Colorado Specialty Coffee Company Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Stock photo

An influential player in the specialty coffee scene of Colorado Springs, Colorado, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this month.

Switchback Coffee Roasters, which was founded in 2010, filed the petition in a U.S. Bankruptcy Court on August 19. As of this writing, both of the coffee company’s cafes, Shooks Run and Hillside, were open for business.

In the bankruptcy petition, Switchback listed estimated liabilities between $500,001 and $1 million, with estimated assets of $50,001-$100,000.

Filing as a small business in search of Subchapter V protections — which can simplify and expedite small business Chapter 11 filings — the company listed the estimated number of creditors as less than 50.

Among the claims listed is a nearly $400,000 Small Business Administration loan secured in 2021, and separate claims from the City of Colorado Springs and the Colorado Department of Revenue for unpaid sales taxes totaling more than $76,000.

DCN’s attempts to reach Switchback Coffee Roasters Owner and President Brandon DelGrosso were not successful.

DelGrosso and a friend founded Switchback Coffee Roasters in a garage in 2010 before growing the business to include multiple cafes and a dedicated production roastery. The company has helped propel the region’s coffee industry over the past decade, with numerous Switchback employees medaling at barista competitions and/or launching their own coffee businesses.

Switchback is the latest in a series of U.S. coffee businesses to seek Chapter 11 protections in recent months. Those businesses include California-based green coffee production company Frinj Coffee, fellow Colorado-based coffee roaster and retailer Ink! Coffee and South Dakota-based specialty purveyor Cottonwood Coffee. In December 2023, green coffee trader Mercon Coffee Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Mercon Specialty business was subsequently acquired by StoneX.

Comments? Questions? News to share? Contact DCN’s editors here.