Stone Cup began in January of 1997 as Riverview Coffee House and has greatly expanded operations in its almost 5 years of operation. Its growth includes the addition of a coffee roasting business and the relocation of the store.  Jennifer Stone ran the store by herself for three months but added two employees by the end of the first year.  When she relocated the store, there were five employees and the store now operates with five full-time plus five part-time employees, not including Jennifer herself.  The staff wages range from $6.00/hour to $11.00/hour per person The staff also receive benefits and tips of approximately $3.00/hour.

Jennifer is actively pursuing a second location, with plans to open in the fall of 2002 in the large Hamilton Place Mall area.  The plan is for the second coffee shop to be a full-scale operation.  In addition, area business owners and commercial space leasers often approach Jennifer about opening a store in their place of business. Jennifer is very interested in opening a kiosk-type operation in the downtown Chattanooga area. 

Sales have shown an increase of 20% over last year.  Sales have multiplied five times since Jennifer first opened her coffee shop.  The store sales are still on an upward growth track.  She has not yet tapped into aggressive advertising and marketing opportunities. Jennifer says there is a definite room for growth in the current store, and the second store promises to be successful on its first day of business, with little curve for downtime.

Wholesale sales are on the rise as Jennifer continues to add new accounts monthly.  As the Stone Cup name brand and reputation continue to grow potential customers now call on Stone Cup to provide their wholesale coffee.  Jennifer is slated to place her coffee in four local Wal-Mart stores with the prospect of doing the same in additional Wal-Marts and Bi-Lo Grocery Stores. 

Jennifer recently had a booth at a national coffee trade show to promote sales of her coffee in other cafes regionally.  At this same convention, she led a seminar on “Women in the Specialty Coffee Industry” which was well attended and reviewed.  Subsequently, Jennifer has been asked to speak at future conventions and has formed an on-line newsletter and communication forum for women who own or are opening coffee-related businesses. This is an original topic for this industry.

Jennifer met with a counselor at the Chattanooga Small Business Development Center almost four years ago when she was struggling to keep her business afloat, and her creditors at bay. At that time, her company was known as Riverview Coffee House and, while it had a very loyal clientele, it was pretty small. Part of the problem, in three unoriginal words for a retailer, was location, location and location. It was in a “trendy” section, but had very poor access due to a lack of parking on an extremely busy street. Several options were discussed to increase sales, including setting up a “drive-through”, should Jennifer be able to successfully negotiate such a plan with her neighbors. Thankfully, her current location became available while that plan was still under consideration.

Jennifer took advantage of the resources made available through the TSBDC, and to her credit, was open to suggestions and implemented several record keeping and cost saving recommendations. At that time she also exhibited her perseverance and determination by going so far as to pour samples of her coffee for those poor souls stuck in traffic on Hixson Pike trying to make it downtown!

We like to think that we at the Chattanooga TSBDC have had some part in Jennifer’s continuing success and Jennifer does not hesitate when called upon by the TSBDC to address issues, and is frequently consulted on business matters locally.