Peet’s Coffee Buys Stumptown Coffee, Stumptown to Continue to Operate Independently
Portland, Ore.-based Stumptown Coffee was today bought by San Francisco Bay Area-based Peet’s Coffee, and plans are in place to expand wholesale, cold brew, and retail under the established Stumptown brand.
Dave Burwick, CEO of Peet’s Coffee, is at Stumptown Coffee’s headquarters in Portland, Ore. today to finalize the purchase. According to Stumptown VP Matt Lounsbury, Stumptown will continue to operate independently.
“This is not a merger, they’re not folding us up [into the Peet’s brand]. They want to have us continue business as usual,” says Lounsbury.
He points to Peet’s acquisition of Mighty Leaf Tea in August of 2014 as an example of how Peet’s intends to move forward with the Stumptown brand. “Peet’s wants us to continue operating independently,” says Lounsbury, who notes that current Stumptown CEO Joth Ricci will most likely remain in his position, and that staff will not only remain the same, but likely expand.
“We’ve been really growing and obviously everything is changing, we’ve been setting up these nodes across the country [to grown Stumptown’s wholesale operation], but there’s only so far we could go,” continues Lounsbury, who says that the Peet’s acquisition will allow Stumptown to “get fresh coffee and cold brew to as many people as we want.”
Lounsbury says Stumptown will expand wholesale and cold brew business, as also open more cafes both in cities that already have existing Stumptown coffeehouses, as well as new markets. Lounsbury confirms that the next Stumptown Coffee cafe will be as expected, in New Orleans in early 2016 in conjunction with that city’s Ace Hotel, but that he hopes the company also opens in “places like Austin, maybe another cafe or two in L.A., maybe another one in New York, Chicago, places where we’ve put people on the ground, Washington, D.C. If anything, we now have more momentum to do it.”
“For them [Peet’s], we’re a brand that has a loyal following, this category really has legs… that’s why we chose to do this.”
