NUMILA — Frank E. Kiger has been named vice president and general manager of Kaua’i Coffee Company, Inc., the largest coffee estate in Hawai’i and the United States. In mid-November he assumed responsibilities for all operating and marketing functions for
NUMILA — Frank E. Kiger has been named vice president and general manager of
Kaua’i Coffee Company, Inc., the largest coffee estate in Hawai’i and the
United States.
In mid-November he assumed responsibilities for all
operating and marketing functions for the company, announced G. Stephen
Holaday, senior vice president of A&B-Hawai’i, Inc.
Kaua’i Coffee is a
subsidiary of A&B-Hawai’i, Inc., which is the food products and real
property subsidiary of Honolulu-based Alexander & Baldwin, Inc.
Last
year, Kaua’i Coffee’s fields from Koloa to ‘Ele’ele produced over four million
pounds of coffee, accounting for slightly more than half of Hawai’i’s statewide
production.
This year’s harvest, which is expected to be done by the end of
this week if drier weather sets in, will be closer to five million pounds than
four million pounds, making it the largest harvest ever, Kiger
said.
Earlier this week, all but 40 acres of coffee had been harvested. And
that acreage would have been harvested by last week except for the rainy
weather the island experienced.
“This will be our largest crop ever, this
year,” he said.
Kiger, who continues to report to Holaday, said one day’s
work in dry weather will be enough to bring the rest of this year’s crop into
the factory.
Earlier this year, Kiger was named manager of operations for
Kaua’i Coffee. He joined the company in 1996 as manager of the coffee factory,
after two decades of working for McBryde Sugar Company, A&B’s former sugar
cane operation on Kaua’i.
Kiger has an extensive background in electrical
and mechanical operations, earning an associate’s degree in industrial
electricity from the University of Florida.
A native of Huntsville, Ala.,
Kiger has been a Kaua’i resident for nearly 25 years. He moved to Hawai’i
during a four-year term of service in the U.S. Marine Corps.
Kiger is a
director of the Hawai’i Coffee Association and the Hawai’i Coffee Growers
Association, and is a member and serves on the Producers Committee of the
National Coffee Association of America.
Frequently an invited speaker at
local, national and international coffee industry conferences, he will talk
about Kaua’i Coffee as an invited speaker at the Specialty Coffee Association
conference in San Francisco in April.
He lives in Kekaha with his wife
Peggy. Their adult children, James and Ginger, also live on
Kaua’i.
A&B’s other principal subsidiary is Matson Navigation Company,
Inc., which offers ocean transportation of cargo.
Additional information
about Kaua’i Coffee Company is available on the company’s Web site,
www.kauaicoffee.com. More information on A&B is available at that firm’s
Web site, www.alexanderbaldwin.com.
