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It is hard to miss the colorful and patriotic bags of Black Rifle Co. Coffee found at retailers across the United States, but whether that bag of coffee is being purchased in Waco, Texas or Boston, Massachusetts, chances are it was manufactured in Manchester, Tennessee.

“If you look at the way those bags are made, the block bottom bag, those are all done at this facility with the exception of all flavored coffees,” Maintenance & Engineering Manager Steven Richardson said.

Officially founded by U.S. Military veteran Evan Hafer in 2014 and headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, Black Rifle Coffee Co. originated when Hafer decided to craft high-quality small batch coffee roasts at home.

The Manchester Black Rifle Co. manufacturing facility was built in 2018. Located at 621 Park Tower Drive, the facility employees and hourly staff of about 30 people in addition to 10 additional staff.

Richardson, who has been with the company since 2020, said the facility has grown substantially since it officially began roasting coffee six years ago.

“In the four years that I have been here we have added two additional roasters, additional grinding capacity and packaging capacity and quite a bit of automation,” he said.

Richardson said the facility produces upwards of 300,000 bags of coffee per week and has enough storage for 500,000 pounds of green coffee beans.

Every bag of Black Rifle Co. coffee begins the same way, with bags of green coffee beans shipped in from all over the world.

“We actually put it in a silo system,” Richardson said. “Then we have an automated process that pulls that to each individual roaster based off the schedule we create.”

While Black Rifle Coffee Co. has roasted beans from locations like Kenya, Vietnam, Hawaii, Southeast Asia and most recently, Tanzania, its three “core beans” come from Nicaragua, Columbia and Brazil.

“If it is grown in a coffee region we probably have it,” Richardson said.

The roasting process is where those beans develop their own unique flavor, dependent on what specific product they are destined for.

“You have got different skews that have different roast profiles and that roast profile can be different for the whole bean and create a whole different flavor,” Richardson said. “You can have the same bean and multiple flavors within that bean depending on your roast profile.”

After roasting, the coffee is either ground or packaged whole bean before being shipped out to locations around the country.

At Black Rifle Coffee Co., there has always been an importance placed on hiring veterans, with company founder Hafer even putting out a call to hire 10,000 veterans in 2017.

“There is a priority to hire veterans for these positions, Evan mentioned one of his goals is to hire 10,000 veterans,” Richardson said. “That is not going to be at this facility, but we have brick and mortar stores that are a lot larger, stand alone. We have around 30 of them across the country now.”

There are currently 13 veterans, veteran spouses or veteran dependents employed at the Black Rifle Coffee Co. facility in Manchester.

Richardson said that when a veteran applies for a job at Black Rifle Coffee Co., they will be treated with dignity and respect.

“They are going to get better than a fair shake,” he said.

Richardson said one aspect of the Manchester facility that some people are still surprised to learn is that it also houses a Black Rifle Coffee Co. retail store that opened nearly three years ago.

Open from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, the store is managed by Jerrod Kallberg and stocks everything from Black Rifle coffee blends to merchandise ranging from coffee mugs and Yeti tumblers to t-shirts, hoodies and decals.

“Around the holiday season that is our busy season, it is unreal how many people come through that 300 square ft.,” Richardson said. “People do know about it but you will talk to people that will say I didn’t know you could go out there and buy it.”

For more information about Black Rifle Coffee Co., visit www.blackriflecoffee.com.