First Look: Michigan Roastery Populace Coffee Upgrades Space, Scope

The new Populace roastery space.

Bay City, Mich.-based high-end specialty coffee roaster Populace Coffee has moved its roasting operation, after three years of growth.

Owner Andrew Heppner says roasting ops in the new space — at 600 Columbus Ave. — will begin this month, allowing for exponentially more green coffee storage, as well as additions to Populace’s roster of wholesale accounts. Populace had been operating out of a 450-square-foot space in Bay City, and Heppner says the move will also allow for an upgrade to roasting equipment and capacity. Heppner currently roasts between 300 to 500 pounds of coffee per week for clients throughout the country.

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“The last three-and-a-half years spent in this little box have been great and filled with so much joy,” Heppner told Daily Coffee News. “We started with a dream and built upon that dream by listening, innovating, changing, dreaming some more, and executing. This couldn’t have been possible without the everlasting support of my wife.”

With the move, Heppner also hopes to create a small lab and retail space, allowing for in-house education and direct contact with consumers. “The hope is that we can start to make a larger impact regionally and nationally with this move because it allows us to foster more education in house,” he says.