WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana (January 2021) — Business for Copper Moon Coffee is continuing to expand, with the Lafayette-based coffee company opening two new brick and mortar locations in West Lafayette, Indiana.
One café is located on Purdue’s campus in the Agricultural & Biological Engineering (ABE) building on 225 South University Street and is now open as Purdue students, faculty, and staff begin their Spring Semester. The other café is also now open, located on 351 Sagamore Parkway, in the former Salin Bank building next to Dog n Suds, Nick Thompson, Copper Moon Coffee’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing, said.
“We always wanted to get into that area (West Lafayette) and felt the Sagamore location was a great way to get into the community,” Thompson said. “It’s something we identified and wanted to do, and I’m really excited about it.”
What’s on the menu at the new locations?
“The menu will remain familiar, as a traditional, full-service coffee shop featuring coffee, espresso-based drinks, and teas, as well as baked goods and several sandwich-style options. In addition, the new Sagamore Café features a drive-thru, just like at our Lafayette Café,” Thompson said.
Copper Moon Coffee manages its corporate offices and its roasting facility in Lafayette. The company was started and is run by brothers Brad and Cary Gutwein.
The two new locations will participate in Copper Moon’s ongoing outreach, “We Give a Cup,” which donates coffee to health care workers, educators, firefighters, police officers, and the military in the USA and abroad. Thompson said, “We Give a Cup” has donated more than 20,000+ cups to local front line workers since the effort began.
“We want to continue to support our community by keeping them fueled up and caffeinated,” Thompson said.
How has COVID impacted business?
Even with the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and the economic uncertainty that has followed, Thompson said business for Copper Moon Coffee has been “great,” with the business seeing large growth through retail e-commerce. In addition to the physical stores, Copper Moon sells online and is available through various retailers including Amazon, Meijer, Kroger, Walmart, and Target. The physical stores also use third party delivery apps such as GrubHub to provide deliveries for local customers.
“From a company standpoint, we feel that e-commerce is a really good growth path. We’re starting to invest in our website and in driving traffic to the website,” he said. “And this year, people are drinking coffee now more than ever at home.”
Emily DeLetter is a News Reporter for the Lafayette Journal & Courier.
A version of this article was first published in Lafayette Journal & Courier.
