High Point Coffee, Inc., owner Thomas Blanche and business partner Jim Lane have formed a licensing company to bring the Memphis-area coffee house to the national market.
The goal of High Point Coffee Licensing, Inc., is to have 30 stores nationwide in 2007 and grow by between 30-50 stores each year.
Blanche opened his first store in Oxford, Miss., in July 2002. Since then, he has opened two locations in Memphis and another in Tupelo.
He also added a roasting and distribution facility in New Albany, Miss., which he is consolidating with the licensing and corporate operations into a new facility near Oxford.
Blanche believes his experience will help licensees avoid many mistakes.
“They can get into business and not have to go through everything I went through to try and develop this,” he says.
High Point Coffee, which employs 50 people, had $2.5 million in revenues in 2005.
“I’ve always had a desire to grow this business, but it became more apparent to me as I was going that it wasn’t going to be possible to do it on my own,” Blanche says.
That’s why he joined forces with Lane, who got his start in franchising and licensing with Burger King in the 1970s. He has also worked with Avis Rent A Car and the Disney Co.
“Thomas is an operations man: he knows how to run a store and I know how to sell the stores,” Lane says.
Lane and Blanche chose licensing over franchising because it allows business operators more independence.
“A franchiser can tell you what time to get up in the morning, what time you go to bed at night, what time you can open, everything,” Lane says.
Licensing lets someone use the name, systems and trademarks.
“But you’re not limiting what they can sell and things like that,” Lane says. “It’s a looser arrangement.”
It’s also cheaper. High Point’s licensing fee is $4,500 the first year and is paid at the end of the year. After that, the trademark fee is $3,000 per year.
“It’s peanuts compared to a $30,000 or $50,000 franchise fee,” Blanche says. “Most of the people getting into the coffee business don’t have the knowledge they need. Here, they’re getting the benefit of buying a franchise without the exorbitant franchise fees and the restrictions a franchise can place on them.”
The main benefit to High Point Coffee is that its roasting and distribution facility will be able to supply licensed stores.
“When you’re licensing, you’re creating new customers for yourself,” Lane says.
High Point Coffee is currently redesigning its logo, which can go on branded T-shirts, hats and other apparel in addition to the store fronts.
Blanche is not only expanding his business, he’s also improving himself thorough enrollment in a master’s program for executive leadership at Christian Brothers University.
“Every time I open a book, there’s an immediate application for what I’m doing and it’s wonderful,” Blanche says.
It’s also part of High Point’s expansion, where Blanche is always evaluating for better methods and procedures.
“Where we are today is not where we’re going to be down the road,” Blanche says. “In business in general, nothing ever stays the same. You’re either getting better or you’re getting worse.”
High Point Coffee Licensing, Inc.
Licensing company
Owners: Thomas Blanche, Jim Lane
Phone: (877) 505-0557; (662) 791-9791
Web site: www.highpointcoffee.biz
aashby@bizjournals.com | 259-1732
Memphis Business Journal
Posted by Thomas Blanche on Fri, Sep 08, 2006 @ 02:43 AM
Memphis Business Journal
September 8, 2006
With four retail outlets, High Point Coffee is only about 12,000 shy of challenging the dominant coffee retailer in the country.
But owner Thomas Blanche is no fool. And he may enjoy his product, but not enough to give him such a caffeine high that he starts to believe he can possibly challenge the 800-pound barista Starbucks.
“I started with the simple idea of being a regional player, really not knowing how to get there,” says Blanche, 51, who has spent most of his career in food service management with companies like Ponderosa Grill and Cracker Barrel Old County Store before working with airport concessionaire Host Marriott.
A long-time coffee connoisseur, Blanche honed his skills with Marriott, opening Starbucks stores in airports before starting his own chain of coffee shops.
Blanche opened Uptown Coffee House, located north of the Oxford Square, in July 2002. Determined to create a different yet similar Starbucks experience — they have the feel of a national chain without being one — Blanche poured $125,000 into the 1,760-square-foot store and then two years later shelled out another $80,000 for custom cabinetry.
The first High Point Coffee shop opened at Poplar and Perkins Extended in May 2003. In December 2004, he opened an Uptown Coffee House in Tupelo and in April of this year another High Point at Union and Belvedere.
Blanche currently lives in Tupelo where his wife is an anesthesiologist. He travels to Memphis at least twice a week to check on the stores.
It wasn’t Blanche’s decision to operate one coffee business under two names, he says, but when he leased the location at Poplar the landlord preferred he pick another name. He picked High Point, not for the popular Memphis neighborhood, but because most of the best coffee beans are found at the highest elevations.
Separate names, he says, hurts sales because there’s no obvious connection between Uptown and High Point and he eventually plans to operate all the stores under just the High Point Coffee name.
Still, despite the two names, sales for the most part have been strong.
Oxford’s sales are growing at about 13%-15% annually, and the location at Poplar is increasing 4%-7% year-over-year, Blanche says.
He declines to give specific sales numbers, but says the industry average for sales per coffee house is $350,000-$450,000 and the combined sales for his stores average about 25% above that.
Getting those sales have come at the cost of locating stores in prime locations, outfitting them with nice fixtures and trying to provide a competitive product, he says.
One way of ensuring that quality came in August 2003 when Blanche and his wife’s brother-in-law, Dan Skinner, partnered to open the wholesale roasting business High Point Coffee Roasters in New Albany.
The roastery gets beans from a dozen countries and supplies both Blanche’s stores and customers in a five-state area. It has shipped to 25 states from Maine to Washington and the coffee blends he and his partner created during their training won first place. There are now plans to add a second roaster at the New Albany operation.
While the roasting business has proven successful, the focus is not so much on growing the roastery but rather the coffee shops, Blanche says.
“If you grow the coffee shops the roastery will grow,” he says.
In addition to striving to have the best blends of coffee, Blanche says he looks for the unusual food items and other non-coffee drinks. He carries a line of popular cakes from West Side Barbecue in New Albany and the new Union store bakes scones, muffins and cookies on-site. His experience in food service helps him know how to work with his suppliers to get the best products at the best prices, he says.
And then there’s his staff, led mostly by former Starbucks managers and staff who love coffee but wanted to work in a more relaxed, less corporate environment. Both managers in Memphis, Diana Shull and Melissa Mann, cut their teeth at Starbucks.
Shull, manager of the Union store, left management at Ann Taylor to join High Point even though it meant a cut in salary. She worked at Starbucks for a year before being recruited away to the woman’s apparel company.
Blanche’s passion for coffee and his mostly hands-off management style attracted her.
Shull says High Point can compete with the likes of Starbucks because of its focus on coffee, something that has become secondary at her former employer.
“It’s not about the coffee anymore,” she says of her one-time employer. “It’s a marketing machine.”
csheffield@bizjournals.com | 259-1726
Memphis Business Journal