Coffee stand navigates challenge of unique business model

BIG LAKE — There may be a coffee hut on every corner and a Starbucks inside every grocery store in the Valley, but there is only one floating coffee hut — and it’s on Big Lake.

Anchored just a couple hundred yards from the Islander Lodge floats Coffee Port Espresso, the brainchild of owners Billi and Gary Perkins and a cousin of Billi’s.

And why not a floating coffee hut? After all, according to market research firm IBISWorld, the U.S. coffee industry produces about $10 billion in annual sales and enjoyed annual growth of 4.2 percent from 2008 to 2013.

For Billi Perkins, though, it is not really about the money. It is about being on the lake.

“Where is there a better place?” asked Perkins. “Even if I don’t have any business, I don’t care because I am on the lake. Like our sign says, ‘If you’re lucky enough to be on the lake you’re lucky enough.’ That’s kind of my motto. It’s so beautiful out here. I love it.”

There has to be a real love there because running a floating coffee hut comes with a whole different set of problems. For starters, because it is floating on a lake it has to be registered as a boat and have life jackets at the ready. And even though she is surrounded by water, potable is one of her biggest issues.

“Water is my biggest commodity,” said Perkins. “I have to monitor my water so much. I cannot waste a drop because we have to haul it all in and we have to bring it all home.”

There is also the problem of power. Perkins uses a trickle charger solar panel to run her water pump and electricity. For everything she has a generator.

“Because I run by generator, I have to watch my amperage. If I run too much I blow my generator,” she said.

To keep from blowing the generator takes a little bit of coordination. When the coffee pot is on, the blender is off she joked.

Perkins would like to get power run to her hut from Long Island, but the cost is steep. She said Matanuska Electric Association quoted her $15,000.

“Right now I can run my generator for eight hours on a gallon of gas, which is around $5. Perkins said she has also looked into solar and wind, but the price for that is still too much.

“We did some pretty intensive research,” she said. “It would cost close to $25,000 and take up most of our island.”

Another big challenge is the help. Just because you know how to make a cup of coffee doesn’t mean you can run this coffee stand. There is a whole other skill set needed.

Perkins said that because the hut is on a lake and power comes from a generator, she can’t hire just anybody. “I have to know they can handle the boat, the generator the water, all that.”

Probably one of the biggest challenges for the floating coffee stand is weather.

“If there is nobody on the lake I have no customers,” she said. “But on a sunny day I am hopping. You’d be surprised how much coffee you sell on a sunny day.

Still, the business has been fun and has continued to grow. Before they were anchored to an island, they would move around the lake from spot to spot.

Perkins said they would bounce around from place to place anchoring, but she would come across folks who would tell her they could never find her on the lake. So when they came across the small island they grabbed it up.

Perkins said they found this little island that you can’t really do anything with except tie to. “So we bought it and have been here ever since.”

Although she admits being mobile was kind of cool — in fact, the first summer they were open they did deliveries and dock-to-dock sales to help drum up business.

“We got in the boat and took a generator and a blender and ran the shoreline,” she said. “We literally were going door to door selling smoothies.”

Six years later, the business is still afloat, and Perkins has plans to expand.

She hopes to add a larger deck for seating and food.

“I get begged by the weekenders to serve hot dogs and hamburgers,” she said. “So my long-term goal is to do that.”

But an even longer-term goal is to build a successful business and maybe sell it.

“I’d like to maybe build this business up sell it as a package. Maybe set my retirement,” she said.

But she also said that she wouldn’t mind becoming a sunbird and working the coffee stand in the summer and traveling outside in the winter. “I like it, and if I can just do this every summer, I’d like that too.”

What: The Coffee Port Espresso is located near Long Island about 100 yards from Long Island Lodge

Hours: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., through Labor Day.