People protest outside Ink after the company displayed a sign seen by some as celebrating gentrification in Denver’s RiNo neighborhood on Nov. 27, 2017. (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post)
The bankrupt coffee chain Ink will be sold to a local grocery executive for about $375,000.
Chris Leevers, of Leevers Supermarkets, is expected to close on the purchase by the end of this month. Leevers signaled his desire to buy the four-cafe chain last year but the sale was held up by an objection from a small business lender that is owed $1.6 million from Ink.
At a bankruptcy court hearing Tuesday, Leevers and his firm, Boria Capital, agreed to increase the purchase price from about $300,000 and pay $75,000 to the lender, Newtek. As a result, Newtek withdrew its objection. Judge Kimberley Tyson will now approve the sale.
An exact price tag is not listed because Leevers received credit for money he has been loaning Ink weekly, which is said to total roughly $200,000. He is paying up to $175,000 in cash.
“I believe the proposed sale represents the best value for Ink Coffee’s assets,” Ink founder Keith Herbert wrote in an affidavit supporting the sale, which his lawyers filed Wednesday.
Ink began in 1994 when Herbert returned from Italy, where he’d learned to make coffee, and began selling it from a steel cart in Aspen. Ink then found greater success in Denver, peddling caffeine to workers in or near downtown. The company once had 16 locations.
In a moment of ill timing, Ink borrowed $2 million for an expansion in December 2019. A few months later, the pandemic took away its customer base downtown. Ink closed cafes, laid off employees, raised prices, eliminated menu items and received government aid.
Keith Herbert (BusinessDen file)
“The stay-at-home orders resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic turned off Ink Coffee’s business like a light switch,” Herbert wrote in his affidavit on Wednesday.
“While the pandemic relief loans helped, they did not change the reality that the office workers that kept many of Ink Coffee’s retail locations alive did not return to the office,” he went on to say. “As a result, since 2020, Ink was forced to shutter all but four of its locations.”
By 2023, the company was still borrowing to remain afloat and began looking for a buyer. A marketing firm came up with a list of 89 prospects. Only Leevers was interested.
He and his family own Leevers Supermarkets, which is based in Castle Rock and operates more than 50 grocery stores around the country. Those are mostly Save-A-Lots, a discount grocer, but also include Leevers Locavore on West 38th Avenue in Denver.
Leevers has been propping up Ink financially in recent months, including letting the coffee chain use his credit card. When it came time to bid for the company, he was credited $200,000 that he has loaned Ink. Newtek criticized the credit bid arrangement, saying it would inflate the amount of the highest bid and scare away other possible buyers, but the lender later relented.
“Ink Coffee received no other bids for some or all of its assets,” according to Herbert.
Ink’s four locations are in the Cherry Creek Shopping Center, the 1801 California skyscraper, National Jewish Health and at 709 S. University Blvd. in Bonnie Brae. It has a roastery in Aurora.
The company, which is down to 29 employees, lost money in its most recent reporting month. It brought in $293,000 in November, spent $332,000, and had $136,000 in unpaid bills. Ink also owes an undetermined amount in unpaid taxes, according to its bankruptcy filings.
Chris Leevers did not answer a request for an interview about the future of Ink this week.
People protest outside Ink after the company displayed a sign seen by some as celebrating gentrification in Denver’s RiNo neighborhood on Nov. 27, 2017. (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post)
The bankrupt coffee chain Ink will be sold to a local grocery executive for about $375,000.
Chris Leevers, of Leevers Supermarkets, is expected to close on the purchase by the end of this month. Leevers signaled his desire to buy the four-cafe chain last year but the sale was held up by an objection from a small business lender that is owed $1.6 million from Ink.
At a bankruptcy court hearing Tuesday, Leevers and his firm, Boria Capital, agreed to increase the purchase price from about $300,000 and pay $75,000 to the lender, Newtek. As a result, Newtek withdrew its objection. Judge Kimberley Tyson will now approve the sale.
An exact price tag is not listed because Leevers received credit for money he has been loaning Ink weekly, which is said to total roughly $200,000. He is paying up to $175,000 in cash.
“I believe the proposed sale represents the best value for Ink Coffee’s assets,” Ink founder Keith Herbert wrote in an affidavit supporting the sale, which his lawyers filed Wednesday.
Ink began in 1994 when Herbert returned from Italy, where he’d learned to make coffee, and began selling it from a steel cart in Aspen. Ink then found greater success in Denver, peddling caffeine to workers in or near downtown. The company once had 16 locations.
In a moment of ill timing, Ink borrowed $2 million for an expansion in December 2019. A few months later, the pandemic took away its customer base downtown. Ink closed cafes, laid off employees, raised prices, eliminated menu items and received government aid.
Keith Herbert (BusinessDen file)
“The stay-at-home orders resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic turned off Ink Coffee’s business like a light switch,” Herbert wrote in his affidavit on Wednesday.
“While the pandemic relief loans helped, they did not change the reality that the office workers that kept many of Ink Coffee’s retail locations alive did not return to the office,” he went on to say. “As a result, since 2020, Ink was forced to shutter all but four of its locations.”
By 2023, the company was still borrowing to remain afloat and began looking for a buyer. A marketing firm came up with a list of 89 prospects. Only Leevers was interested.
He and his family own Leevers Supermarkets, which is based in Castle Rock and operates more than 50 grocery stores around the country. Those are mostly Save-A-Lots, a discount grocer, but also include Leevers Locavore on West 38th Avenue in Denver.
Leevers has been propping up Ink financially in recent months, including letting the coffee chain use his credit card. When it came time to bid for the company, he was credited $200,000 that he has loaned Ink. Newtek criticized the credit bid arrangement, saying it would inflate the amount of the highest bid and scare away other possible buyers, but the lender later relented.
“Ink Coffee received no other bids for some or all of its assets,” according to Herbert.
Ink’s four locations are in the Cherry Creek Shopping Center, the 1801 California skyscraper, National Jewish Health and at 709 S. University Blvd. in Bonnie Brae. It has a roastery in Aurora.
The company, which is down to 29 employees, lost money in its most recent reporting month. It brought in $293,000 in November, spent $332,000, and had $136,000 in unpaid bills. Ink also owes an undetermined amount in unpaid taxes, according to its bankruptcy filings.
Chris Leevers did not answer a request for an interview about the future of Ink this week.
