Business & Tech

Caribou Coffee Closing, Will Reopen as Peet's Coffee & Tea

All Ohio stores will close; some will reopen as Peet's Coffee & Tea — including the location on Detroit Avenue.

Rumors running rampant on the Internet are partially true: Caribou Coffee locations in Ohio are closing. 

Some locations, however, will reopen as Peet's Coffee & Tea locations, marking the company's entrance into the Ohio market.

That includes the location at 15105 Detroit Avenue in Lakewood.

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An employee at the store told Lakewood Patch on Sunday that the staff was "just told" about the closing.

"We're not very happy about it," said the employee, who asked not to be named. "We're all going to lose our jobs. We're going to be given the option to reapply for a job at Peet's, but we don't know much."

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He said the Lakewood location is one of the stores that will be converted into a Peet's, however, he added that no timeline has been given for the change.

It's expected within in couple weeks.

Just last year, the city's architectural board of review OK'd the coffee company's sign changes to the building.

An employee at the Avon Caribou Coffee location said management learned on April 5 via conference call that all Ohio locations will close down, although some will re-open as a Peet’s Coffee & Tea locations.

A manager at the Westlake location said that site on Detroit Road will close on April 14 at noon. She would not give any additional information, including whether or not the store would be reopening.

The Avon employee said the Westlake location would be closed permanently.   

According to the Avon employee, the Avon location in the Commons will remain open until the summer before closing down for three weeks and re-opening as a Peet’s coffeehouse. 

There are also locations in Tower City, Beachwood, Solon and Rocky River.

Employees in Illinois have taken to Facebook to say several of that state's locations would also close and reopen as Peet's.

In December of 2012, German conglomerate Joh. A. Benckiser Group said it would be buying the publicly traded Minneapolis-based Caribou Coffee Co. for $340 million. Earlier in the year it bought Peet’s Coffee & Tea for $1 billion.

Peet’s Coffee was founded in Berkeley, CA, and is now headquartered in Emeryville, CA. The bulk of its stores are located in California. The company also maintains stores in Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon and Washington state.

According to Caribou Coffee’s website, there are 32 locations in Ohio.


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