[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":752},["ShallowReactive",2],{"item:\u002Fcafe-staffing\u002Fcan-profit-sharing-make-cafes-more-sustainable-marco-suarez-is-betting-on-it":3,"platform:site":238,"more:\u002Fcafe-staffing\u002Fcan-profit-sharing-make-cafes-more-sustainable-marco-suarez-is-betting-on-it":690},{"id":4,"title":5,"aiRevisedAt":6,"authors":7,"body":12,"canonical":160,"category":161,"categorySlugs":172,"cid":173,"cover":174,"description":180,"extension":181,"featured":182,"language":183,"meta":184,"navigation":185,"noindex":182,"ogImage":186,"path":187,"publishedAt":188,"readingMinutes":189,"recipe":160,"related":190,"revisedAt":160,"seo":223,"seoDescription":180,"seoTitle":5,"sortKey":160,"sources":224,"stem":228,"tagSlugs":229,"tags":231,"translations":234,"type":235,"url":236,"__hash__":237},"platformItems\u002Fplatform\u002Fitems\u002F53787.md","How One Coffee Roaster Is Sharing Profits to Build a Stronger Business","2026-10-20T11:20:43.000Z",[8],{"name":9,"slug":10,"role":11},"Jordan Turner","jordan-turner","author",{"type":13,"value":14,"toc":156},"minimark",[15,19,22,25,28,34,37,45,48,53,61,64,69,72,77,84,89,92,95,100,103,108,115,120,123,128,131,136,139,144,147,150],[16,17,18],"p",{},"Methodical Coffee, a Greenville, South Carolina–based coffee shop and roaster, rolled out a profit-sharing program earlier this year. The plan includes all 85 employees—those at its four cafe locations, its roastery, and its support and events teams.",[16,20,21],{},"CEO and co-founder Marco Suarez was motivated to start the initiative after reading “Profit Works” by Alex Freytag and Tom Bouwer in 2023. The book explains how companies can design simple, effective incentive plans that benefit both employees and the broader business.",[16,23,24],{},"Suarez passed the book along to his partners and CFO, and they soon developed their own version. “Our CFO, Ethan Messier, and I worked on a formula,” Suarez says. “We ran it in 2024 as a test to see if it would produce reasonable impact for our team, as well as a sustainable model for the business.” After confirming the program was effective, they made minor adjustments and launched it in January 2025.",[16,26,27],{},"To understand how such programs can help coffee businesses, we spoke with Suarez about the book that sparked the idea and the practical details of the new plan. It’s still early, but Methodical Coffee has met its mid-year profitability targets and recently issued the first checks to employees. Suarez remains optimistic that profit-sharing can help build a stronger, more sustainable business over the long term.",[16,29,30],{},[31,32,33],"strong",{},"What motivated you to launch profit-sharing at Methodical Coffee this year?",[16,35,36],{},"Profit is like oxygen for a business. It’s not optional—it’s essential for many reasons. Profit allows you to reinvest in your people and your growth, and it sustains you through difficult periods. Coffee is a cost-intensive business, and without discipline it’s easy to sink. So profit doesn’t come easily. People often think profit is only the concern of owners or executives, but it affects everyone, and everyone has a way to influence it.",[16,38,39],{},[40,41],"img",{"alt":5,"height":42,"src":43,"width":44},683,"\u002Fuploads\u002F554b8c68c223b6bb69c0.webp",1024,[16,46,47],{},"The goal is to shift our team’s behavior toward being more disciplined about controlling costs and impacting revenue where they can, so we can more easily reach our profitability goals. And we do that by sharing in the upside. Profit sharing is a powerful form of positive reinforcement where everyone on our team directly benefits from the company’s performance.",[16,49,50],{},[31,51,52],{},"Have you come across other examples of successful profit sharing, whether in coffee or other industries?",[16,54,55,56,60],{},"Not specifically, but there are dividend-like programs such as ESOPs ",[57,58,59],"span",{},"employee stock ownership plans",", cooperatives, or being a shareholder in a business. If the company performs well and the stock value rises, shareholders benefit.",[16,62,63],{},"It’s interesting how you begin to care about business performance once you become a shareholder. I’m sure other coffee companies offer similar programs, but I’m not aware of any. Although Methodical is a privately owned business, we want our team to feel the same investment as a stock-holding employee at a large company.",[16,65,66],{},[31,67,68],{},"You mentioned using Profit Works by Alex Freytag and Tom Bouwer as your guide—what were a couple of your key