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Top Articles of 2024, #18: Westrock Coffee Poised for RTD Growth

The #18 most clicked article of 2024: Launched originally as a means of aiding Rwandan coffee farmers, Westrock Coffee just opened an Arkansas manufacturing plant that includes three sophisticated packaging lines.

This graphic mockup illustrates the kinds of containers Westrock can fill for its private-label customers.
This graphic mockup illustrates the kinds of containers Westrock can fill for its private-label customers.

When Scott Ford, former president and CEO of wireless data tech supplier Alltel Corp, sold that firm to Verizon in 2009 for $28 billion, he took some time to think about what his next move should be. As a charitable gesture, he also joined an economic advisory council serving Rwanda. When he realized that independent farmers in that central African nation were not getting nearly as much for their coffee as they should be, he knew what his next move had to be: build a private-label coffee business predicated on getting a fair wage to the small and independent coffee farmers of Rwanda.

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