At Durango Joes: a smile, a warm greeting and a great cup of coffee

 

DURANGO, Colo. – It was the late 1980s and the “coffee culture” had emerged in the Pacific Northwest, with Starbuck’s leading the way.

Joe Lloyd had no knowledge of “designer” coffees, having recently arrived in Washington state to attend Northwest University, But after his first taste of a vanilla latte at the Seattle Art Institute, he was hooked.

Today, Lloyd’s growing coffee house chain, Durango Joe’s, is indeed part of the overall “culture” of Durango and the region, and Lloyd is no “ordinary Joe.”

“If you talk to anybody I knew then,” said Lloyd of his 15 years in the Pacific Northwest working, after graduation, as a youth director and ultimately the founder and head of a $1.5 youth center in Grant’s Pass, Oregon. “I’d told people for years that I would love to have my own coffee shops. So when I turned 35, I told my father, ‘We’re just going to do this. We’re tired.’”

Lloyd’s roots were in Durango. Though he’d grown up in Montana, his parents had been born and raised in Durango, his father the son of Durango’s legendary physician, Dr. Leo Lloyd. Indeed, in his youth, Lloyd has spent every summer in Durango.

“We decided to come here because the coffee culture had not taken off,” said Lloyd, who had garnered experience in the retail side of the new trend in coffee with the café he’d included in the youth center. “There were four coffee shops here, but we were like, where are they all? Grant’s Pass isn’t really much bigger than Durango and it had 14 sit-down coffee shops, 23 drive-throughs.”

That was in the fall of 2003, and Lloyd and his wife LeAnna transported their young family to Durango and began seeking locations. The building at College and 7^th Ave. hadn’t been their first choice, but it was their final one – though it almost didn’t happen. During Lloyd’s youth, the building had been a 7-11 convenience store, and was still under the auspices of the original owner.

“The lady who owns it, at the last minute she called and said, ‘Joe, I’m not going to let you do it,’” said Lloyd, who at the time pleaded with her. “She said, ‘Joe, how are you going to make it just selling coffee there? You’re not going to make it. If that’s all I sold in my 7-11s we’d be broke.’

 

Indeed, the coffee culture – featuring hand-roasted, Fair Trade coffees, and an assortment of drinks such as lattes, mochas, espressos and more – hadn’t fully arrived in the region. Five or six months after Durango Joe’s opened in April 2004, Lloyd heard similar sentiments from customers who had watched the building renovations.

“They said they felt sorry for us when they saw us building,” said Lloyd, noting, “Durango was a good five years behind what was going on in the coffee industry. (They said) We thought there was no way that a coffee shop would fly here.”

In spite of the naysayers, it’s been nothing but up.

Two months after opening the College location, Lloyd noticed what would become Durango Joe’s North Main shop. Again he met resistance from the owner who had envisioned something larger and perhaps more lucrative, such as a car dealership. But Joe’s persistence paid off and by February 2005, the drive-through was a reality.

A year after the original Joe’s opened, Starbuck’s came to Durango – reinforcing Lloyd’s original premise that Durango was ripe for the coffee culture. A corporation as large and pervasive as Starbuck’s likely would not have considered a Durango franchise otherwise. Recently, McDonald’s has followed suit with its custom coffee drink line. Neither of the “big boys” entering the game has disturbed Lloyd in the least.

“Heck no,” he said. “Starbuck’s is a magnet for coffee drinkers. One thing I knew, Starbuck’s shows up, that’s going to create more coffee drinkers. Our sales actually went up. We never saw a dip or decline.”

Durango Joe’s now has five locations – the original two, plus a kiosk in South City Market, a sit-down in the Wal-Mart Center, and a sit-down/drive-through in Farmington. A second Farmington location at Main and Navajo is slated to open this month. Ultimately Lloyd would like 20 shops throughout the region, and indeed would have had an additional Farmington location, plus shops in Aztec and Delta, and potentially Cortez had the economy not turned and credit tightened.

“All those projects got put on hold,” said Lloyd, who has seen business dip approximately 10 percent with the economic slowdown. “Eighteen months ago we set ourselves up to really run… And as you always look back on stuff – it’s probably a good thing we didn’t.”

Though Lloyd had grown his staff to some 50 loyal and trained employees, and fostered the mission that “Everyone deserves a smile, a warm greeting and a great cup of coffee,” plus established Durango Joe’s as a strong community player, actively giving back and involved in Durango’s future, the “brand identity” was weak.

“We’ve gotten it over and over from consultants through the years – you’ve got to sharpen your image,” said Lloyd.

The name “Durango Joe’s” had originally been arrived at in the proverbial eleventh hour, literally three weeks before the deadlines for printing and signage, and all the “pieces” needed for marketing the business.

“We just couldn’t come up with a name,” said Lloyd, noting that a college student sitting in on the brainstorming session threw out to call it Durango Joe’s Coffee. “I totally ignored him. I didn’t want my name on the sign.”

But Lloyd took the idea to friends and business associates and they advised him to “get over yourself.” So his name went on the business.

While the name itself works on many marketing levels given the relation of “Joe” to coffee, the sophistication of the visual “branding” hasn’t. Over the past several months Lloyd has engaged services of a firm that specializes in coffee roasters and retailers. The logo has been restyled, and new signage is going up at the various locations.

“The branding company we worked with, they came in and looked at what we’re doing and said we have a great start,” said Lloyd. “They said, you also need a story. You need something to tie it into who you are.”

Timing was fortuitous, as the Durango Herald had just featured a profile of Dr. Leo Lloyd and his “legendary” service to the community. In addition, Leo Lloyd III, Joe’s brother and a captain with Durango Fire & Rescue Authority, is also known for his service to the community. “Legendary” service emerged as the theme.

“So a legacy of customer service, treating people right,” said Lloyd, agreeing that it’s part of Durango Joe’s culture chiefly because it has always been the family culture. “We remember your name, your drink, where you went on vacation… these are real stories.”

Lloyd has also taken the step to global responsibility, becoming a part of Cooperative Coffees, the fair trade organization that works with the small coffee growers in remote regions of the world to offer fair prices for their quality coffee beans. Sustainability efforts are also incorporated into the business, as is the core culture to offer the finest and freshest coffee, roasted to perfection.

“Some people might enjoy sitting back and throwing coffee at people,” said Lloyd. “But that’s not enough for me. At the end of my life I want to say, ‘yeah, we served coffee, but…’ The reward is really the relationships we’ve formed – with the communities and individuals. At the end of the day, that’s what makes this work.”

For Durango Joe’s locations, menu and more, visit www.durangojoes.com.

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