WESTROCK COFFEE
From Rwanda to the world's biggest brands
Westrock Coffee is an integrated coffee, tea, flavors, extracts, and ingredients solutions provider headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. What began as an initiative to connect Rwandan farmers with global retailers grew into one of the largest coffee and beverage solutions providers in the United States, supplying the world's most iconic brands through farmer partnerships spanning dozens of origin countries. Ruckus led the brand audit, identity, investor presentation, website, and internal launch.
Two companies, one brand, a public stage
Westrock came to Ruckus at an inflection point. It had just acquired S&D Coffee & Tea, a company larger than itself, and set its sights on the public markets. The existing identity could not scale to match the ambition, and the merged organization needed a single, human-centric brand that could hold up under the scrutiny of going public.
The assignment broke three ways: unify Westrock and S&D under one brand, raised as one company; rebuild the identity so it works everywhere, from a coffee bag to a boardroom; and arm leadership with an investor story ready for the road.
A new mark for a new era
The old logo could not stand on its own. Ruckus modernized and simplified the Westrock elephant into a mark that scales, replicates, and anchors the most comprehensive brand universe the company has ever had, backed by a full color and type system. A hand-drawn icon library more than forty marks deep, with patterns and illustrations rooted in origin-country craft, keeps a global supply chain company feeling like the people-first brand it is.
Behind the tagline, From the Grounds Up, Ruckus wrote the full platform: mission, vision, values, and a tone of voice that keeps farmers, employees, customers, and investors in the same conversation, so the story can be told at every altitude, from a QR code on a cup to a management presentation.
One narrative, tailored to every room
As Westrock prepared to enter the public markets, Ruckus designed the management presentation that carried its story to investors, opening with an invitation, Join Us for a Cup of Kindness, and walking every audience through the machine behind it: a vertically integrated, digitally traceable supply chain that runs from the farm to the cup, pays farmers fairly, and trains them.
Over an eight-month engagement, Ruckus absorbed the business fast enough to turn investor materials around at deal speed. The result was a presentation system, not a single deck: custom builds for each party Westrock pitched on the road to the SPAC, sharp enough for diligence and human enough to feel like Westrock.
Ruckus also designed and developed the full website, segmenting B2B buyers and investors while linking to Westrock's own retail shop, and created the We Are One Westrock launch: a printed manifesto, films tracing the supply chain, and an internal video that introduced the unified brand to every employee of the newly merged company.
Trading on Nasdaq as WEST
In August 2022, Westrock Coffee completed its business combination with Riverview Acquisition Corp. and began trading as a public company. It arrived as one company with one brand: a unified identity across every touchpoint, an investor story told in its own voice, and a mark built to be examined under the public eye.
