August 23, 2023 • 10 mins
Motor Oil Coffee’s founders, Rich Fazio and Joe Bonilla, come from both a background of running an award-winning creative strategy firm, but also movie theater exhibition. This combination allows Motor Oil Coffee to expand through enhanced promotions, but also a focus on delivering a product to consumers that is focused on speed, quality, and presentation.They may be similar in those areas, plus given both were born in Brooklyn, are Geminis, went to UAlbany, worked in the exhibition industry – Joe and Rich are appropriately different.Whereas many see Joe’s exploits on social media, traversing the country by plane or bike, Rich wages the daily (and often losing) battle of raising two girls and a boy with his wife Casey. Rich is a fan of the New York Mets, where Joe is all for the Boston Red Sox. Rich, the New York Jets. Joe, the Los Angeles Rams. You get the idea.And most importantly, where Joe is the big picture, big idea person who can be detail-focused but also lofty, Rich is rooted on making the mechanics work behind the scenes both financially and operationally. It’s a winning combination that has worked for more than a decade.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
It's Doug Gouty and I'm here withanother CEO. You should know. His
name is Joe Baniah. He isone of the CEOs of motor Oil Coffee.
Morning Joe, Hey, how areyou Doug. That was a little
pun there, Morning Joe. Right, we're in the coffee games like a
couple of me if you will.Yeah, why and how did this get
(00:20):
started? So motor Oil Coffee started. I worked with a client. It
would send me across the country tocar shows, whether they were in Pebble
Beach, CA, sime Amelia Island, even nearby in the Capitol region.
And no matter if a car soldfor ten million dollars or ten thousand dollars,
no matter if somebody had overalls onor a monocle. Every time these
(00:45):
guys were set up these shows,they all would say the same thing as
they had that morning cup of coffee. Hahaha. I had my cup of
motor Oil in the morning, andI was like, this is a brilliant
name. And in past life Ihad part owned the coffee shop, learned
a lot about the business of coffee. And you know, together with my
business partner at the PR firm,Rich Fasio, we decided why don't we.
(01:06):
You know, we've helped launch otherbrands into you know, regional or
national spheres, we can do iton our own. And with coffee,
was like, you know, I'vealready done it before, let's do it
again. So we had the nameMotor Roil Coffee. It ran up by
him. He's like, you surepeople will be okay with the coffee brand
name Motor Royals that yeah, yeah, yeah, And so we started it
in January twenty twenty one. Welaunched it technically on April first, twenty
(01:29):
twenty one, so people thought itwas April fool joke until they started to
see their our sample of bags comeout there. And you know, we
first started off thinking, you knowwhat, let's just do online sales.
Let's do farmers markets and car showsand festivals. And now we have three
stores open, Forest under Management upand still Water Upton Coffee, and you
(01:52):
know, we really loved bringing ourstory of high quality, craft local coffee
to the map is here. Listen, you're in marketing and you've done pr
for a long time. You knoweveryone would say this is a saturated market.
There's so many different coffee places andcoffee companies. How did you create
(02:12):
that niche and how did you getto grow so quickly? So for us,
you know, we look at ourselvesas a upscale, affordable coffee brand.
We're not going to be your eighto'clock coffee, you know, the
coffee and my parents would drink.And you're not going to be some of
these hoity toity you know, fortydollars a bag coffees either. So we're
right middle of the road. Youknow, we're meant for everybody. We're
(02:35):
meant for you, We're meant foryour parents, for your grandparents, all
of that. It's an affordable coffeeof that is rich in flavor. We
have five mainline blends, a couplewith a couple of specialty blends, but
they're all pretty affordable ends. Unlikea lot of companies, we give people
a full pound bag, you know, both in the whole being and ground.
