Kauai Coffee Company Extends WARN Notices Amid Ongoing Lease Negotiations

Kauai Coffee Company's roughly 140 employees are entering their third month of uncertainty, with the Kalaheo farm's general manager confirming the company will keep rolling its layoff warnings forward month by month until a new lease agreement is reached with landowner Brue Baukol Capital Partners.

General manager Brian Kubicki said that while the company cannot provide a formal update due to ongoing negotiations, WARN notices will be extended monthly as conversations continue beyond the current lease's end date. The company's lease on more than 3,000 acres owned by the Colorado investment firm expired around March 28, yet the farm and its coffee shop in Kalaheo remain open.

Kauai Coffee first filed a WARN notice with the state in January, required under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which mandates that employers alert workers of potential mass layoffs or closures. An original WARN notification dated January 12 followed a January 7 Kauai County Council meeting where Kauai Coffee senior advisor Wayne Katayama first publicly raised the prospect of layoffs. Local outlets reported 141 employees received those initial notices as the March 28 lease expiration approached.

A supplemental WARN notice filed March 5 with state officials complicated the picture further. That filing identified 136 employees facing potential layoffs between April 18 and May 2, 2026, and noted that an earlier layoff window of March 14 through March 28 had already been pushed back while the company attempted to secure new lease terms. "Although those negotiations remain ongoing, we believe sufficient progress has now been made to allow us to delay the contemplated closure of the business and termination of employees," the March 5 notice stated.

Despite that language about a planned permanent shutdown of farm operations, Kauai Coffee maintains it has no intention of closing. The discrepancy in employee counts across filings, ranging from 136 in the March supplemental notice to 141 in earlier local reporting, reflects shifting timelines rather than any official resolution.

James Priestley, vice president of Brue Baukol Capital Partners, said his company remains in active lease negotiations and would seek to retain Kauai Coffee employees should the management of the operation change.

Kauai Coffee is one of the largest coffee-growing operations in the United States, and a closure would eliminate positions across farm operations, processing, and support roles in the Kalaheo area. Seasonal and entry-level jobs tied to the plantation, which have historically provided employment for younger workers on the island, would also be at risk.

The company stated it does not believe the Hawaii Dislocated Workers Act formally applies because the potential closure stems from an involuntary landlord-related situation, though it filed the March 5 supplemental notice as a precautionary measure under that law. With monthly WARN extensions now the company's stated approach, the fate of the farm hinges entirely on whether Kubicki and Brue Baukol Capital Partners can reach an agreement before the notices become a reality.