PEET’S COFFEE HEADING EAST
Emeryville roaster is planning a second facility in Virginia, following the company’s fast growth clip in recent years
“We still do fresh hand roasting, and our coffee is packaged and roasted same day.” — Shawn Conway, Peet’s chief operating officer
EMERYVILLE — Peet’s Coffee is expanding its Bay Area-honed coffee-roasting processes to the East Coast.
The second roasting facility for Emeryville-based Peet’s will open in Suffolk, Virginia, to produce coffee and tea products for its growing number of stores.
The coffee company will invest $58 million in the planned 175,000-square-foot facility, which will be an East Coast counterpart to its existing roastery in Alameda. The roastery will break ground in 2017 and is slated to open in 2018.
The move comes with Peet’s on a fast growth clip. After being acquired by JAB Holding Co. in 2012, a move that took the then-publicly traded Peet’s private, the company has doubled its sales from $400 million to $800 million in the past three years, CEO Dave Burwick said in a phone interview.
It also bought Portland, Oregon-based artisan coffee company Stumptown Coffee and bought a majority stake in Chicago-based roaster Intelligentsia Coffee. Peet’s launched its first television ad last year in an effort to market new products: notably its cold-brew coffee that, according to Burwick, has been a major success.
Burwick attributes the growth to expanding across different channels: The company has grown its number of cafes, particularly in Boston
and Washington, D.C. (it had one store in D.C. in 2013, where it now has 20), and sells its coffee in grocery stores, offices, at college campuses and offices, online and at big retailers such as Costco and Target.
“We still do fresh hand roasting, and our coffee is packaged and roasted same day,” said Peet’s Chief Operating Officer Shawn Conway.
Having the new roasting facility closer to its East Coast stores will make the window of time between roasting and serving the coffee shorter, Burwick and Conway said.
Peet’s will be eligible to receive sales and use tax exemptions on its manufacturing equipment, according to a statement from Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s office. The company also will receive benefits from the Port of Virginia Economic and Infrastructure Development Zone Grant Program and funding to support its employee-training activities will be provided through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program.
Burwick said the competitive Bay Area coffee market — fueled recently by the growth of companies such as Philz, Blue Bottle and other artisan coffee purveyors — has helped Peet’s maintain high standards and set it up for growth. He plans to continue growing at the same rate it has for the past few years.
“We certainly want to continue to keep growing at the same pace,” Burwick said. “We care deeply about delivering coffee that is the best roasted and selected on the planet, and we have a lot of opportunity left.”