A lot of places they only dotwelve ounce bags or eight ounce bags,
(02:55):
still at a pretty high margin ofyou know what the look and sell
for. We do the full pounds, so therefore you're getting the best deal
for yourself. Listen, I can'ttell you how much I hate the twelve
ounce bag because I know what thatused to be, and I do feel
like I'm getting ripped off. SoI applaud you for that. Don't change
that. Whatever you will always havea sixty ounces back. All we have
(03:17):
sixty ounces back. So you've beenall over the country working for other companies
before. Why did you say theCapitol Region is where we want to start
this and where we want to growthis thing, isn't it? Yeah?
I think for us here that thereis such a sense of community in every
single corner of the Capitol Region.You know, when we've gone to farmers
(03:38):
markets or festivals, whether they're inAlbanying's Kept De Troye, Saratoga, Clifton
Park, still Water, you know, every single community is a little bit
different, and there's always that demandfor a good cup of coffee and also
that that's in the community. Solike, for example, when we look
at locations to open, we lookat areas that are underserved by crowd coffee.
(04:00):
And so we found, you know, intent to Albany there were only
a couple other coffee shops. Hesaid, that's probably a pretty good spot
for us to do that. AndPine Hills and Albany we did the same
thing. Opening up next to themassive theater. So and every location that
we've opened has been part of thatneighborhood character. It reflects the residents,
the businesses, and the visitors ofthat neighborhood. So we're not going to
(04:21):
just PLoP in and drop a motoroilcoffee as that wait minute, this looks
totally different than what we're used toin the neighborhood. No, we we
take into account what it needs tobe for our regular customers, who are
gonna be the folks who are walkingin, driving in from a few blocks
away, getting that cup of coffee, getting that bait good, getting that
sandwich, meeting up with friends orfamily, or whatever they need to do,
(04:42):
maybe working on if they're in college, they're working on a turn paper,
if they're looking for a job,whatever. We're that place for everybody
to be themselves, to be ableto reflect the character those shops. And
so for us, you know,we want motor Royle Coffee to be everything
it can be. And for peoplewho have up every day, does it
feel knowing that the Capitol region hassort of embraced you and the expansion is
(05:03):
already underway one hundred percent? Youknow, we are probably one of the
more unique coffee companies, not justregionally but nationally because we do so many
events, so people get a goodtaste of us literally and figuratively by going
to festivals and car shows and farmersmarkets. Because they'll be able to go
to one of our stands, graba couple of coffee, whether it's one
(05:26):
of our hot coffees that we haveavailable or our coalbrew. Maybe they'll say,
you know what, I'm got tobuy a bag to bring home,
and then they realize, you knowwhat I work at allbody I work,
and still what are I work?Wherever? I'll stop into that cafe as
well. So that whole process fromthe first initial activation of somebody seeing the
brand to then embracing us and thencoming in becoming a regular, We've seen
(05:47):
the time and time again and again. I think one of the things I
want to hang our hat on isgoing back to the events. We do
four to five hundred events a year. That's what we're on track to do
right now. Most coffee companies arelike, no, that's too much work.
We're like, you know, let'sdo it, let's bring it,
let's make it happen. And againwe find that the most organic form of
marketing because our people are out there, they love to sell the product,
(06:09):
they love to promote the product,and we love talking to people about the
greatest thing of all, which iscoffee. What's the number one challenge you
have? I know is a prguy, you're always like, don't tell
me about that, just tell meabout what you got. But now you're
on the other end of it.So what's the challenges you've had? Is
you've gotten this thing to go on. I think our challenge and it's it's
a certainly a problem that was causedby us, is that we've had rapidly
(06:32):
growth, and so it's trying tokeep up with that demand is always the
challenge. And making sure that wehave you know, the right coffee available,
the amount of coffee available, thatwe have the right team members available.
And I'll say this, you know, we've had a lot of small
things and every location we've opened,and I'll throw to our head of retail
ups from Man Carter, He'll saythis, every time every time we've opened
(06:55):
a location, we've solved the oldproblems, but we've created new problems.
So every time go through that process, we identify, oh, we have
we have enough of that that thatyet, so that's our challenge sometimes is
trying to continually finesse this so thereforeit is running on its own. And
again we have a great team ofpeople together for this. I think,
(07:15):
honestly, you know, the reasonthe reason why we chose this region is
because it doesn't brace that. ButI think in terms of our challenges,
it's really just trying to figure outhow can we be better every time.
