Black Rifle Coffee Company (BRCC) is a coffee company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States.[1]Founded in 2014 by former U.S. Army Green Beret Evan Hafer. It gained attention in 2017 due to social media posts.[2][3][4]
The company was founded in December 2014 by former Green Beret Evan Hafer.[5] He began by selling a small volume of his "Freedom Roast" coffee through a friend's apparel website. The coffee sold well, so Hafer launched his own brand and website through which to sell his coffee and branded accessories. The company specializes in its online, direct-to-consumer coffee subscription service, which had over 100,000 subscribers as of 2020.[6] In addition to online sales, Black Rifle Coffee Company has physical coffee shops in Utah, Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Georgia, Montana and Tennessee.[7] The coffee is also distributed at some firing ranges,[8]5.11 Tactical stores,[5] and Bass Pro Shops.[9]
In 2017, BRCC expanded into Canada with a division based in Alberta and led by CEO Darren Weeks.[10]
In 2018, BRCC opened a new coffee roasting facility in Manchester, Tennessee, as part of a $6 million investment in the state.[11] It also launched Coffee or Die Magazine,[12] an online news and lifestyle publication that reports on military, veteran, law enforcement, and coffee topics.[13]In 2018, the company's gross revenue totaled $30 million.[14] In 2019, BRCC employed more than 200 people—40 percent of them veterans of the U.S. military. At the time of reporting, their products were available at 1,700 retail locations across the country. On September 29, 2019, BRCC opened its first stand-alone licensed coffee shop in Boerne, Texas.[15] According to the Washington Examiner, circa 2021 they employed approximately 550 people, half of whom were veterans, military spouses or reservists.[16]
The company expanded in 2020 with the release of ready-to-drink canned iced coffee.[17] In March 2020, BRCC launched a coffee-donation campaign to support medical and emergency workers, quarantined military personnel and their families, and others working to mitigate the national and global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.[18] In May, a Canadian gun ban enacted following the 2020 Nova Scotia attacks was mistakenly thought to include a ban on the coffee company, but further inspection revealed that the ban was actually applied to a similarly named Arizona-based "BlackRifle Company".[19]
A July 2021 article in The New York Times, Hafer describes his vision for growth of the physical franchised stores using retired military non-commissioned officers (NCOs). He sees Navy petty officers and Army staff sergeants joining the company and running a franchise of their own rather than joining the local police force in their hometowns.[20]
In November 2021, Black Rifle Coffee Company merged with SilverBox Engaged Merger Corporation via a special-purpose acquisition company in an effort to raise funds for expansion and to go public. The company has a valuation of approximately $1.7 billion.[21] The merger completed in February 2022.[22]
Black Rifle Coffee Company's corporate image is built on its conservative politics and support for veterans. In 2018 over half of its staff were former military.[14]
A 2021 Salon article reported that BRCC is trying to draw a line and distance themselves from "the far-right" after their logos and gear appeared on Kyle Rittenhouse, a teen who was acquitted after killing two people and injuring another during a Black Lives Matter riot in Kenosha, Wisconsin.[29] Black Rifle Coffee's symbols were also present on rioters who attacked the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.[30]
In 2017, BRCC launched an advertising campaign based on their plan to hire 10,000 veterans. While it was conceived previously,[31] BRCC launched the campaign after coffee retailer Starbucks Corporation launched an advertising campaign centered around their plan to hire 10,000 refugees.[32] BRCC released a meme on social media that juxtaposed an image of ISIS fighters photoshopped with Starbucks cups next to an image of American soldiers in combat, which read: "Starbucks vows to hire 10,000 refugees," and "Black Rifle Coffee Company vows to hire 10,000 veterans."[31] Company posts associated with the ad campaign labelled Starbucks "Hipsterbucks."[5] While Hafer criticized what he saw as a publicity stunt by Starbucks, BRCC also received similar criticism around their ad campaign, especially because of the size disparity between BRCC and Starbucks as well as the suggestion in BRCC's ad campaign that Starbucks doesn't hire veterans. In 2013, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates had launched a similar program to hire 10,000 veterans in the next five years and by 2017 had hired 8,000 of them. As of February 2017, BRCC employed 52 people in total. Hafer responded that BRCC and Starbucks are very different companies, and that their size disparity meant that BRCC's proposal was a much more ambitious plan.[31] In a 2017 interview with Vice News, founder Hafer commended Starbucks' veteran hiring program and clarified that he supports all hiring pushes as long as the message is a positive one.[5]
For a campaign in July 2019, BRCC donated a bag of coffee to a police officer for every bag purchased, in response to a story that six Tempe, Arizona police officers had been asked to leave a branch of Starbucks.[33]
The company sponsors NASCAR drivers Ty Dillon, Noah Gragson, and Matt Crafton.[34][35][36] In the American Rally Association, BRCC-sponsored drivers like Travis Pastrana and Dave Carapetyan compete under the Black Rifle Coffee Motor Sports Team name.[37] Pastrana, whose family is closely tied to the military, also has a personal endorsement deal with BRCC that began in 2022 after ending his partnership with longtime sponsor Red Bull;[38] the two parties first collaborated for a rally car helicopter jump stunt in 2018.[39] Other athletes supported by BRCC include off-road racer BJ Baldwin and skateboarder Bucky Lasek.[40]
In July 2022, the Dallas Cowboys were criticized for announcing a new partnership with BRCC a day after the Highland Park parade shootingonIndependence Day. Black Rifle subsequently released a statement explaining the news was "timed to coincide with the Independence Day holiday" and that the partnership had been discussed long before the date.[41][42]
^A new Battlefield to Conquer, America's war veterans face down corporate behemoths as small-business owners By Nicole Russell, Washington Examiner, November 9, 2021, pages 12-13
^Vogt, Adrienne; Sangal, Aditi; Wagner, Meg; Macaya, Melissa; Mahtani, Melissa (November 19, 2021). "Rittenhouse jury reaches verdict". CNN. Archived from the original on November 19, 2021. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
