We drove past Kauai Coffee again this week. The visitor center was open, cars were coming and going, and nothing about the scene suggested a business in active dispute, heading towards a wall. Visitors still came in for tastings, coffee was still being poured on the lanai, and the parking lot kept churning with cars, as we always see.
What has changed is not what visitors see, but what is now being said publicly about why this place is about to shut down permanently. For the first time, Kauai Coffee and its landowner are no longer communicating solely through lease agreements and county council testimony. They are suddenly telling two very different stories in public about who is ending the agreement, while workers sit between them with termination notices already triggered by an official closing date.
What the employee termination notice says.
Kauai Coffee’s WARN notice states clearly that the company is being forced out of business because its lease is not being renewed. It doesn’t describe a mutual disagreement or anything else.
That language clearly states that layoffs are scheduled to begin on March 14, and the lease will expire on March 28. Whatever negotiations may still be happening, the clock, according to the notice, isn’t changing.
The Kauai Coffee viewpoint is that this is not a choice. Rather, it is a shutdown being driven by a lease expiration that the company says it cannot avoid.
BBCP’s public response just flipped Kauai Coffee’s framing entirely.
Landowner Brue Baukol Capital Partners’ (BBCP) account of the situation now directly conflicts with what Kauai Coffee is saying. This week, BBCP launched a dedicated public webpage addressing the situation. That alone marks a shift. When landowners build public explainer pages, they are no longer speaking quietly to tenants. They are speaking to everyone else.
BBCP’s language is careful yet clear. It says the lease will end “if Massimo Zanetti Beverage chooses not to renew Kauai Coffee’s lease.” In BBCP’s story, Kauai Coffee is deciding to leave.
On the site, kauaicoffeefacts.com, BBCP says it is preparing continuity plans to take over operations if necessary. It says the company would create a new brand that honors both Kauai and coffee if the Kauai Coffee name does not continue, and that it intends to retain employees and continue agriculture. The site also says the CBRE listing for the land “hasn’t been an active focus for more than a year,” even though the listing clearly remains live.
Those statements are not a matter of tone, and they directly contradict the language workers received in a WARN notice.
What doesn’t line up between the two versions.
Both sides cannot be right at the same time. If Kauai Coffee chooses not to renew, the WARN notice language describing a forced shutdown is impossible to reconcile. If Kauai Coffee is being forced out, BBCP’s framing of a voluntary departure is equally invalid.
There is also a practical gap that neither side has bridged publicly. No asset purchase agreement has been revealed. Nor has any service agreement nor employee or union agreement. No brand valuation or transfer has been confirmed, and no transition timeline has been laid out publicly.
At the same time, BBCP purchased this land from Alexander & Baldwin in 2022, fully aware of the lease set to expire in March 2026. That gave several years to resolve the future of the largest coffee farm in the United States. Instead of being resolved, there is now a WARN notice on one side and a new public website on the other.
The money context that may explain motive.
Previous reporting shows that Alexander & Baldwin sold roughly 18,000 acres to BBCP for about $74 million in 2022, which works out to about $4,000 per acre. That land package includes agricultural acreage and conservation land, together with property offering magnificent oceanfront exposure near South Shore Kauai. While that doesn’t prove any motive, it does explain some things.
The brand threat.
BBCP’s statement that it may “create a new brand” if necessary is the clearest signal yet of how far apart the two sides appear to be. Kauai Coffee is more than land and trees. It has become a global distribution network built under Massimo Zanetti Beverage, and now supported by decades of brand development and significant coffee expertise unlikely to transfer with acreage.
If the brand, the distribution, and the intellectual capital all leave, whatever remains will not be Kauai Coffee, even if coffee continues to grow on the same land.
Silence instead of resolution.
Earlier this week, Kauai Council Chairperson Mel Rapozo said he planned to meet separately with both parties to move things forward. As of today, however, no public outcome from those meetings has surfaced, and no joint statement has been issued. At this stage, the absence of news may itself now be part of the story.
What visitors should understand right now.
From a visitor’s standpoint, nothing looks different. The visitor center remains open, coffee is still being poured, and there is no sign explaining that layoffs begin March 14 or that the lease ends March 28.
There are also Kauai Coffee farm tours available through March 14, which can be booked online.
With less than 60 days remaining, assuming this visitor stop will continue in its same form is no longer safe. Workers we spoke with at the visitor center said many employees have already taken second jobs.
