| Coffee
Holding Co., Inc. Announces Formation of Joint Venture
BROOKLYN,
New York — April 10, 2006. Coffee Holding Co.,
Inc. (AMEX:JVA) today announced that it has entered
into a joint venture with Caruso’s Coffee of Brecksville,
Ohio. Pursuant to the terms of the joint venture, Generations
Coffee Company, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company
(the “Joint Venture”), will engage in the
roasting, packaging and sale of private label specialty
coffee products from its Brecksville location. Coffee
Holding will own 60% of the Joint Venture and Caruso’s
Coffee will own 40% of the Joint Venture. The profits
earned by the Joint Venture will be divided among the
parties in accordance with their respective percentage
ownership interests. Coffee Holding will be the exclusive
supplier of coffee inventory for the Joint Venture.
“Generations Coffee
will become the specialty arm of Coffee Holding,”
said Andrew Gordon, President and Chief Executive Officer
of Coffee Holding. “This Joint Venture will allow
us to bid on the private label gourmet whole bean business
we have not been equipped to pursue from an operational
standpoint in the past. With this specialty roasting
facility in place, in many cases right in the backyard
of our most important wholesale and retail customers,
we are in an ideal position to combine our current canned
private label business with high-end private label specialty
whole bean business. High-end specialty whole bean coffee
sells for as much as three times more per pound than
the canned coffees in which we currently specialize.
We believe that our entry into this line of business
will result in both higher revenue and profits.”
“Additionally,
we have taken a step to vertically increase the specialty
supply side of our business by now becoming a player
on both the wholesale and retail ends, taking away the
one dimensionality of our current structure where we
were only on the wholesale end of selling green unroasted
specialty Arabica beans. We will now be roasting these
same gourmet coffee beans for our existing customers,
putting us in a position to supply them with the entire
spectrum of their private label coffee needs. We believe
that the Joint Venture also broadens our customer base
and allows us to potentially seek strategic acquisitions
on the specialty coffee side of the business –
smaller regional roasters who were too small for us
to digest in our current business model but which could
more easily be integrated into Generations Coffee.”
“Lastly,
we do not believe the Joint Venture will directly compete
with our current specialty green coffee customer base,
as they do not, for the most part, service these types
of retailers’ private label needs, as their predominant
focus is usually marketing their own brands as well
as sales to smaller upscale boutique retailers and specialty
coffee shop type businesses.”
About
Coffee Holding Co.
Coffee
Holding is a leading integrated wholesale coffee roaster
and dealer in the United States and one of the few coffee
companies that offers a broad array of coffee products
across the entire spectrum of consumer tastes, preferences
and price points. Coffee Holding has been a family operated
business for three generations and has remained profitable
through varying cycles in the coffee industry and the
economy. Coffee Holding’s private label and branded
coffee products are sold through the United States,
Canada and abroad to supermarkets, wholesalers, and
individually owned and multi unit retail customers.
Any
statements that are not historical facts contained in
this release are “forward-looking statements”
within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. It is possible that the assumptions
made by management for purposes of such statements may
not materialize. Actual results may differ materially
from those projected or implied in any forward-looking
statements. Such statements may involve risks and uncertainties,
including but not limited to those relating to product
demand, pricing, market acceptance, the effect of economic
conditions, intellectual property rights, the outcome
of competitive products, risks in product development,
the results of financing efforts, the ability to complete
transactions, and other factors discussed from time
to time in Coffee Holding’s Securities and Exchange
Commission filings. Coffee Holding undertakes no obligation
to update or revise any forward-looking statement for
events or circumstances after the date on which such
statement is made.
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