Just breaking on the Wilamette Week: A secret, highly-respected source has stepped forward to bring stunning, surely-everyone’s-business insider information to the public regarding Stumptown’s relationship with TSG. To protect the name of this anonymous, respected source – and so as to not give him any unwanted publicity, the sort a tremulous, tantrum-struck child might seek – we’ll refer to him by a pseudonym throughout the excerpt:
“Alex Panos looked me in the eye and said he purchased 90 percent of Stumptown from Duane Sorenson and planned to then fund a big expansion,” <Total Dick> told WW.
Panos didn’t mention how much his firm paid for its stake in Stumptown.
Panos has not responded to calls from WW seeking an interview.
According to <Total Dick>, Panos said his firm hoped to merge Stumptown with other coffee companies. Panos proposed that La Colombe join in, <Total Dick> says. And he says Panos asked <Total Dick> if he might reach out to other specialty coffee companies, such as Chicago-based Intelligentsia, Blue Bottle, which is based in San Francisco; and Counter Culture, from Durham, North Carolina.
<Total Dick> said his company had one more meeting with TSG officials on May 18, and that because of a confidentially agreement, he could not discuss details. But it was clear to him that Stumptown was no longer locally owned and was under the control of TSG.
<Total Dick> also told WW he was not interested in merging or being part of a deal with TSG and Stumptown.
Sorry, <Total Dick>, “Deep Throat” was already taken. Read the full thing here at WW and get ready for more of this throughout the week.
