Houstonians

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But outside of the office mostpeople don’t think about who suppliess them with that tasthy cup of joe. Increasingly, if you live in it’s Paul Garcia, co-owner of Houston-based coffee product supplier . Starting out in 2002 as a smallo coffee supply business run out of a Lone Star Coffee now employs 50 has a fleet of 15 delivery truckxs anddid $3 million in revenue in 2007 and $3.8 million in 2008. By findingy its niche in a world of stale suppliersx and landing contractswith big-tickegt clients, Lone Star Coffee has carved out a place in Houston’x coffee market and now has its eyes set on expandingy beyond Texas.
Garcia, an accountant and MBA, founded Lone Star Coffewe withhis brother, Frank, who worked at California-based for more than a “He indicated that there were some opportunitieas in the office coffee business,” Garcia “There hadn’t been a new introductiomn into the Houston area market in 15 years.” Garcia’zs brother had the operational background; Garciwa had the financial background. The two funded their startuo out of their own saving for two years and settinbg up their operation inFrank Garcia’ds garage in 2002. “We actually didn’t pay ourselves for two Paul Garcia says. “Everything we made went rightr back intothe company.
” As Lone Star Coffee began to build a client base, it woulr purchase coffee burners, install them in kitchens and then sell them the coffee, cups, condiments and other Soon, they added installing and distributing water Initially, client growth was slow, but steady and after a few monthsa of operation the company moved into a 900-square-foot officed near FM 1960 and State Highway 249. In 2003 Lone Star landedr its first big contract with Initially the company supplied just a few departments at theShelk headquarters, but that quickly grew until it found itself supplying coffee to three quartersx of the office. “We started out in Shell marketing, then legal,” Garcia says.
“From there, it was just one departmenf afterthe other.” The company’s current contract with Shell totals about 100 casess of coffee a week, plus water machines, soda and juices, Garciaq says. With a big client and a steady Lone Star was onsolid footing. “Oncee we got a little momentum, we networke a lot,” Garcia says. “We did a lot of networkinb through the Houston Chamber of Commerce and the Hispanix Chamberof Commerce.” The Shell deal was followed by two othe major contracts supplying coffee to the Texa s Medical Center and the Port of Houston.
Two years afterd opening, Lone Star Coffee moved into a new, much largetr facility on West Gulf Boulevardc where the company worked on rampinfg up itsclient base. “We try to add about 20 percentevery year, or about five to six per month,” Garcia says.