The Suit Magazine

One cup of coffee, then I’ll go;
Though I just dropped by to let you know
That I’m leaving tomorrow;
I’ll cause you no more sorrow.
One cup of coffee, then I’ll go.
-Bob Marley,  “One Cup of Coffee”

In the majestic Blue Mountains on the eastern side of the island of Jamaica, the legacy of music icon Bob Marley takes on new life. The coffee grown here is among the best you’ll find anywhere on earth, and its cultivation drives the economy of small farming villages all over the island.

Bob’s son Rohan Marley has made a commitment to the people who live and work in these hills. His company, Marley Coffee, relies on organic farming methods and generous wage policies to bring prosperity to the region—and to bring great coffee to consumers around the world.

To aid in that effort, a public company called Jammin Java was founded in 2009. Sharing a co-branding license with Marley Coffee, its focus is to bring Blue Mountain coffee to the service, hospitality, and big-box store industries. The more they can expand the market, the more they can give back to Jamaican communities and to charities around the world.
Jammin Java CEO Ahn Tran told The Suit Magazine that he became a part of the movement by chance. “I met the chairman of Marley’s coffee back in 2009 at a charity event in Los Angeles, where I was drawn into Marley’s philosophy,” he said.

A lifelong fan of Bob Marley’s music, Tran was star struck at first. “But quite frankly, Rohan is really a down-to-earth type of guy. And he does his father’s legacy quite a bit of justice by the way he looks at the world, the way he looks at business, and the way he looks at the environment. He’s extremely passionate about the things he places his father’s name behind,” said Tran.

Just two years in, the company has perfected an original business plan based on the teachings of Bob Marley. “His legacy influences our company: how we treat people, how we treat the environment, how we go about doing business. We are businessmen first and foremost; we have shareholders that we have to look out for. But we believe that you can be a socially conscious business and an eco-conscious business while being a profitable business.”

Jammin Java gives back to the community in creative ways—their Kicks for Cause Foundation is just one example. “Kicks for Cause was a passion project started by Rohan.  Soccer tends to be popular in these coffee-growing regions around the world, and one way he wanted to give back was to give kids a chance to play instead of work. He wanted to create an economic model where we would double the wages of farm workers  so that the parents could work on the farms without needing their own children to work with them, so the children could actually go home, go to school, play soccer and do things that kids do.”

“Now the second area in which we really are giving back to the community is that all the coffees that we purchase are fair trade and organic. And 22 cents from every pound of coffee that we sell goes back to the Fair Trade Organization, whose sole purpose as a regulatory body is to ensure that farmers around the world are getting paid a wage on which they can live,” Tran explained.

The rough economy took its toll on businesses around the world, but Jammin Java didn’t feel the pinch. “Coffee is a product that does well in good or bad economic times. It is the second most-consumed liquid in the world behind water, and it’s the second highest-traded commodity in the world behind oil,” said Tran. In addition, their commitment to organic methods actually bolsters the company’s financial strength. “I think going green means long-term economic stability. If you go conventional, you don’t create a world in which you can provide new crops of coffee for future generations. Being sustainable and green allows you to keep coffee growing for generations to come.”

Looking forward, Tran knows that Jammin Java will continue to thrive with its unique synchronicity of business plans and social goals. “From a business side, our goal right now is focused on southern California and the Pacific Northwest in rolling out our service coffees for the big-box industries. It’s about going out and capturing a market share. Once we generate more revenues, it means more revenues for the charity and our ability to really get the message out.”
Jammin Java is a fully reporting company quoted on the OTCBB under the symbol JAMN.

www.jamminjavacoffee.com

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