Cafe Imports Now 100% Employee-Owned Through a Stock Plan

At the Cafe Imports warehouse in Minneapolis. All images courtesy of Cafe Imports.

Minneapolis-based green coffee importer Cafe Imports has become 100% employee-owned through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), the company announced today. 

The 33-year-old company did not disclose a valuation or the financial terms of the transaction, which involves a trust held on behalf of participating employees. Founder Andrew Miller said the ownership structure was selected in part to preserve Cafe Imports’ independence and long-term direction.

“Employee ownership allows us to preserve that independence, support the long-term future of the company, and continue investing in the people and relationships that have shaped who we are,” Miller said.

An ESOP is a federally regulated retirement benefit plan. Eligible employees accumulate company stock in retirement accounts, with shares allocated according to the plan’s rules. Typically, employees receive the vested value when they retire or leave the company.

For Cafe Imports, the ESOP now owns 100% of the company, according to a company announcement published today. The grocery chain Publix is perhaps the most prominent national example of an employee-owned company through an ESOP. 

Cafe Imports has 68 employees based across four offices and hailing from 17 different countries or regions, according to the company’s 2026 Progress Report. Cafe Imports did not disclose eligibility, vesting, share-allocation or financing details associated with the plan.

Miller, who founded Cafe Imports in 1993 after importing a container of coffee from a Brazilian friend’s family farm to Minneapolis, described employee ownership as a way to maintain the company’s existing trajectory rather than prepare it for outside acquisition.

The Cafe Imports cupping lab.

“My main priority during this process was to keep the integrity of what I spent the majority of my life building and keep the company on the same path we have been on,” Miller said in a press release today.

The ownership structure change extends Cafe Imports’ progressive path over the past three decades. The company was an influential force in coffee’s “Third Wave” movement, promoting high-quality traceable lots of coffees as well as long-term relationship-building with producers and transparency.

The company, which became a certified B Corp in 2023, has also maintained a commitment to roaster and consumer education, including with the 2023 launch of its ed+u coffee education platform. 

The ownership transition comes amid a difficult stretch for independent and midsize coffee traders, as historically high green coffee prices, market volatility and rising financing requirements have strained working capital. Mercon Coffee Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late 2023, while Brazilian traders Atlantica and Cafebras sought bankruptcy protection in early 2025 with approximately $367 million in debt. Germany-based Benecke Coffee, parent of specialty importer Rehm & Co., later entered insolvency proceedings before Rehm joined the Sucafina Group.

Andrew Miller.

Cafe Imports itself noted last year that elevated coffee prices were creating new cash requirements and financial strain for importers and other businesses across the supply stream.

“For years we continued the focus of finding coffees that excited us and finding roasters that saw the value we did in these exceptional coffees,” Miller said. “Thankfully, success followed, but the path certainly wasn’t linear.”

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