PH
BLK & Bold is a Black-owned coffee and tea brand that has emerged as one of the black success stories in the United States and around the world since its inception in 2018 by childhood friends Rod Johnson and Pernell Cezar.
According to Inc. 5000’s 2023 list, the brand was Iowa’s fastest-growing private firm from 2019 and 2022, growing 7,404%. The Inc. 5000 list ranks businesses based on revenue growth over a three-year period. People do not normally equate successful Black-owned businesses with Iowa, a place where roughly 90 percent of the population is white, according to BLK & Bold co-founder Johnson.
Johnson attributed the company’s rise to his and his team’s efforts to extend the company’s retail presence, including manufacturing and distribution. The brand began as an internet business and now has items in over 8,000 retail locations, including Target, Walgreens, Albertsons, Safeway, and Hy-Vee.
Because of the brand’s exceptional growth, the creators have committed 5% of its gross profits to NGOs that assist at-risk youngsters across the United States.
The founders left professions in higher education, fundraising, and retail merchandising to launch the coffee and tea company from their Des Moines headquarters. Cezar began his career in August 2010 at Target Corp. in Minneapolis. He has experience in retail merchandising. Later, he became interested in the art of influencing and establishing brands for startups and large corporations.
Johnson, on the other hand, has worked as a professional fundraiser for academic and health care organizations around the country. He has contributed millions of dollars to academic scholarships and medical research.
According to Cezar, he was inspired to venture into the coffee business because of the impact it has had on his adult career.
“After learning of what better coffee could be as a consumer, I became continuously curious about the product I was spending so much money consuming and didn’t really know much about,” he told Fortune. “That curiosity created more love for the product but also personal disconnect with the lack of representation and non-community-focused values reflected within the industry.”
According to Because of them, we can, Blk & Bold recently worked with the NBA to launch “The Warm-Up,” a medium roast coffee with caramel flavors including two package experiences, the Eastern and Western Conferences.
