Salt Spring Roasting Company

In 1996, founders Mickey McLeod and Robbyn Scott opened a coffee roasting café on Salt Spring Island with the mission of bringing sustainable coffee to their island community. Salt Spring Coffee was born, and the freshly roasted coffee quickly became an island favourite, sparking conversations with customers about coffee quality and sourcing.

The café on Salt Spring Island quickly outgrew its coffee roasting capacity. The 7.5 kilogram coffee roaster was upgraded to a 30 kilogram roaster, but it wasn’t enough to keep up with demand. Mickey and Robbyn drew up plans to build a coffee roasting and education facility on Salt Spring Island, but after several months of planning, the zoning application was denied. A new space was found on the mainland, and in 2010, Salt Spring Coffee expanded roasting operations to Richmond, BC.

New operations meant expanding the family-run business and growing the team. Salt Spring Coffee’s commitment to making a positive social and environmental impact was just as important to internal operations as it was to the coffee supply chain, shaping the company’s culture and practices as it grew.