I know where you started, Iknow where you've come in just a short
amount of time. Let's let's playthis out now. Five years from now,
(07:35):
tell me about motor Oil coffee.You know you asked five years from
how its like about five months fromnow? You know, I'll say this.
You know, we we've been instocks with additional folks about opening up
locations in the Adirondacks in central NewYork, certainly more in the Capitol region.
(07:55):
We've had interest in opening up alocation down south as well. So
the growth patterns is there. Wecertainly are open to franchising for folks.
We want people to be able tobrace I think, unlike any other major
brand, the opportunity to get intothe market for coffee here with us as
a pretty low threshold. We tellpeople like you know, this could be
(08:16):
an opportunity for you to be yourown boss and again be able to help
and bring and again for us asPR people, marketers. All of that.
We provide that, you know,thirty thousand foot you know, aerial
support for building up your brand inthat location. Let's let you want to
open up a motor oil coffee,you know, outside of Rochester. We
would come in and be able tohelp you out for that. So I
(08:37):
think you know, that's where wesee our growth, as you know,
so we want to be able tobuild that brand from brick and mortar,
our events, online sales. Soit's more of doing the same thing but
getting better at it. I knoweverybody has ideas for you. I've got
a really dumb one for you.You're gonna humor me here, yeah,
of course. So for your Albanylocation, how about this is the midnight
(09:01):
oil. This is what they drinkwhen they're doing it to you while you're
sleeping. This is what keeps themup. But the tagline has to be
it won't make you think like theythink, but you can drink what they
drink. I could be solding thatI could be solding that. I don't
think you could. I think you'relike, I don't want any part.
Here's the thing. We have tonsof different names which are like different kitchen
(09:22):
things like, for example, areespecially with jet fueling, right, you
know, we have things like that. We have a wrestling blend we did
with the International Wrestling Hall of Famecalled hot Tag. You know. So
there's different things that we always willdo. But we're we will go full
in on you know, the cheesehere. We'll do it. Well.
If that's true, you come backto me because I got a oil you
(09:43):
know I will. Joe, congratulationsand all the success disguise the limit and
I know you guys are going tocontinue to just kill it. So just
keep doing what you're doing. Appreciatethe time. Thanks so much. That's
Joe Benny a CEO. You shouldknow. He's the CEO Old Motor Oil
Coffee right here on w g Y
It's Doug Gouty and I'm here withanother CEO. You should know. His
name is Joe Baniah. He isone of the CEOs of motor Oil Coffee.
Morning Joe, Hey, how areyou Doug. That was a little
pun there, Morning Joe. Right, we're in the coffee games like a
couple of me if you will.Yeah, why and how did this get
(00:20):
started? So motor Oil Coffee started. I worked with a client. It
would send me across the country tocar shows, whether they were in Pebble
Beach, CA, sime Amelia Island, even nearby in the Capitol region.
And no matter if a car soldfor ten million dollars or ten thousand dollars,
no matter if somebody had overalls onor a monocle. Every time these
(00:45):
guys were set up these shows,they all would say the same thing as
they had that morning cup of coffee. Hahaha. I had my cup of
motor Oil in the morning, andI was like, this is a brilliant
name. And in past life Ihad part owned the coffee shop, learned
a lot about the business of coffee. And you know, together with my
business partner at the PR firm,Rich Fasio, we decided why don't we.
(01:06):
You know, we've helped launch otherbrands into you know, regional or
national spheres, we can do iton our own. And with coffee,
was like, you know, I'vealready done it before, let's do it
again. So we had the nameMotor Roil Coffee. It ran up by
him. He's like, you surepeople will be okay with the coffee brand
name Motor Royals that yeah, yeah, yeah, And so we started it
in January twenty twenty one. Welaunched it technically on April first, twenty
(01:29):
twenty one, so people thought itwas April fool joke until they started to
see their our sample of bags comeout there. And you know, we
first started off thinking, you knowwhat, let's just do online sales.
