It's hard to find good coffee online, and roaster Blk & Bold found that to be a competitive advantage.

The company saw huge growth over the last year, thanks to its placement on retail shelves at stores like Target -- as well as being a top-selling brand on Amazon. On the Modern Retail Podcast, which was recorded live during our Modern Retail Summit this week, co-founder and CEO Pernell Cezar Jr. spoke about how he has grown the company.

Being on Amazon became a competitive advantage -- especially once the coronavirus hit. More people were buying groceries online, and supplies like coffee were selling out. Thanks to being on national shelves, he said, Blk & Bold was able to gain authority. "When we looked at Amazon and e-commerce we were allowing that authority we were able to gain by brick and mortar to tie that back into scaling and acquiring new consumers on e-comm," he said.

Still, coffee is a hard business. "We were entering into the second highest commodity beverage space -- being coffee, right behind water," Cezar Jr. said. He approached growing the company by finding ways to differentiate. "When you are shopping in a coffee aisle in any grocery store, let's say excluding Whole Foods, there is not a premium assortment experience," he said. Ditto Amazon. The bet was that he could grow a coffee business by becoming a rarely-seen premium brand on those shelves. 

Cezar Jr. described how he was able to capitalize on all of these elements to grow the business. Amid a pandemic it grew from two people to twelve, and got a brand new warehouse as well. "Our whole business is can we convince these consumers that they can also make great quality coffee at home," he said.