Kauai Coffee Warns 141 Workers of Potential Layoffs as Land Lease Nears End

This image “Sign at the entrance to the Kauaʻi Coffee Company” by Famartin is shared via Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Kauai Coffee Co., one of the largest coffee-growing operations in the United States, has warned employees of potential layoffs as land lease negotiations remain unresolved. 

Multiple local outlets — including Kaua’i Now and Hawaii News Now — reported that the company distributed Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notices to 141 employees as the March 28 lease expiration date approaches. WARN notices are not a guarantee of layoffs, but they do formally signal that business closure is imminent if underlying issues are not resolved.  

The notices follow a Jan. 7 Kauai County Council meeting in which Kauai Coffee Co. senior advisor Wayne Katayama first publicly warned of potential layoffs.

“I cannot overestimate the seriousness of why I am here before you today,” Katayama told the council. “We will continue to seek some kind of resolution and hopefully that we’ll be able to negotiate something successfully by the end of March. That however has put a strain on our 2026 crop for our farming operations and processing operations.”

Kauai Coffee Co. currently grows approximately 4 million coffee trees on approximately 3,000 acres, while operating all agricultural, post-harvest processing, roasting, packaging and business activities in Kauai. The company employs three certified Q graders.

Beyond its role as a commercial producer, Kauai Coffee has long functioned as a tourist stop on the island’s south shore, operating a visitor center with retail sales and coffee tastings and encouraging visitors to walk through a portion of the plantation.

Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA took over Kauai Coffee’s coffee operations in 2011 through a deal with former Kauai Coffee Co. parent company Alexander & Baldwin (A&B), leasing the coffee land. In a $76 million deal in 2022, A&B sold the land to Brue Baukol Capital Partners, the current landlord.

In 2024, a commercial real estate brokerage and advisory firm called CBRE first listed the 4,713-acre “Kauai Coffee Lands” property for sale, describing it as a “generational investment opportunity” in a property that “is home to the largest coffee farm in North America.”

At the Jan. 7 hearing, Katayama said the current landlord had indicated “they would want to continue a coffee operation, post our exit.” Yet Katayama also stressed that building Kauai Coffee to this point has relied upon deep institutional knowledge to build a “fully integrated coffee company” within the higher-end specialty coffee market.

James Priestley, vice president of Brue Baukol Capital Partners, said in a statement that his company remains in active lease negotiations and would seek to retain Kauai Coffee employees should the management change, according to a Kaua’i Now report.

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