‘You don’t see our name on things, but you probably drink our coffee’

Rachel Kroeger

Staff

November 18, 2024

APPLETON – After working a combined 60 years in the coffee roasting industry, Paul Wisneski and two of his coworkers – Greg Van Zeeland and Dan Jansen – decided they could do it better.

That realization, Wisneski said, prompted him, Van Zeeland and Jansen to leave their jobs at a larger area roaster – after it was bought by a private equity group – and branch out on their own.

“We all enjoyed working there for a lot of years, but… through that transition, the three of us sort of identified that we thought we could do a better job of servicing independent distributors,” he said. “So, we left and started New Morning Coffee Roasters.”

Wisneski said the Appleton-based roaster has seen rapid growth, which led to the decision to expand the company’s current facility.

The three owners broke ground on a new 20,000-square-foot expansion of the facility – located at 3600 E. Vantage Drive – in late October.

Wisneski said New Morning built its current facility roughly three and a half years ago. “Obviously, we’ve outgrown it faster than what we could have predicted,” he said. “The main usage for that expansion will be for warehousing space.”

Wisneski said the extra space is needed to store the 2.5 million pounds of coffee beans New Morning roasts every year. 

“People can walk in and buy 12-ounce bags of coffee here, but we are much larger (in) scale than what a coffee shop would be,” Wisneski said.

Not customer facing, but customer-focused

Wisneski said the main motivation for him and his partners to start a new roasting company was the customers.

“The food service industry has gotten so large and there’s been so many mergers that people just don’t do a great job of servicing independent distributors anymore,” he said.

So, Wisneski said he, Van Zeeland and Jansen decided to fill that gap and create a roaster to service those “mid-sized food service distributors or retail brands around the country that kind of get lost in that shuffle.”

Though the company’s brand doesn’t directly appear on the shelves of coffee shops and grocery stores, Wisneski said that doesn’t mean people haven’t enjoyed a cup of joe courtesy of New Morning.

“Ninety-nine percent of our business is private label, so you don’t see our name around very much,” he said.

New Morning’s coffee, Wisneski said, is bought by businesses like independent food service, office coffee and convenience store distributors, as well as large retail stores – “it’s kind of unique that you really don’t see our name on things, but you probably drink our coffee.”

“We don’t want to be the marketing company,” he said. “We don’t want to try to grow a brand. We really want to be the behind-the-scenes guy.”

Providing space and top-notch customer service to those smaller coffee companies and distributors, Wisneski said, is the New Morning mission.

“I always tell people that our innovation to the marketplace is that we answer the phone when customers call and we produce orders accurately, on time, every time,” he said. “That’s it – just do it right. That’s our magic.”

Wisneski said that customer-first focus is born out of the attitudes of the three of them.

“We’re kind of three Midwest, Wisconsin guys who are honest, like to work hard and don’t want to be stressed out with trying to cut corners,” he said. “We are tasting every sample that comes in the door.”

Tried and tasty

Wisneski said as the people selling the coffee, they of course have to taste it for themselves to ensure they’re delivering a quality product.

“When I’m deciding which coffees we’re going to bring in and tasting those coffee beans, I also am the person that has to stand behind that coffee when I sell it to a customer, or when they start to sell it to their customers,” he said. “So it really keeps you honest and keeps you focused on the quality.”

Wisneski said that hands-on approach is what puts New Morning coffee a “sip” above the competition.

“I think that is a big competitive advantage (we have) over larger companies,” he said. “Maybe the people that are cupping the coffee don’t have as much skin in the game.”

With New Morning selling its product to roughly 25 distributors – mostly in the eastern part of the country – Wisneski said having the right equipment is key to ensuring a consistently good taste.

“One of the areas we decided to invest in was to really have state-of-the-art, Italian-made equipment,” he said. “We felt not only does it set us apart from our competition, but it also keeps our coffee extremely consistent, which is really important for our industry.”

Though sourcing coffee beans from all over the world, Wisneski said the company’s priorities will always be Wisconsin-focused – with most non-bean materials being sourced from local companies within a 10-mile radius of the New Morning campus.

“We have a lot of experts in this area that really do a great job, have strong work ethics, great pricing and fair pricing and are easy to work with,” he said. “So it’s not only a ‘feel good’ thing – we are very fortunate, especially in the Fox Valley, to be surrounded by such great vendors.”

As New Morning’s expansion project gets underway, Wisneski said he anticipates further growth fueled by the additional space, but adds that the company will grow carefully to ensure that customer-first experience New Morning is built on is never compromised.

For more information, visit the New Morning Facebook page, or website at newmorningcoffeeroasters.com.