June 1, 2010 - Lansing, Mich. - One of Michigan’s and the Midwest’s largest coffee roasters, Paramount Coffee, isn’t slowing down as it marks its 75th year in business.
The company, which was founded in Lansing in 1935 and will officially turn 75 in August, saw its sales increase in 2009 as it pursued a strategy of increasing its presence regionally and nationally through marketing to large retailers, private label customers and cafes and directly to customers on the Internet.
The sales surge comes 10 years after Paramount converted to an employee-owned business under an arrangement known as an employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP. Paramount was owned and operated by the Radway family until 2000, when the family sold the company to its employees.
The sale helped secure Paramount’s status as an independent, Lansing-based employer and provided job security to its 70-plus employees.
Although the company operates mainly in the Midwest, it has an international presence. It partners with Michigan State University to improve the lives of coffee growers in war-torn Rwanda. It collaborates with MSU on the Partnership for Enhancing Agriculture in Rwanda through Linkages (PEARL) program. The program has helped Rwandan communities rebuild after the devastating war and genocide of 1994. Last year, proceeds from Paramount’s Fair Trade Rwanda blend purchased 400 goats for coffee growers in Gashonga, Rwanda – greatly improving the quality of life in the village.
Company principals also travel frequently to other coffee-producing regions throughout the world to purchase the highest-quality product.
Back home, Paramount recently introduced “Joe,” a new line of gourmet coffee with no-frills packaging and a price and name to match.
Paramount has also introduced a line of single-serving pods and “MI coffee,” which features exclusive Michigan packaging. They join the company’s existing Paramount brand and its socially responsible specialty coffees – Fair Trade Rwanda and Ele’s Place Blend.
Chairman and CEO Angelo Oricchio and President and COO Steve Morris lead the company. Oricchio studied engineering in his native Brazil, where he worked for an exporting company until taking a management position at Paramount in 1990.