Coffee Holding Co. to Close Facility in North Andover, Massachusetts

U.S. wholesale coffee roaster and dealer Coffee Holding Co. Inc. announced it will close its Comfort Foods North Andover, Mass., processing facility at the end of October, according to a release from the company.

The North Andover facility, the release noted, was a critical component to Coffee Holding’s acquisition of Comfort Foods in 2017. That acquisition was driven by Coffee Holding’s 2009 shuttering of its Brooklyn, N.Y., facility — after which all production was moved to Colorado. The Comfort Foods deal (at a cost of $2 million) brought East Coast production capabilities back to Coffee Holdings, along with the regional Harmony Bay brand.

However, Harmony Bay’s sales had begun to steadily decline, which the company pinned on retailers giving less shelf space to regional brands in favor of national brands. The nail in the proverbial coffin for North Andover came through Coffee Holding’s recent acquisition of Empire Coffee Co., which included a Port Chester, N.Y., processing facility — and that’s where Coffee Holding expects to transition all North Andover production.

The company expects closure of the North Andover facility and transfer of all private brand, Harmony Bay, Café Supremo and Café Caribe production to Port Chester to create annualized net savings on overhead of approximately $700,000, the release said.