Competition is brewing

POST FALLS – When the owners of Thomas Hammer Coffee Roasting Co. negotiate for a new retail store space, they inevitably ask the developer, “If this is such a great location, why haven’t you talked to Starbucks?”

In Post Falls, it turns out, someone already had.

Eight months before Thomas Hammer Coffee signed a lease for a store at the intersection of Highway 41 and Mullan Avenue, the Spokane roaster discovered that Starbucks was building a store about 100 yards to the south in a neighboring development.

Starbucks’ proximity wasn’t a deal-breaker. In fact, operating in the shadow cast by one of the world’s most recognized coffee brands is producing the kind of chest-pounding adrenaline in partners Bud Barnes and Thomas Hammer that comes from tossing back a succession of quad mochas.

“We love competition,” said Barnes, company president. “From our viewpoint, when any company has strong competitors, it makes you a better operator. …You have to think more strategically.”

“I don’t know how many people truly compete with Starbucks. They’re a market leader, and everything they do is topnotch,” added Hammer, CEO of the firm that bears his name. “We’re not a clone in what they do. We want to be our own brand.”

According to Hammer, Thomas Hammer Coffee specializes in a lighter roast than Starbucks. The firm, established in 1993, also focuses on “eco-brews,” blends of beans grown without pesticides; “fair trade” coffee that provides living wages to the growers; and fresh pastries baked daily at each Thomas Hammer store site.

The company already operates a store within a block of Starbucks in downtown Spokane, the partners noted. They see the Post Falls location as second referendum on Thomas Hammer Coffee – a test of whether a home-grown brand is strong enough to stand up to world-class competition.

The 1,500-square foot store, slated to open in late October, will be Thomas Hammer Coffee’s 12th outlet. But don’t look for green awnings. The Spokane roaster has struck green from its palette of corporate colors.

Three years ago, Thomas Hammer Coffee gambled on a major re-branding effort to help the firm stand out from others in the industry.

“We took a look at the entire industry, we noticed that everyone was the same,” Hammer said. “They put out earth-tone colored bags, and blends called ‘morning brew.’”

As part of the image makeover, Thomas Hammer Coffee threw out its staid red, white and green logo, which featured a drawing of dancing goats. The firm went vivid and edgy, adopting corporate colors of orange and cobalt blue and a logo spouting flames and a hammer.

“We do a lot of wall colors in blues and orange, and a flush solid orange cup,” Hammer said. “Orange happened to be a very hot color. In the advertising world, it’s a younger color.”

The re-branding preceded Thomas Hammer Coffee’s move into the wholesale coffee business. At the time, Hammer felt the coffee needed a punchier image to attract grocery store customers.

“We thought we looked too mom-and-pop,” he said.

The new image has helped the company define its market niche, which Hammer describes as “hip, or very current.” It also launched a line of clothing and coffee accessories to help people recognize and identify with the brand.

The branding effort, along with high traffic counts on Highway 41, should help both coffee houses thrive in Post Falls, Hammer said.

Barnes, in particular, has a vested interest in seeing long customer lines at both Starbucks and Thomas Hammer Coffee.

“I’m a shareholder in Starbucks,” he said.