Urth Caffé: the SoCal Organic Coffee Shop Founded on a Labor of Love | Reach Further

As a pioneer in the organic food market, Urth Caffé opened its first organic coffee shop in Southern California in 1991, and has grown exponentially since then. Known for its gourmet coffee and celebrity clienteles, Urth Caffé will generate more than $38 million in revenue this year, according to the company’s chief financial officer. What many don’t know is that it actually took Urth Caffé more than 10 years to turn a profit.
Shallom Berkman, co-founder of the coffee shop chain, tells the story at Urth Caffé Downtown LA - situated in Arts District Los Angeles, this is Urth Caffé’s busiest location and sees over 2,000 visitors a day.
Shallom and his wife Jilla founded Urth Caffé with a passion for high quality organic coffee. They source organic coffee directly from all over the world, and help set up farms in Uganda to grow heirloom and organic coffee beans. Although the growing process of these trees are much more complicated and time-consuming, but “you can taste the results”, according to the Berkmans.
The key to Urth Caffé’s success is the high quality of their organic coffee. But quality is also expensive. It took a while for the Berkmans to figure out how to make money doing what they loved.
After they hired Henry Versendaal, a professional certified public accountant, the couple was able to turn a profit. An industry veteran, Versendaal has worked in just about every restaurant position in his career. He established an organized financial structure for Urth Caffé and focused on cash flow and financial controls. Versendaal also changed the way employees were rewarded and educated the managers to be more cost-effective in operations.
Another key factor of Urth Caffé’s success is that they make purchasing properties part of their business strategy when expanding - a lesson they’ve learned after being evicted from their first branch in Manhattan Beach by the landlord. That strategy requires a lot of capital. The Berkmans were introduced to East West Bank. “East West Bank have gotten to know us personally, they’ve gotten to know every aspect of our business. They understand us so they intimately know our potential, what we’re about, and what we stand for,” Shallom says.
The coffee shop chain’s emphasis on quality and sustainability, and its signature multicultural style have made them a favorite gathering place for the unique Urth Caffé community. With its established financial discipline, employee training, and capital reserves, Urth Caffé is expanding both domestically and overseas.
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