Longtime Mich. coffee company expanding

By Lindsay Vanhulle Lansing State Journal LANSING (AP) - Citing growing sales, Paramount Coffee plans to invest $3.5 million into its local operations in part by opening a new distribution center near Capital Region International Airport next month. The Lansing-based roaster expects to open a 58,000-square-foot building by Aug. 1 in Clinton County's Watertown Township. It will be Paramount's central point for shipping and distribution of its coffee products. Some offices also will move there. The smell of roasting coffee beans won't leave Lansing, however. Paramount will keep its production facility near Cooley Law School Stadium, with plans to add another 20,000 square feet within two years on a site it bought next door, company leaders told the Lansing State Journal. That addition - once home to Abrams Aerial Survey Corp. - would bring total manufacturing space to roughly 100,000 square feet, possibly in the next 18 to 24 months, company President Steve Morris said. It also would allow the company to expand beyond its single small-batch roaster and three larger-yield roasters. "You can see here we are really tight for space," said Angelo Oricchio, Paramount's chairman and CEO. "We need more space for finished goods." Paramount lacks storage for finished products and loading dock space, Oricchio said. Both will be larger inside the new distribution center. "We're certainly happy to have them here," said Andrea Polverento, Watertown Township's planning director. "It's a great local company." Based in Lansing since 1935, Paramount roasts and sells coffee for all 50 states, Canada and 11 other countries, Morris said. It roasts coffee for East Lansing-based chain Biggby Coffee, and its house brands are sold online and in retailers such as Home Goods and T.J.Maxx. Morris would not disclose sales figures. But, he said, Paramount has more than tripled its volume within the last decade after it moved away from mostly Michigan-based deliveries to restaurants, cafes, hospitals and offices to place greater emphasis on distributors and private labels. Paramount has 85 employees in Lansing. It also has offices in Chicago and Charlotte, North Carolina. The company has been employee-owned since 2000. Published: Wed, Aug 06, 2014