Park City Coffee Roaster Reaches New Heights with 23-Hospital Contract

Ray and Rob Hibl, owners of Park City Coffee Roaster in Park City, Utah, in front of their Probat L12. Images courtesy of PCCR.

In the never-ending slalom of life, one turn always gives way to another.

Back in 2014, Park City Coffee Roaster Co-Owner Rob Hibl got a call from a manager at Vail Resorts — which had recently acquired two major ski resorts in the Utah city — saying that PCCR had mere days to remove their coffee equipment, since the new owner was going with Starbucks for coffee service.

Yet news soon after took a turn for the good as PCCR won a contract to provide coffee service for Intermountain Park City Hospital, part of a nonprofit hospital network committed to hiring local vendors.

Today, PCCR and Intermountain have announced a long-term renewal of the contract that will involve equipment supply and service, training and roasted coffees at 23 different Intermountain hospitals in Utah and Idaho.

Hibl told DCN that the contract is a natural extension of the working relationship that has expanded bit by bit, facility by facility, over the past four years. With a chef at each hospital, Intermountain now has 11 bistro-style cafes with full coffee service, plus batch brew for public areas, automatic espresso machines for staff facilities, and more.

The PCCR cafe.

The Intermountain deal has become a cornerstone of PCCR’s business, and a testament to the power local companies have to buoy one another. PCCR has been roasting in Park City since 1997, specializing in Fairtrade and Organic-certified coffees that pass through a 1980s Probat L12 and a relatively new Loring Kestrel. The company also operates a single retail cafe in Park City.

The Intermountain deal has required a new approach to sourcing, given the need for larger volumes and consistency of blends; so PCCR reached out to existing and potential suppliers to try to lock down ongoing coffees for three core blends with about five different coffees.

“We needed to figure out if we could have these coffees throughout the year,” Hibl said, adding that the 2014 deal also required a loan for additional staffing and equipment needs. “And that took about 18 months to get squared away.”

Those blends now flow freely through PCCR-logoed Bunn and Fetco batch brewers, La Marzocco espresso machines and Mahlkonig grinders found throughout Intermountain.

For Hibl and his twin brother and co-owner Ray Hibl, the contract extension ushers in a new, relatively smooth era in what can be an up-and-down business full of unexpected moguls. One black diamond the Hibls are not likely to attempt is opening even more coffee shops of their own.

“We’ve been at this for 22 years,” Hibl said. “We would never open up another retail location.”