What's next after Ham’n Goodys owners buy trendy Mahalo Coffee Roasters brand
Ham’n Goodys owner Dale Harold says he and Trevor Bayne had talked about doing some kind of cross-branding with Bayne’s Mahalo Coffee Roasters.
“(Bayne) and I had a struck up a friendship a few years ago,” Harold said. “Then we were talking last fall, and he had been approached with some great opportunities for him and his family back in the sports world (where Bayne was a NASCAR driver and won the Daytona 500 at age 20 in 2011), and he was trying to decide how he could do both.”
The solution became obvious, said Harold. “We thought, we are here and operating and maybe we could come to an agreement.”
Harold and his wife, Elizabeth, decided to buy the small local chain from Trevor and Ashton Bayne.
“We did it quietly; we didn’t want it to be about us,” Harold said. "It’s about the people in the stores and the product. Trevor is still involved in promoting Mahalo, and in terms of support, he built such a great operations team and they know so much about coffee, I’m just along for the ride. They’re fantastic.”
A little background: Harold purchased Ham’n Goodys from the original owners, Leroy and Emily “Miss Cookie” Shoemaker, in 2016. Since then, he has expanded beyond the 314 S. Northshore store, opening a second location in Cedar Bluff in June 2019, then a satellite store on Gay Street in September 2020.
Demand for the signature Ham’n Goodys iced lemon cookie led Harold to open a Ham’n Goodys headquarters in August 2021, in part of the former Regal Cinemas complex in Halls. There they bake thousands of cookies every day for their shops, cookie trucks and fundraising groups.
Mahalo currently keeps a fresh supply of Flour Head Bakery items for their coffee shop customers in their shops on Emory Road, Union Avenue and at Harper Auto Wash on Alcoa Highway.
“We will just have to wait and see,” said Harold about whether customers will be able to purchase Ham’n Goodys in the coffee shops. “I will let the staff and customers dictate. That is the beautiful thing about Mahalo, that it isn’t broken and doesn’t need to be fixed, and I want to let that continue.”
Mahalo coffee and Ham’n Goodys’ cookies are shipped around the country and wholesaled through their respective websites. “We may have a lot of crossover there; the cookies and coffee would be a great complement,” Harold said.
Bayne’s leadership team was driving the company in 2022 and continues to do so, Harold said. “I hate to say it this way: I bring very little to the table,” he said. “I am here to support them however I can. They are teaching me all about coffee and what specialty coffee is and can be.”
Thanks to the common ownership, Harold said he can offer the same employee benefits to Mahalo employees that the Ham’n Goodys team enjoys.
“If you’ve ever been in a Mahalo, you know they are already experts at customer service, the product is great, the people are great and the presence in the community is as well,” he said. “I have learned that every cup of coffee has a story behind it.
“We have a guy who just got back from Colombia, and next week we have two other guys traveling to the coffee’s origin and we are really trying to bridge the gap between the farmers and consumers.”
Ham’n Goodys is also continuing to thrive. “We just opened Sevierville in January,” said Harold. “We are looking forward to opening a location on Clinton Highway on April 1 in the little strip center in front of the Knoxville Expo Center.”
As for the Halls headquarters, Harold said they have room to cook more. “Our next step will be to add a second shift, when it becomes necessary,” he said. “Elizabeth and I are thankful to God for the opportunities provided each day.”
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Ham’n Goodys buys Trevor Bayne’s Mahalo coffee chain