takeaways? Anything surprising that might not have been intuitive?",[16,70,71],{},"Before reading the book, I worried that a profit-sharing program would be complex, but they offer a simple, well-tested formula that is very flexible. I was also concerned it might create division toward those whose share could be higher, but they provide guidance on how to reward people who take on more responsibility while still fostering unity in the team.",[16,73,74],{},[40,75],{"alt":5,"height":42,"src":76,"width":44},"\u002Fuploads\u002F1a07c860ef53a51f585b.webp",[16,78,79,80,83],{},"Another concern was that the amount ",[57,81,82],{},"employees would take home"," would be too small to influence behavior, or too large and potentially put the business at risk—they address that too and offer guidance. It served as a roadmap that we adapted to fit our needs. But it gave us the courage to do it.",[16,85,86],{},[31,87,88],{},"What was the mid-year profitability goal you recently hit?",[16,90,91],{},"The trigger for profit sharing is a net profit of at least 10% by mid-year and year end. So as long as the profit margin for that half year is 10%, profit sharing is triggered. We have a percentage allocated for distribution.",[16,93,94],{},"A 10% net profit may sound low to some, but for a cost-intensive business like coffee, 10% is fairly standard. I’d rather achieve a higher profit percentage and distribute some of it to our team than hit a lower percentage and retain it all. Our people are our most valuable asset.",[16,96,97],{},[31,98,99],{},"Can you explain how the profit-sharing program works? How are shares distributed?",[16,101,102],{},"We first pro-rate based on part-time and full-time status. You also need to be an employee for the full term. Then we split the pool between a “we” share and a “me” share. The “we” share is distributed evenly across all employees, and the “me” share is weighted by seniority. We want to reward people for taking on more responsibility.",[16,104,105],{},[31,106,107],{},"How is the profit-sharing program communicated to employees? Do they receive quarterly earnings reports, for example, to see if the company is on track to meet profitability goals?",[16,109,110,111,114],{},"We hold company-wide all-hands ",[57,112,113],{},"meetings"," every quarter where we review things like financial performance, HR updates, company updates, and celebrate new hires, work anniversaries, and promotions. We try to be transparent and an open book to the extent that’s helpful. We want to be honest with our team about how we’re doing. We also want to increase their financial literacy so they understand why the things we track matter. And profit is one of those things we discuss.",[16,116,117],{},[40,118],{"alt":5,"height":42,"src":119,"width":44},"\u002Fuploads\u002Fdf3ca281b6a10c6940e5.webp",[16,121,122],{},"In addition to the quarterly all-hands, our CFO sends a monthly company-wide message with a profitability update. That message is simple and includes the previous month’s profit percentage, our year-to-date percentage, and how far we are from our target.",[16,124,125],{},[31,126,127],{},"Will you make any adjustments to your profit-sharing program based on what you’ve learned in these first six months?",[16,129,130],{},"I think it will take a few cycles for our team to fully grasp it, but the biggest change we’d make is to make a bigger deal of it. There’s so much happening in our business that it’s easy for things to not get the attention they deserve, so my plan for the rest of the year is to make the updates more meaningful, informative, and—if we hit our goal—more celebratory.",[16,132,133],{},[31,134,135],{},"Have you noticed a shift in attitude and culture at Methodical since implementing the profit-sharing program?",[16,137,138],{},"It’s too soon to say. This is a very new concept for our team. So I believe it will take a few cycles. But I believe with time it will slowly become part of our behaviors and start to make a real impact. That’s the hope, at least.",[16,140,141],{},[31,142,143],{},"What measures are you looking at to gauge success?",[16,145,146],{},"I think the best signal is tenure. Are people choosing to stay with us longer because they feel more invested, cared for, and rewarded for their contribution? Another signal is whether our team takes more ownership of our profitability. Does it filter into our culture and how we hold each other accountable?",[16,148,149],{},"Profit should never come at the expense of customer experience—quite the opposite. 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