Firehouse to Factory
Written By: Grant Klembara · Photography By: Doug Klembara
When you're deployed to a military base in the middle of a war zone, there are a handful of things you expect to happen. You expect to take turns keeping watch at the base guard posts, for instance. You also expect to coordinate battle plans, prepare for attacks, and depending on where you're stationed, help train and arm local forces. One thing you might not expect is boredom.
And while four hours of downtime everyday doesn’t seem like a lot, for Paul that was an eternity. “If you don't have to go meet friends or do laundry or go out and pay bills, there's nothing to do,” he says. “You can only work out for so long.”
Keep in mind, you can’t leave the base. There is no movie theater down the street. In a sense, you’re trapped. So what do you do? Well, you have to find something to occupy your time. For Paul, that was creating a business plan for Firegrounds Coffee.
Paul came up with Fire Grounds Coffee Co. because he wanted first responders to enjoy quality coffee and give back to a group of men and women he is proud to represent. He was a firefighter for six years before he put his job on hold and joined the Marine Corps.
During his downtime on the base, Paul began crunching numbers in Excel. Throughout the day, he served as the Battle Captain–the nexus for all information coming in for the entire war effort. Everyday, he was responsible for briefing colonels and generals on the daily happenings on the battlefront. But at night, he was a new business owner trying to plan for the future.
Soon the other guys saw what he was doing and began asking questions. “They were getting really excited about it and they were offering me money to help get it going,” he said. So he decided to go for it. Working with a designer back home, he went through logo revisions and had his friends vote on designs.
““They were getting really excited about it and they were offering me money to help get it going,””
When he returned home from his tour in 2018, he hit the ground running. Paul resumed his job as a firefighter and quickly linked up with his friend and now business partner Kyle. “The roaster had just arrived and the beans were on the back of the truck. As I was telling him all of this, he could sense the excitement – and he was like, I'm in,” Paul said. Kyle, who is also a vet who did two tours in Iraq, jumped in and didn’t look back. He is now the President of the company.
Firegrounds Coffee officially launched in March 2019 and that’s when Paul found Tyler Station. With a plan in hand and equipment coming in, he needed space. He attended a Tyler Station open house event, made an inquiry, and found the right space for him. “It was enough space to grow and to keep overhead so low so it was perfect. Looking back,” he says, “we wouldn’t have been able to get our start without it.”
Out of their space at Tyler Station, Paul and Kyle have grown Firegrounds Coffee into a multifaceted business, roasting anywhere from 500-1000lbs of coffee each week. Through e-commerce sales, retail wholesale sales, wholesale bulk sales, and more, they are reaching customers throughout Texas and beyond. Today they have their product on shelves in stores like Sprouts and Cox Farms with more stores on the way.
“We always wanted a coffee shop, but you know, the capital requirements to do a brick and mortar right now are super high.”
Next year they plan to officially launch their first Coffee Truck in Duncanville after testing the concept at Tyler Station. At first, they were worried about the expenses associated with brick-and-mortar. “We always wanted a coffee shop,” Paul said, “but you know, the capital requirements to do a brick and mortar right now are super high.” That was until they connected with fellow Tyler Station tenant Gary Buckner, owner of STASH Design. Together they came up with a custom-designed Coffee Truck that fit their budget and looked exactly how they wanted it to.
But perhaps the initiative that means the most to Paul and Kyle is the “Caffeinate-A-Station” program. This program allows individuals, small businesses and corporations to sponsor their local fire and police stations by paying for their coffee.
Both Paul and Kyle know all too well how expensive this can be for first responders. If you didn’t know, they pay out of their own pockets for meals and coffee. When you’re working 24-hour shifts, those personal expenses add up fast. “It's a lot of coffee drinking,” he said with a laugh.
But they haven’t stopped there. Ultimately, Paul said he wants the company to do more than just create and disperse coffee. They also want to help spread more mental health resources to first responders. In partnership with nonprofit Next Rung, an anonymous resource with psychiatrists on call for first responders, they are hoping to help their friends and fellow workers in the field. “Suicide, divorce, alcoholism, and drug abuse are super high in the first responder community,” Paul mentioned. But, as he said, it gets little attention when compared with the advocacy groups already in place for veterans. He hopes to change that.
I asked Paul if he ever imagined he’d be doing what he is today. He smiled again and said, “I got a philosophy degree from Texas Tech. I thought I was going to be teaching high schoolers ancient history.”
Want to learn more about Firegrounds Coffee?
Visit them here. https://www.firegroundscoffeecompany.com/
