Resurgence for Barnie's Coffee

Phil Jones at the recently unveiled, made-over original Barnie’s store on Park Avenue in Winter Park. [Photo: Chris Livingston]

Once upon a time, Barnie’s Coffee & Tea was Starbucks before there was Starbucks. Phil Jones, a college chaplain who developed a taste for Peruvian coffee in grad school, returned to his hometown of Orlando and started the company in 1980 — two years before Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz joined what was then a tiny chain of coffee shops in Seattle.

Over 18 years, Jones built Barnie’s to about 125 stores and $65 million in sales before selling the company to Sara Lee. Three years later, ownership passed to Miami banker Phil Leach, who turned the company’s focus to expanding through franchises, international locations and product sales in supermarkets.

In 2006, with Starbucks’ dominance of the coffee shop market firmly established, Leach sold off 56 of Barnie’s mall stores to the Seattle company, paring down to 10 company-owned and 40 franchised Barnie’s properties, mostly in the Southeast and a handful of countries, including Ireland, Turkey, Jordan and Egypt.

What goes around comes around. Jones, who spent seven years developing vacation homes in Colorado, is now back in charge of Barnie’s. He and central Florida developer Jim Pugh purchased the company for an undisclosed amount from Leach’s group in March.

Jones, 60, plans to double the number of stores and sales in the next three to five years — concentrating about 75% of the company’s efforts in Florida — and boost the employee count by 20%.

With a Starbucks on every corner and discretionary spending stretched, Jones may find it’s tougher to rebuild Barnie’s than it was to build it. Once seemingly bulletproof, Starbucks announced it is closing hundreds of stores.

Jones says Barnie’s plans to position its outlets more like high-end wine stores than by-the-cup cafes — emphasizing flavored coffees and the sale of packaged imported specialty coffees and merchandise, for example, with fewer seats.

“You wouldn’t go to a bar to find a fine wine to drink at home,” Jones says. “We think there’s a real trend right now of people entertaining at home because it’s gotten so darned expensive lately to go out.”

Barnie’s on Park Avenue in Winter Park [Photo: Chris Livingston]

Tags: Central