A CPG company is rarely tasked with the challenge currently facing Asheville Tea Co.: strategizing its future after the whole business is lifted off its foundation and carried downriver in a once-in-a-generation storm.
Despite the devastation Hurricane Helene wrought on Western North Carolina, businesses like Asheville Tea Co. are already on their way to rebuilding, albeit slowly and not without numerous challenges. The local tea company’s founder and CEO Jessie Dean spoke with BevNET about starting all over and how finding a long-term capitalization solution for the business remains the biggest obstacle to rebuilding.
What was your outlook after assessing the damage to the business? How did you begin to strategize a way forward?
Unbridled optimism. It was clear to me right out of the gate that we were going to rebuild. There was never a question that our business wouldn’t continue to live on. This was by far the worst thing that’s ever happened to our business and, as an entrepreneur, you have challenges and solve problems every second of every day.
I believe strongly in our mission to support regenerative agriculture and local farmers. The physical property losses that we’ve experienced actually drives me to continue to do this work in the world. It has also provided insight into the connection that our customers have to our products that is meaningful to their stories and to their lives. I don’t know that I would have really heard and seen that if this had not happened.
What were the priorities for restarting the business in the first few weeks after the storm?
The top priority initially was confirming everyone was safe from the farmers we work with to our employees. Once we had assessed the levels of damage, it was getting [new] product out into the world and finding capital.
Funding was the first thing that we tackled. We started a donations campaign right away and that has literally saved our business.
Aside from the sheer scale of damage, what has been one of the biggest challenges to the rebuild?
We started immediately to research and apply for anything possible. For businesses, that’s an SBA (Small Business Administration) loan, for which we’ve seen no progress. There’s no money right now. I don’t think that’s true for all businesses – there probably are some Asheville businesses that have gotten funding from the SBA, but we’ve just been in limbo. We’re waiting to see if there’s going to be more money put into it.
Even so, an SBA loan is another loan on top of the debt we already had on equipment and inventory, which is all gone. I’ve been trying to speak out about the need for grants and FEMA funding for small businesses. Businesses that have experienced huge amounts of property loss and revenue loss, often are already carrying debt, so being able to rebuild is going to take funding and will remain a real challenge.
What’s next?
Our goal is to ship holiday orders. That’s what we are aiming for. After that, we’ll be able to understand if we are actually bringing in enough orders and have enough work to do.
Longterm, our vision and mission remain the same, to play our role in value chains, domestically and particularly in the southeast. Working with regional suppliers and farmers, and creating manufacturing jobs here in Asheville is still what we’re doing and still what we’re building.
This sounds weird to say, but given the circumstances, there’s an opportunity to evaluate what things we’re doing that were inefficient. This is an opportunity for us to build back in a way that is attuned to our mission and more financially viable.