The Great Kansas City Coffee Consolidation continues with the announcement that Messenger Coffee and The Roasterie will be joining forces under a newly-minted parent company, FairWave Holdings.
This is the second of such intra-city coffee mergers, following the acquisition of Quay Coffee by Thou Mayest last year. Unlike the previous merger, though, where the two companies began operating under the latter’s brand, Messenger and The Roasteries will continue as separate entities. The hope with this merger, per Fox 4 KC, is to create a “nationwide specialty coffee collective” that “will help open more cafes and use their now-bigger size to leverage more business opportunities.”
The new FairWave Holdings is majority owned by Midwest investment firm Great Range Capital, whose portfolio also includes Mountain Valley Spring Water (whose 220 TDS water makes a pretty decent 50/50 blending component with purified water if you are looking for an easy way to make good brewing water. Just sayin’). Great Range has installed as CEO over FairWave, Dan Trott, who has previously served as COO for Russell Stover Chocolates.
“The reason why we’re coming together, and believing we’ll be better by coming together, is that the key tenets and principles that drove the success of both companies are common,” Trott said. “There’s a kindred spirit across the two companies. So they actually don’t have to work hard to fit together at all. But it is a new company being formed.”
Per Fox 4, FairWave is currently looking at other brands across the Midwest to join under their umbrella.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
