GAP Gains National Support
Minnesota’s Growth Acceleration Program gains visibility on the national scene as Sen. Amy Klobuchar tours GAP grant recipient European Roasterie.
In August, Sen. Amy Klobuchar traveled to Le Center, Minn., to get a literal taste of how the state’s Growth Acceleration Program (GAP) is helping coffee roaster European Roasterie.
Authorized by the Minnesota State Legislature in 2007, GAP provides small manufacturing and manufacturing-related companies with a matching grant—up to $25,000 per year—to eliminate waste and boost efficiency. Enterprise Minnesota administers the grants and, through them, provides lean expertise to help recipients realize leaner operations. Enterprise Minnesota president Bob Kill says participating companies have received a minimum $15-to-$1 return on investment, and many have experienced even greater returns.
Sitting at a round table for a session of “cupping”—the process by which coffee connoisseurs judge the body, flavor and acidity of different coffee beans—Sen. Klobuchar was content to be on the listening end of the conversation. She sipped on company president Timothy Tulloch’s worldly supply of specialty coffees, including the private label Tanzanian Peaberry and the company’s own brand, Velvet Hammer. Working with Enterprise Minnesota to eliminate waste in its operations with Value Stream Mapping and Kaizen events, Tulloch explained, European Roasterie has been on the up and up through the recession, remaining the nation’s largest independent coffee roaster.
Sen. Klobuchar was impressed by the company’s enduring success in today’s economy. “The thing that most interested me was how with the help of Enterprise Minnesota, this small business was able to grow and employ so many people in a very small town in Minnesota, and become the largest independent specialty coffee roaster in the United States,” she says. European Roasterie employs some 50 workers—about 2 percent of Le Center’s population of nearly 2,300.
Kill was pleased by Sen. Klobuchar’s enthusiasm. “You could not fake the genuine interest,” he says. “I think she very much enjoys connecting with these companies and understanding better what really goes on in her state.”
Leading Sen. Klobuchar and Kill through the plant’s roasting and packing hubs, Tulloch explained that many improvements within his company have been a simple matter of reorganization. In the roasting area, for example, bins holding different coffee varieties are now labeled according to a color-coded wall map for easy location. Plant manager Carl Stauff estimates the switch saves European Roasterie one minute on each of its delivery trips, with trips ranging between 15 and 20 per day. In the packing area, where employees used to walk to an office to retrieve each individual order slip, a designated employee now bundles orders and places them on a table. This change saves additional steps and time, Tulloch and Stauff agree. To date, the company has experienced a 2 percent reduction in its labor rate, a percentage that Tulloch expects to rise as European Roasterie tackles additional lean projects through GAP.
As awareness of GAP continues to spread on the national scene, Sen. Klobuchar says GAP and similar programs cultivate a brighter future for Minnesota manufacturers. “Small businesses have always been the incubator for new ideas and jobs in our state, and especially in rural areas, they’re very important,” she says. “That’s why having assistance with advice and expertise and loans in a very difficult economic time is more important than ever.”