When founder Dean Cycon stepped down from his Dean’s Beans Organic Coffee Co. in 2023, he didn’t look for a wealthy outside buyer or a massive conglomerate to take over. Instead, he handed the keys directly to the roasters, packers and office staff who helped him build the brand. Three years into its journey as a 100% worker-owned cooperative, the fair trade specialty coffee business has officially caught the eye of an independent agency of the federal government.
The U.S. Small Business Administration named Dean’s Beans as the Rural Business of the Year for Massachusetts, recognizing the company’s commitment to ethical sourcing, employee ownership and rural economic development.
CEO Beth Spong said the 100% worker-owned cooperative learned about the honor in mid-April, and she traveled to the annual National Small Business Week Massachusetts Awards Ceremony at the Boston Marriott in Newton on May 8 to receive the award.
“We were delighted and surprised to find out we had been selected,” she recounted for the Greenfield Recorder.
Dean Cycon founded the company in 1993 as an experiment after years of working as an environmental and Indigenous rights lawyer, and he set out to prove that through ethical business practices, a for-profit company could improve the lives of workers and consumers. When Cycon retired in 2021, he handed the reins to his employees and transitioned to 100% worker ownership.
“I think that what sticks out about us is … that we’re here in Orange, in rural Franklin County, on purpose, intentionally,” Spong said. “That Dean Cycon, our founder and longtime owner, really wanted to support the town of Orange because he knew it was a town that needed good jobs with good benefits.”
Cycon was known for paying living wages to coffee farmers and for giving his employees benefits that included health insurance that covers premiums, co-pays and deductibles.
According to the SBA, Dean’s Beans plays an active role in the Orange community by providing year-round employment, supporting local organizations through donations and encouraging employee volunteerism.
Norman Eng, public affairs specialist in the SBA’s Massachusetts District Office, said Dean’s Beans was chosen in large part due to its demonstrated impact on the community and its conversion into an employee-owned cooperative. He said the SBA has a panel of internal judges, on which he does not sit, and “they just kind of came out on top.”
According to the SBA, Dean’s Beans received critical support from the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center (SBDC) in 2022 while preparing for its transition to employee ownership. Spong worked with Anita Eliason, senior business advisor at the SBDC’s UMass Isenberg School of Management office. Eliason provided mentorship and guidance in developing a business plan that ultimately secured financing for the employee buyout.
With SBDC support, Dean’s Beans obtained $3.5 million in loans from two lenders in June 2023, enabling the successful transition to a worker-owned cooperative. Eliason continues to serve as a strategic advisor and was the one who informed Dean’s Beans and Spong of the honor.
Dean’s Beans team members recently returned from the farmer-owned Pangoa Cooperative in Peru, where they spent time with longtime partners learning about the farmers’ work to build a stronger future for coffee through long-term planning, habitat restoration, and sustainable agriculture.
Pangoa began as a cooperative in 1977 and Dean’s Beans was its first international buyer, beginning a relationship in 2003. Three years later, Pangoa and Dean’s Beans launched “Restoring the Sacred,” a farmer-led project focusing on reforestation and ecological restoration in coffee-growing communities.
In 2014, the cooperative acquired a piece of property that had been badly damaged by conventional pineapple production. The soil was reportedly exhausted, much of the tree cover had been deforested, and erosion had washed away the soil and hillsides. Native trees, coffee plants, bamboo and ground cover have brought back life to the farm. Fallen leaves and natural plant debris are left in place, instead of being cleared away, which helps return nutrients to the soil while protecting it from erosion during heavy rains.
