Kauai Coffee
laying off 28 in bid
to keep operating

By Anthony Sommer
Kauai correspondent

LIHUE -- Following a dozen years of losing money, Kauai Coffee is laying off more than a third of its 80 employees in an attempt to cut costs and keep the operation alive.

Kauai Coffee's 3,400-acre plantation is the largest in the state. The company is a subsidiary of Alexander & Baldwin Inc. and the coffee crop frequently is used as an example of diversified agriculture that will replace sugar on Kauai.

The layoffs include eight management personnel and 20 union workers.

Meredith Ching, A&B vice president for government and community relations, said the decision to reduce the work force was due to a lack of growth in the specialty coffee market and the failure, so far, of Kauai coffee to win the following that Kona coffee enjoys.

The company has not set any deadline for when it expects Kauai Coffee to either make a profit or be shut down.

"Obviously, we would have liked it to make money from the beginning but no decision of that kind has been made," Ching said.

Kauai Coffee will continue to hire about 100 seasonal workers for the fall harvesting season.