The former Atlantic Coffee Solutions complex in Houston, Texas. More than 1,500 pieces of industrial coffee processing, roasting and packaging equipment housed within the facility are heading to auction next month. Rabin Worldwide photo.
Looking to move up from that 1-kilo or 5-kilo machine to something somewhat larger? How about 10 roasters that combined can crank out about 108,000 pounds of roasted coffee per hour?
One of the world’s largest coffee processing and production roasting facilities in the world is going up for auction next month, offering more than 1,500 individual pieces of equipment that may be of more reasonable interest to other coffee roasting and packaging companies.
The gargantuan coffee auction surrounds the former home of Atlantic Coffee Solutions, which shut down the giant industrial complex last year claiming financial difficulties caused by “low cost products from other countries.”
Located in the Harrisburg neighborhood on the east side of Houston, the coffee complex is actually a network of plants spanning more than 1 million square feet, including towering silos for storage and processing; roasting plants with eight Probat batch roasters and two “continuous” industrial roasters; a grinding facility with no fewer than 30 MPE-made industrial grinders; whole bean and ground coffee filling and packaging lines; soluble coffee processing and packaging lines; quality assurance labs; building systems; and a six-story CO2 decaffeination tower, among other facilities and equipment.
Maybe everything really is bigger in Texas.
The auction is being led by industrial auction specialist Rabin Worldwide, which will be taking a 15 percent commission on winning bids for on-site bidders, an 18 percent commission for online bidders, plus a 4 percent service fee. The three-day public auction is taking place live and online from Feb. 12-14, and potential buyers can preview the facility and its equipment during an open house on Monday, Feb. 11.
(Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Atlantic Coffee Solutions was a subsidiary of Ecom Agroindstrial at the time that the plant closed. Ecom divested in 2017.)
Nick Brown
Nick Brown is the editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine.
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I will miss that place. A piece of history. I always loved the smell of them roasting on the days when the wind was right and you didn’t get the noxious odors from the petrol-chemical industry on the ship channel. Way back before I discovered locally roasted coffee and specialty coffee that was one of my favorite coffee memories. I’d love to walk through there and photograph it before it’s gone.
It’s sad to see the plant go. Fortunately for specialty coffee roasters, the issue of staling in transport has not been solved, so we can continue to roast in 1st world countries.
If this is the old Maxwell House plant I worked at in 1980 then it’s quite a coincidence I came across this news while researching hemp and cannabidiol shops in Houston. The place will be used to process hemp in the future. One thing leads to the other.