Barnie's Coffee CEO Gives Us More Details Of Their Latest Round of Closures and Where The Company Is Headed
By Ken Storey
We first told you of Barnie's Coffee closing almost half of their remaining seven corporate location earlier this week, including the closure of the Baldwin Park store at the end of June 2013. At its peak the chain had 110 stores; now it has only seven locations with three closing within the next few months.
We reached out to Barnie's CoffeeKitchen, as the company is now known as, for more details on this latest round of closures and how the company will move forward after more than a decade of closures and restructuring. Barnie's CoffeeKitchen CEO Johnathan Smiga gives us some more details of what is to come.
TDC- Is the Baldwin Park location being replaced with a CoffeeKitchen, or will there be zero presence in Baldwin Park by your company?
We first told you of Barnie's Coffee closing almost half of their remaining seven corporate location earlier this week, including the closure of the Baldwin Park store at the end of June 2013. At its peak the chain had 110 stores; now it has only seven locations with three closing within the next few months.
We reached out to Barnie's CoffeeKitchen, as the company is now known as, for more details on this latest round of closures and how the company will move forward after more than a decade of closures and restructuring. Barnie's CoffeeKitchen CEO Johnathan Smiga gives us some more details of what is to come.
TDC- Is the Baldwin Park location being replaced with a CoffeeKitchen, or will there be zero presence in Baldwin Park by your company?
JS- Unfortunately, we will no longer have a presence at this time in Baldwin Park. We had hoped to move our current location to one on New Broad Street but could not come to terms with the developer that met our needs. We love the BP community and hope to have the occasion to have a new store here sometime in the future.
TDC- WFTV is reporting the Baldwin Park location is moving out of Baldwin Park but is not closing.
TDC- WFTV is reporting the Baldwin Park location is moving out of Baldwin Park but is not closing.
JS- Effectively, we are "moving" to a new downtown location on Orange Avenue at the City Arts Factory. It should open in August and will allow us to offer our award-winning CoffeeKitchen coffees and farm to table foods to a broad Orlando customer base which works or enjoys downtown.
(It should be noted that the media statement provided to us on Monday, June 24 mentioned the City Arts Factory location as opening in July. As stated in our previous story, this location was first announced with an opening in 2011 and has been slowly pushed back ever since.)
(It should be noted that the media statement provided to us on Monday, June 24 mentioned the City Arts Factory location as opening in July. As stated in our previous story, this location was first announced with an opening in 2011 and has been slowly pushed back ever since.)
TDC- How many locations does the chain now have?
JS- We have 3 locations that are company owned in Orlando, a franchised location in Gainesville and several stores operating as "Proud to Serve" Barnie's licensees. As our new prototype store on Park Avenue in Winter Park is thriving, we anticipate opening more locations in that concept format throughout the State in the coming years.
TDC- How many will remain open by end of the year 2013?
TDC- How many will remain open by end of the year 2013?
JS- We anticipate all stores remaining open and serving Orlando customers as we have since 1980 with great coffee, foods and hospitality.
What do you think of this latest round of closures from the local coffee chain? Will you now be forced to find a new coffee spot? Let us know in the comments below.
And also check out our 2011 review of the Park Ave CoffeeKitchen location: the food, the interior.
What do you think of this latest round of closures from the local coffee chain? Will you now be forced to find a new coffee spot? Let us know in the comments below.
And also check out our 2011 review of the Park Ave CoffeeKitchen location: the food, the interior.