Let's do farmers markets and car showsand festivals. And now we have three
stores open, Forest under Management upand still Water Upton Coffee, and you
(01:52):
know, we really loved bringing ourstory of high quality, craft local coffee
to the map is here. Listen, you're in marketing and you've done pr
for a long time. You knoweveryone would say this is a saturated market.
There's so many different coffee places andcoffee companies. How did you create
(02:12):
that niche and how did you getto grow so quickly? So for us,
you know, we look at ourselvesas a upscale, affordable coffee brand.
We're not going to be your eighto'clock coffee, you know, the
coffee and my parents would drink.And you're not going to be some of
these hoity toity you know, fortydollars a bag coffees either. So we're
right middle of the road. Youknow, we're meant for everybody. We're
(02:35):
meant for you, We're meant foryour parents, for your grandparents, all
of that. It's an affordable coffeeof that is rich in flavor. We
have five mainline blends, a couplewith a couple of specialty blends, but
they're all pretty affordable ends. Unlikea lot of companies, we give people
a full pound bag, you know, both in the whole being and ground.
A lot of places they only dotwelve ounce bags or eight ounce bags,
(02:55):
still at a pretty high margin ofyou know what the look and sell
for. We do the full pounds, so therefore you're getting the best deal
for yourself. Listen, I can'ttell you how much I hate the twelve
ounce bag because I know what thatused to be, and I do feel
like I'm getting ripped off. SoI applaud you for that. Don't change
that. Whatever you will always havea sixty ounces back. All we have
(03:17):
sixty ounces back. So you've beenall over the country working for other companies
before. Why did you say theCapitol Region is where we want to start
this and where we want to growthis thing, isn't it? Yeah?
I think for us here that thereis such a sense of community in every
single corner of the Capitol Region.You know, when we've gone to farmers
(03:38):
markets or festivals, whether they're inAlbanying's Kept De Troye, Saratoga, Clifton
Park, still Water, you know, every single community is a little bit
different, and there's always that demandfor a good cup of coffee and also
that that's in the community. Solike, for example, when we look
at locations to open, we lookat areas that are underserved by crowd coffee.
(04:00):
And so we found, you know, intent to Albany there were only
a couple other coffee shops. Hesaid, that's probably a pretty good spot
for us to do that. AndPine Hills and Albany we did the same
thing. Opening up next to themassive theater. So and every location that
we've opened has been part of thatneighborhood character. It reflects the residents,
the businesses, and the visitors ofthat neighborhood. So we're not going to
(04:21):
just PLoP in and drop a motoroilcoffee as that wait minute, this looks
totally different than what we're used toin the neighborhood. No, we we
take into account what it needs tobe for our regular customers, who are
gonna be the folks who are walkingin, driving in from a few blocks
away, getting that cup of coffee, getting that bait good, getting that
sandwich, meeting up with friends orfamily, or whatever they need to do,
(04:42):
maybe working on if they're in college, they're working on a turn paper,
if they're looking for a job,whatever. We're that place for everybody
to be themselves, to be ableto reflect the character those shops. And
so for us, you know,we want motor Royle Coffee to be everything
it can be. And for peoplewho have up every day, does it
feel knowing that the Capitol region hassort of embraced you and the expansion is
(05:03):
already underway one hundred percent? Youknow, we are probably one of the
more unique coffee companies, not justregionally but nationally because we do so many
events, so people get a goodtaste of us literally and figuratively by going
to festivals and car shows and farmersmarkets. Because they'll be able to go
to one of our stands, graba couple of coffee, whether it's one
(05:26):
of our hot coffees that we haveavailable or our coalbrew. Maybe they'll say,
you know what, I'm got tobuy a bag to bring home,
and then they realize, you knowwhat I work at allbody I work,
and still what are I work?Wherever? I'll stop into that cafe as
well. So that whole process fromthe first initial activation of somebody seeing the
brand to then embracing us and thencoming in becoming a regular, We've seen
(05:47):
the time and time again and again. I think one of the things I
want to hang our hat on isgoing back to the events. We do
four to five hundred events a year. That's what we're on track to do
right now. Most coffee companies arelike, no, that's too much work.
