Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | coffee roasting |
Founded | Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States (1919 ) |
Founder | Norman "Cap" Saurage |
Products |
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Community Coffee is a coffee roaster and distributor based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States. [1] As of 2005, it was the largest family-owned coffee brand in the United States, controlling 52% of the market in South Louisiana and 72% in Baton Rouge, and employing 850 people. [2] The company has distribution throughout markets in the Southeastern United States. [3] [4] [5]
Community Coffee originated in 1919 when company founder Norman "Cap" Saurage began experimenting with coffee blends at his two grocery stores in downtown Baton Rouge. Demand for the coffee increased to the extent that by 1923, Saurage moved his coffee production to a converted barn, and in 1924, left his grocery business to focus on coffee. [6]
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Jim Henson made a series of commercials for Community starring early Muppets characters Wilkins and Wontkins. These were remakes of commercials originally produced for the Wilkins coffee company. [7]
The company now imports coffee beans from Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico through ports in New Orleans and Houston. [8] Since 1988, it has run a program in which UPC labels from its products can be redeemed for donations to Louisiana schools. [9] In 2002 Community entered into a deal with the Abahuzamugambi farming cooperative in Rwanda, facilitated by the PEARL agricultural program, to purchase Maraba coffee. This was the first direct contract between an African farming cooperative and American coffee roaster. [10]
In 1995, Community Coffee began opening a chain of retail coffeehouses throughout Louisiana. Community also launched stores in Texas and Alabama, however, ventures in neighboring states failed due to the entrenchment of Starbucks and local brands. [2] In 2013, Community spun off its coffee house business into a separate company named CC's Coffee House in order to facilitate out-of-state expansion. CC's remains under the ownership of the Saurage family. [11]
Baton Rouge is the capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it had a population of 227,470 as of 2020; it is the seat of Louisiana's most populous parish (county-equivalent), East Baton Rouge Parish, and the center of Louisiana's second-largest metropolitan area, Greater Baton Rouge.
Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc., styled as Winn✓Dixie, is an American supermarket chain headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. It operates more than 546 stores in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. The company has had its present name since 1955 and can trace its roots back to 1925.
Tully's Coffee is an American specialty coffee manufacturing brand owned by Keurig Dr Pepper, which acquired Tully's brand and wholesale business in 2009.
Peet's Coffee is a San Francisco Bay Area-based specialty coffee roaster and retailer owned by JAB Holding Company via JDE Peet's. Founded in 1966 by Alfred Peet in Berkeley, California, Peet's introduced the United States to its darker roasted Arabica coffee in blends including French roast and grades appropriate for espresso drinks. Peet's offers freshly roasted beans, brewed coffee and espresso beverages, as well as bottled cold brew. In 2007, Peet's opened the first LEED Gold Certified roastery in the United States. Peet's coffee is sold in over 14,000 grocery stores across the United States.
Timothy's World Coffee is a large Canadian coffee roasting company and chain of coffeeshops.
Sav-A-Center was a trade name owned by The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company.
The Advocate is Louisiana's largest daily newspaper. Based in Baton Rouge, it serves the southern portion of the state. Separate editions for New Orleans, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate, and for Acadiana, The Acadiana Advocate, are published. It also publishes gambit, about New Orleans food, culture, events, and news, and weekly entertainment magazines: Red in Baton Rouge and Lafayette, and Beaucoup in New Orleans.
Keurig Dr Pepper Inc., formerly Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (1981–2014) and Keurig Green Mountain (2014–2018), is a publicly traded American beverage and coffeemaker conglomerate with headquarters in Burlington, Massachusetts and Frisco, Texas. Formed in July 2018, with the merger of Keurig Green Mountain and Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Keurig Dr Pepper offers over 125 hot and cold beverages. The company's Canadian business unit subsidiary operates as Keurig Dr Pepper Canada.
Maraba coffee is grown in the Maraba area of southern Rwanda. Maraba's coffee plants are the Bourbon variety of the Coffea arabica species and are grown on fertile volcanic soils on high-altitude hills. The fruit is handpicked, mostly during the rainy season between March and May, and brought to a washing station in Maraba, where the coffee beans are extracted and dried. At several stages, the beans are sorted according to quality. The farmers receive credits based on the amount and quality of the beans they provide.
Delchamps was a chain of supermarkets along the central Gulf Coast of the United States, headquartered in Mobile, Alabama. At the time of its acquisition in 1997, the company had 118 supermarkets in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida and its stock was public traded on NASDAQ under DLCH.
Juan Valdez Café is a multinational coffeehouse chain based in Colombia that specializes in coffee retail. Its purpose is to become a member of the worldwide coffee restaurant business, and promote Colombian coffee. It was created by Colombia's National Federation of Coffee Growers through Procafecol S.A.; the latter being a company established in 2002. It was named after Juan Valdez, a fictional character meant to promote Colombian-grown coffee.
Cortana Mall was an enclosed shopping mall in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and was at the intersection of Airline Highway and Florida Blvd. It was last owned by Moonbeam Equities of Las Vegas, Nevada. It opened in 1976 and was demolished in 2021.
Rouses Markets are a chain of grocery supermarkets in the U.S. states of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi with more than 6,500 employees.
Reily Foods Company is the primary division of Wm. B. Reily & Company Inc. and specializes in selling food and beverages. The company started in the coffee and tea business and has diversified through to include condiments, dressings, seasonings, and baking products. Luzianne Iced Tea is available nationally while other products have greater distribution and demand in the Southern United States. The Reily Foods Company is headquartered in the Central Business District of New Orleans, Louisiana.
Peace Coffee is an organization based in Minneapolis, Minnesota that sells organic, fair trade coffee. The company sells coffee through grocery, retail stores, food co-ops, and via the Internet. The organization operates throughout the United States with a strong presence in the Upper Midwest.
Balzac's Coffee is a Canadian coffee company with sixteen retail locations across Southwestern Ontario and the GTA, including Toronto Niagara, Kitchener, Stratford, Guelph, and Kingston. The first Balzac’s café was opened in Stratford, Ontario, in 1996, by entrepreneur Diana Olsen. Named after the famous French novelist and famed coffee drinker Honoré de Balzac, the cafes serve conventional and fair trade blends, as well as espressos, hot chocolate and a variety of cold beverages. Each Balzac's Coffee location has commissioned a café poster unique to the community it serves.
Gaviña Gourmet Coffee is a coffee importer and roaster located in Vernon, California. It produces the Don Francisco's Coffee, Gaviña and La Llave coffee brands, as well as private label coffees.
Southern Marsh Collection, also known as Southern Marsh, is a clothing and accessories retailer headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
BBQGuys is a barbecue grill retailer headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It was founded in 1998 by Air Force veteran Michael Hackley and his wife, Ladina Hackley, as the Grill Store & More, and later rebranded as BBQGuys as the store transitioned to online retail during the dot-com bubble. In 2019, BBQGuys was awarded the Small Business of the Week by the United States Senate Committee. In late 2020, the company was acquired by private equity firm Brand Velocity Partners.
Schwegmann Brothers Giant Supermarkets, commonly known as Schwegmann or colloquially Schwegmann's, is a defunct grocery store chain that served the New Orleans, Louisiana, metropolitan area and one location in Baton Rouge until 1997. The chain developed significant innovations in grocery retailing and influenced other big box retailers that emerged in the latter 20th century and early 21st century. The founder and chief executive of the modern version of the chain was John G. Schwegmann, although his uncle and grandfather ran predecessors to the modern chain.