Specialty coffee roaster and franchise platform with 350+ wholesale locations
Crimson Cup operates a vertically integrated coffee business: roasting and direct sales to consumers, wholesale distribution across 37 states and select international markets, and a franchise-alternative program teaching entrepreneurs to open coffee houses. The tech stack is heavily weighted toward point-of-sale and accounting infrastructure (Square, Restaurant365, NetSuite) paired with direct-to-consumer digital channels (Google Ads, Meta, Instacart). Active migration from QuickBooks to Restaurant365 and parallel Square implementation signal a push to unify sales reporting and inventory visibility across wholesale and retail channels.
Crimson Cup is a coffee roaster and retailer founded in 1991, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. The company sells sustainably sourced coffee through three channels: direct-to-consumer via its own coffee houses and e-commerce, wholesale to 350+ independent coffee shops and food-service operators across 37 states, Guam, and Bangladesh, and through its 7 Steps to Success franchise-alternative program for aspiring coffee-shop owners. The organization employs 51–200 people and is privately held. Current priorities include expanding the wholesale and at-home customer base, modernizing accounting and sales-reporting infrastructure, and developing new products.
Crimson Cup uses Square and Restaurant365 for point-of-sale and accounting, NetSuite for enterprise resource planning, Google Ads and Meta for digital marketing, Instacart for e-commerce fulfillment, and AWS for infrastructure.
Yes. Crimson Cup is migrating from QuickBooks to Restaurant365 and implementing Square for sales reporting, addressing legacy accounting system limitations and inventory visibility gaps.
Crimson Cup coffee is available through more than 350 independent coffee houses, grocers, colleges, universities, restaurants, and food-service operations across 37 states, Guam, and Bangladesh, plus the company's own Crimson Cup Coffee Houses.
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