We're like, you know, let'sdo it, let's bring it,
let's make it happen. And againwe find that the most organic form of
marketing because our people are out there, they love to sell the product,
(06:09):
they love to promote the product,and we love talking to people about the
greatest thing of all, which iscoffee. What's the number one challenge you
have? I know is a prguy, you're always like, don't tell
me about that, just tell meabout what you got. But now you're
on the other end of it.So what's the challenges you've had? Is
you've gotten this thing to go on. I think our challenge and it's it's
a certainly a problem that was causedby us, is that we've had rapidly
(06:32):
growth, and so it's trying tokeep up with that demand is always the
challenge. And making sure that wehave you know, the right coffee available,
the amount of coffee available, thatwe have the right team members available.
And I'll say this, you know, we've had a lot of small
things and every location we've opened,and I'll throw to our head of retail
ups from Man Carter, He'll saythis, every time every time we've opened
(06:55):
a location, we've solved the oldproblems, but we've created new problems.
So every time go through that process, we identify, oh, we have
we have enough of that that thatyet, so that's our challenge sometimes is
trying to continually finesse this so thereforeit is running on its own. And
again we have a great team ofpeople together for this. I think,
(07:15):
honestly, you know, the reasonthe reason why we chose this region is
because it doesn't brace that. ButI think in terms of our challenges,
it's really just trying to figure outhow can we be better every time.
I know where you started, Iknow where you've come in just a short
amount of time. Let's let's playthis out now. Five years from now,
(07:35):
tell me about motor Oil coffee.You know you asked five years from
how its like about five months fromnow? You know, I'll say this.
You know, we we've been instocks with additional folks about opening up
locations in the Adirondacks in central NewYork, certainly more in the Capitol region.
(07:55):
We've had interest in opening up alocation down south as well. So
the growth patterns is there. Wecertainly are open to franchising for folks.
We want people to be able tobrace I think, unlike any other major
brand, the opportunity to get intothe market for coffee here with us as
a pretty low threshold. We tellpeople like you know, this could be
(08:16):
an opportunity for you to be yourown boss and again be able to help
and bring and again for us asPR people, marketers. All of that.
We provide that, you know,thirty thousand foot you know, aerial
support for building up your brand inthat location. Let's let you want to
open up a motor oil coffee,you know, outside of Rochester. We
would come in and be able tohelp you out for that. So I
(08:37):
think you know, that's where wesee our growth, as you know,
so we want to be able tobuild that brand from brick and mortar,
our events, online sales. Soit's more of doing the same thing but
getting better at it. I knoweverybody has ideas for you. I've got
a really dumb one for you.You're gonna humor me here, yeah,
of course. So for your Albanylocation, how about this is the midnight
(09:01):
oil. This is what they drinkwhen they're doing it to you while you're
sleeping. This is what keeps themup. But the tagline has to be
it won't make you think like theythink, but you can drink what they
drink. I could be solding thatI could be solding that. I don't
think you could. I think you'relike, I don't want any part.
Here's the thing. We have tonsof different names which are like different kitchen
(09:22):
things like, for example, areespecially with jet fueling, right, you
know, we have things like that. We have a wrestling blend we did
with the International Wrestling Hall of Famecalled hot Tag. You know. So
there's different things that we always willdo. But we're we will go full
in on you know, the cheesehere. We'll do it. Well.
If that's true, you come backto me because I got a oil you
(09:43):
know I will. Joe, congratulationsand all the success disguise the limit and
I know you guys are going tocontinue to just kill it. So just
keep doing what you're doing. Appreciatethe time. Thanks so much. That's
Joe Benny a CEO. You shouldknow. He's the CEO Old Motor Oil
Coffee right here on w g Y
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