Six months of uncertainty finally ended today as Kauai Coffee signed a new 15-year lease, keeping roughly 136 employees on the job. The plantation and visitor center stay open, and one of Kauai’s most familiar stops suddenly has a future again. We’ll no longer be driving by the plantation, wondering what comes next. We expect our next visit to be attending the party celebrating this great news.
Prior to this announcement, we returned to the visitor center several times and found the same thing each visit: tourists kept sampling coffee and browsing the gift shop while employees quietly admitted they still did not know whether they would be working a few weeks later or not.
For the first time in months, we’re excited to write something different about Kauai Coffee. After WARN notices, repeated deadline extensions, public disagreements between the company and its landlord, and weeks of workers wondering whether they would even still have jobs, Kauai Coffee announced today that it has signed a new lease with Brue Baukol Capital Partners.
The agreement keeps the operation on its 3,100-acre southwest Kauai farm and preserves roughly 136 jobs that only days ago still appeared uncertain. It also ends a chapter that grew way beyond a routine lease negotiation.
Over the past six months, we followed the story as it unfolded. We covered the WARN filings, the competing public statements, the landowner’s dedicated website, and the shifting deadlines.
According to Kauai Coffee, the new agreement preserves all current jobs and allows the company to continue operating the farm, visitor center, roasting facilities, and coffee production. The company also announced several commitments tied to the new lease, including continued stewardship of the Important Agricultural Lands, preservation of its Fair Trade community program that has contributed more than $640,000 to local projects, keeping the visitor center open, and future hiring in both skilled trades and hospitality positions.
General manager Brian Kubicki thanked employees, the community, and the landowner for reaching an agreement that allows the operation to continue. Earlier this year, Kubicki had overseen repeated WARN notice extensions while negotiations continued beyond the original March lease deadline.
Brue Baukol Capital Partners also described the agreement as a partnership that protects agriculture on the property while supporting local jobs and praised the outcome, saying that both sides remained committed to the long-term future of coffee farming on the property.
The result marks a sharp contrast from only weeks ago. Earlier this year, Kauai Coffee’s WARN filings said the company was being forced out of business because its lease was ending, while BBCP publicly argued that Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA was choosing not to renew. That disagreement became increasingly public before gradually quieting in recent weeks as negotiations continued behind closed doors and employees remained on a month-to-month basis. Today, there is finally an answer, not just another extension.
For visitors, expect very few changes. The visitor center remains open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., tours continue, and the familiar stop between Poipu and Waimea Canyon remains part of the island’s South Shore experience. The company also plans to hold a community appreciation event celebrating the agreement in the coming weeks, which BOH plans to attend.
If you’ve followed this story with us from the beginning, you’ll know this outcome was far from certain. We first covered the uncertainty in 350,000 Visitors A Year May Lose Iconic Kauai Experience, followed by the public dispute in Who’s Destroying Kauai Coffee? Now No One Can Agree, and most recently reported from the visitor center in Kauai Coffee Looks Normal. The Workers Know It Isn’t and Kauai Coffee: New Executive, Layoffs Pushed Back As Something Clearly Shifted.
One thing changed as this story unfolded. At first, many readers worried about losing a favorite stop on Kauai. As the months passed and the uncertainty dragged on, the conversation shifted to the people who worked there. Daryl called the possible loss of 141 jobs “a significant gut punch for a small island like Kauai,” while Mark wrote, “I feel for the workers, not the owners, on either side.” By the time the lease was signed, much of the concern was less about coffee and more about the families whose jobs hung in the balance.
Through all of it, the workers were the constant. They kept showing up, pouring coffee samples, tending fields, answering visitors’ questions as best they could, and waiting for news that never seemed to come. Today, they finally got it.
Photo Credits: © Beat of Hawaii at Kauai Coffee Plantation.
By Rob and Jeff, Beat of Hawaii.
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All I can say is Hip Hip Hooray. Have never stopped drinking my favorite coffee and proudly wear my Kauai Coffee cap just about everywhere I go here in California. I am so grateful that this issue has been settled and am very happy for all of the wonderful employees that hung in there, showed up everyday and are dedicated to their jobs. It shows in the quality and flavor of the coffee.ahalo for the great news.
Great news! And terrific reporting!
Excellent news.
This is such great news for so many involved, not to mention the for the kitties who live there 🐈. Congratulations, and I look forward to many more years of Kauai Coffee!
Hallelujah, great news! What fabulous news about the future of Kauai Coffee, the very best coffee in the world….. Period!!!
So very happy for all the employees and the wonderful people of the spectacularly beautiful Island of Hawaii. Mahalo Nui to BOH for outstanding coverage of this developing story, and being an effective advocate for this iconic agricultural acreage on the South Shore.
Aloha to all.
Thanks, Darrell.
We really appreciate that. More than anything, we’re relieved for the employees who lived they this uncertainty for too long. It’s nice to finally be able to write some good news on this.
Aloha!
Thanks for you consistent and diligent reporting of the Kauai Coffee situation. We are big fans and go every time we visit, We are very happy for the Company and especially the employees who keep all aspects of the business going! Mahalo to all involved, and for keeping the acreage together. Please keep us posted on the appreciation event timing.
Hi Mark.
Thanks. We’ll update on that as soon as we have the news.
Aloha.
This is wonderful news. We stop there every single visit, but the best part of today’s announcement is knowing the people we see working there will still be there.
We were there a few months ago and could definitely feel everything was off. The employees were still friendly, but there was a heaviness you couldn’t quite ignore. I’m so glad they finally have an answer and can move on.
Good result. Now let’s hope everyone follows through on the promises that came with this news instead of treating the announcement as a finish line. There’s a lot of healing that needs to happen after everything that went down there.
Your coverage changed how I looked at Kauai Coffee. It started out as “please don’t close my favorite coffee stop,” and ended with me hoping those workers could keep their jobs. I’m definitely relieved for them.
The real winners here aren’t the weird corporations. They’re the families who don’t have to wonder anymore whether they’ll still have a paycheck coming next month. That was ridiculous.
I still don’t trust either company very much, but I’ll gladly take this outcome over another luxury development or anything else. Congratulations to the employees who had to live through months of uncertainty to get to this.
Hopefully this means everyone on both sides can finally stop the awful pointing of fingers and get back to farming coffee. Yes.
Finally some uplifting news. About the best I’ve read all week. Every trip to Kauai includes a stop there, but I was honestly more worried about the people working there than whether I could buy coffee.
I honestly didn’t think this was going to happen. Really happy for the workers. They deserved some good news after that they went through.
This is great news. We visited in April hoping it wasn’t our last visit. I am so happy for all the workers who continued to be friendly, upbeat, and professional during such uncertainty. Also thanks Beat of Hawaii for taking time to cover this.