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Five Star buys Southern CoffeeLocal companies provide offices, businesses with vending machines, coffee, bottled water
Southern Coffee, a Chattanooga business that helps office workers stay caffeinated with break-room coffee, has been purchased by fast-growing vending machine business Five Star Food Service.
"We'll be absorbing Southern into the Five Star fold," said Chattanooga-based Five Star spokesman C. J. Recher.
The acquisition is the latest bump in size for Five Star, a vending machine juggernaut that saw its sales almost triple from 2008 to 2015 under CEO Alan Recher. It employs more than 1,000 people over several states.
Five Star, which was purchased last year by private equity firm PNC Riverarch Capital, will add Southern Coffee's accounts to its roughly 100 office coffee routes, 300 vending service routes, 600 "micro-markets," 36 cafeterias, and numerous support functions in its footprint that includes Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama.
Five Star said the purchase of Southern Coffee also will provide a new stream of revenue in bulk bottled water, filtered water and single-serve bottled water.
"Their expertise in 5-gallon bottled water service will enhance Five Star's current portfolio of services," Mike Laurer, Five Star's vice president of coffee service, said in a news release.
C.J. Recher declined to state the amount that Five Star paid for Southern Coffee.
Started in 'back of a car'
Robert Berman pulled his Southern Coffee business up by the bootstraps. He started Vending Chattanooga from the back of a car in 1979, and bought Southern Coffee in 1984 from James Powell Sr., a local pioneer in the coffee service business who founded Southern Coffee Service in 1960 in St. Elmo.
Southern Coffee now has a 15,000-square-foot warehouse on Spears Avenue in Hill City, an historic neighborhood on Chattanooga's North Shore.
Innovations that Berman made as he built his business included the introduction in 1986 of bottled spring water and, later, bottle-less water purification dispensers. After acquiring the Aramark Tri-State division in 1990, Southern grew into one of the largest vendors in the area.
"Southern has a solid track record of providing excellent coffee and water service to some of the largest companies in the greater Chattanooga area," Laurer said.
Berman and wife, Harriet, also have made numerous charitable contributions over the past 30 years.
Berman, who couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday, will remain active at Five Star serving in a sales and customer service capacity.
"We look forward to adding Robert and his talented staff to our team," Laurer said.
Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/MeetsForBusiness or twitter.com/meetforbusiness or 423-757-6651.