Altitude Coffee Roasters, launched in 2019 by Jim Hladish, Thor Haelssig and Ryan Parks, has become renowned for their high-quality coffee, as well as their focus on building a stronger community.
Hladish, co-owner of the company, discussed how the business came into being.
“Myself and Thor came up with the idea. We were working together as mortgage brokers in Brantford and at that point, we were fed up with our jobs. We were longing for adventure and something fun to sell. We discussed what we could sell and wanted something that brought joy to people’s lives. And that’s when we thought we’d try to sell coffee,” Hladish recalled. “Thor had always roasted his coffee on a small scale, and was interested in different brewing techniques…we then came up with the idea of the brand which would be focused on community and environment, and it just started to snowball from there. The following week, my good friend Ryan was hanging out with us, and we were talking to him about the idea and he fell in love with it. He was in construction sales [and] was looking for a change as well. He then came on board and since then we have been dedicated to growing a business.”
The genesis however was Haelssig’s passion for roasting, which he did on a small scale.
“Thor was always roasting coffee [and] he had built a little roaster. When the idea really formed, we purchased some home roasters which were three-quarter pound batch roasters…and we started buying more varieties of beans from the Green Beanery which is a coffee roaster and cafe in Toronto. Once every couple of weeks, I’d go down and buy 20 or 30 pounds of green coffee, and would come back and then we would play on our home roasters,” Hladish said. “The first time we sold our coffee was at my daughter’s school at a fundraiser. We spent about a week preparing about 30 pounds of coffee and then packaged it. We had a lot of support as people learned that we wanted to focus on community.”
Nevertheless, the quality of the product and new business opportunities were significantly increased when the team invested in a better roaster.
“We found a larger-scale commercial roaster that we could purchase in Nova Scotia. We took a really quick weekend trip there to pick it up…we quickly realized that we were able to get some wholesale accounts now that we had this larger batch roaster,” explained Hladish. “Thor lives in a little town called Vienna, which is just outside of Port Burwell on Lake Erie. He had bought the property in late 2019 and it had a really large outbuilding that was unfinished…we then decided to invest some money and build a roastery there…which had a full-scale manufacturing area with micro-roasters. We were always making [efforts] to improve the product by doing things like taking courses on roasting… we just continued to grow and work on branding, [while] improving our packaging, and staying consistent with our message.”
The three partners were true to their word of contributing to the community as Hladish mentioned.
“We got involved with a lot of different community organizations and efforts like river cleanups in Brantford, and after the first full year which was 2020, we took all the money that we made and we invested in trees to plant on forest properties. I think we did around 80 different trees which included fruit bearing trees…[and] planted pollinator-friendly gardens…because we wanted to convey the message that we care about the environment too,” he said.
However, as they continued to grow, they leveraged their professional experience and their unique skills.
“Thor’s behind the scenes…he built our website and has been working on a wholesale website to grow the business. Ryan’s a people person…he loves to chat and visit customers…helping them with their various processes and brewing methods …and I do a lot of networking with people like connecting with potential clients online and doing all of our documentation including contracts,” said Hladish.
While the wholesale business continued to grow, the partners were committed to achieving their five-year plan, which included opening up a coffee shop in Brantford.
“There’s a starter plus business grant which is offered through the BRC (Brantford-Brant Business Resource Centre.) I applied for it and we had to provide a five-year plan for the business. By the end of year two, we wanted to be roasting on a larger scale, and actively pursuing wholesale accounts. We also wanted to develop online sales through our website and using social media as well as leveraging our involvement with different organizations in Brantford and being part of meaningful causes….by year three, we had a mobile cafe, so we were able to go out to events and increase our presence in Brantford and serve our coffee to people,” he recalled. “By the end of 2023, we opened the doors to our brick-and-mortar café in Brantford [and| I think being out there so much in our trailer, we were able to create many relationships and grow our network. We also volunteered our time to meaningful causes through the community. When it was our turn to open the cafe, we had this great following of people that were excited to support us because we had been supporting them for so long.”
However, Altitude Coffee Roasters continues to make a strong impression on coffee lovers in Brantford with its product and commitment to building a stronger community.
“We’re buying specialty grade coffee that’s higher quality and a little higher price point than some of the commercial grade coffee that’s out there. Larger companies will use our coffee which is roasted fresh weekly. We’re big enough to support all of our network, but we’re still small enough that the coffee is fresh and not sitting on shelves for months before it gets out of our roastery,” he reflected. “Also, we are thankful for our employees who are working at our café who have created a lot of great relationships with many of our regular customers. When we opened the café the biggest thing for us was to give our customers a great experience and to make them feel welcome. And I’m happy to say that our staff have gone above and beyond in delivering exceptional experiences for many of our customers, which shows one of the many ways we have been dedicated to making our community and our neighborhood better.”
