Dutch Bros Makes Trading Debut Making and is Now Worth Over $5B

What started many decades ago has turned into quite the success story for two third generation dairy farmers.

Dane and Travis Boersma were looking for something outside of the family business when they began a coffee cart in Downtown Grants Pass, Oregon in the early ’90s. They soon found themselves with five carts.

When Dane passed in 2009, Travis continued to build the business and today Dutch Bros Inc. is makign over $400 million a year in sales and has 471 shops across the Western U.S.

This week the company started to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “BROS” and shares were exploding 48% from the offering price of $34.01 by 12:32pm.

The company had a valuation of $5.6 billion at that point.

Travis, who is now 50, is the largest shareholder with a stake worth $2.3 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Dutch Bros declined to comment on the size of Boersma’s holding however.

Dutch Bros had net income of $6.3 million on sales of $404.5 million for the 12 months ended June 30, compared with $186 million of revenue in 2018.

The annual turnover rate among Dutch Bros’s hourly employees is 40%, compared with the industry average of more than 100%, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Michael Halen.

“It’s very difficult to hire in the restaurant industry right now,” Halen remarked. “Retaining your employees helps a lot.”

“You have experienced employees committed to the brand and making a career out of this,” he added.

Boersma stepped down as CEO in February, when veteran beverage-industry executive Joth Ricci took over the role. Boersma still acts as executive chairman.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.