This is no longer about leases.
The dispute has moved beyond contract language and into competing public explanations. One side says it is being forced out of business. The other says the operator is choosing to leave. Both versions cannot be true at the same time.
What is clear is that the WARN notice is real, the lease expiration date is fixed, and the public messaging is divided rather than coming together. When companies like these stop talking to one another and start talking past each other, those caught in the middle have little room to move.
Do you believe Kauai Coffee is being forced out, or choosing to walk away?
Photo Credit: © Beat of Hawaii at Kauai Coffee plantation.
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Key questions in my mind are whether BBCP has offered KC new lease terms and it so, why is KC refusing them? If no new lease has been offered, then KC is correct in saying they are being forced out.
This news caught me by surprise. I went to the Kauai Coffee website to order coffee when this news popped up. I visited KCC in December 2023, loved the experience, and never thought it might be my last visit. It’s such a beautiful area, beautiful facility, and after so many years, a wonderful slice of Kauai history and culture. Of course, the coffee is special. The struggle between traditional Hawaii and outside business/money interests continues. This has been a very public confrontation for decades, particularly in Maui. In Maui, this is more evident than ever with the tragedy in Lahaina. But I was not aware this was as big a concern on Kauai, a much smaller island with a smaller population. As an eternal optimist, I pray an agreement can be reached that will allow Kauai Coffee Company to continue to operate as it has for decades. May the Ohana spirit in Kauai live on forever. ❤️
Sad that we had no opportunity to keep the land ownership in Kauai. Seems AB just sold to highest money like colonists do.
Once again secrecy abounds as out of state billionaire venture capitalists take over A & B.
This is wrong on many levels: historically, culturally, exploitation and injustice.
Jim
Once again secrecy abounds as out of state billionaire venture capitalists take over A & B.
This is wrong on many levels: historically, culturally, exploitation and injustice.
Jim
It appears that the lease offer is a non-negotiable, and I suspect unprofitable, take it or leave it one. As equity firms have a history of buying a whole, and then selling off the parts to profit the stake holders leaving a worthless shell, that may be what ultimately happens here. Such a shame.
In that case KCC ought to publish the terms they are being offered if they are that untenable.
Nobody likes a greedy landlord, especially one trying to gaslight.
Once again secrecy abounds as out of state billionaire venture capitalists take over A & B.
This is wrong on many levels: historically, culturally, exploitation and injustice.
Jim
To clarify ambiguity, “Make Me An Offer I Can’t Refuse”.
Kauai Coffee hasn’t done that so they’re in essence, walking away. KCC, do something, anything, besides whining to the press. These knuckleheads put themselves in a bad negotiating position by not taking care of the lease problem a decade ago.
Now they have to move something like a thousand tons of green coffee and do whatever else the lease says upon expiration.
I feel for the workers, not the owners, on either side.
‘The show must go on’, as was told in Circus lore long ago. Nearly 200 years later, the Kauai circus continues on, and on, and on.
Still time for a lease renewal to be negotiated. Hope it happens.
These two things can be true at the same time If it comes down to the cost of the lease. If the lease cost jumped dramatically Kauai Coffee cam see that as being forced out. While BBCP can correctly state that Kauai Coffee is refusing to sign a new lease. In these types of situations it usually is the cost of a lease renewal that is the culprit.
Money is likely at the root of the issue. One party wants more and the other doesn’t want to pay. Workers caught in the middle. This is very sad as a stop at Kauai Coffee has been part of our many visits to Kauai over the years. We were just on Kauai this past December and couldn’t fit in a visit. We thought next time. But appears there won’t be a next time.
Is the WARN notice a legal document? If so, it would seem dangerous to have misrepresentations on it.
Likewise, provably lying on a public website might also open an organization to repercussions.
BBCP’s public response seems inconsistent with their promise to their investors to deliver “excellent returns to equity partners through the creation of value-add strategies, which seek to maximize annual returns as well as long-term capital appreciation”.
It’s likely to me that the renewal lease cost isn’t viable and that is forcing an exit.
My thoughts exactly. We don’t know what the “new” contract is. Imagine the “land with a view” may be slated for executive homes. Ultimately the Corp. is responsible to shareholders.
Wow, this is a bummer. We buy two big bags at Costco every month as this it is our go to for espresso drinks. You can’t beat the value and quality. Tastes as good as Kona to our own taste buds and less expensive.