Coffee Holding Co., Inc., a publicly traded integrated wholesale coffee roaster and dealer, has purchased all of the assets of Empire Coffee Company, based in Port Chester, N.Y. 

The purchase was made under Article 9 of the UCC and consists of Empire’s inventory, equipment, accounts receivable, customer list and all intellectual property. To facilitate the purchase, Coffee Holding created a new wholly owned subsidiary named Second Empire. Operations will be conducted by Second Empire. The purchase price of $800,000 was negotiated between Coffee Holding and Empire’s former lender and was paid on Nov. 7. Coffee Holding also entered into a new lease for Empire’s property on the same day.

“We have known the principals at Empire for over 40 years,” says Andrew Gordon, president and CEO of Coffee Holding. “Unfortunately, Empire never fully recovered from the Covid-19 shutdowns and the changes in consumer buying patterns that accompanied these shutdowns. The fact that we were able to complete a transaction allowing us to operate a first-class turnkey manufacturing facility where we are currently servicing some of our customers is a big win for us. We believe the purchase price represents about $0.60 on the dollar for the assets’ true value, and we believe, given our proven ability as an operator, we can quickly improve upon Empire’s recent performance and ramp up operations and return them to pre-Covid levels of annual revenue. Unlike our past Steep/Generations acquisition, we plan on controlling the day-to-day decision making and operations of Second Empire to ensure the success of the venture. In addition, we believe the ownership of this entity will result in both manufacturing and other cost savings almost immediately, as well as giving us the flexibility in the near term to explore greater future savings in our other existing facilities.”