Another iconic company name fades away in Charlotte region with S&D Coffee & Tea rebrand

Another iconic brand is vanishing from the Charlotte region, as the parent company of one of Concord’s most recognizable brands is mandating that the name goes away.

S&D Coffee & Tea has been a major employer in Cabarrus County for nearly a century. It’s a private label supplier to chains like McDonald’s, Dunkin’ and Bojangles, meaning the name does not carry over to the store’s drinks.

But it’s been a mainstay of the Cabarrus County economy for nearly a century, and the S&D name has stood out on the side of its busy Concord factory off U.S. 29. Current owner Westrock Coffee said it ordered a rebrand of S&D to its own name for the sake of “brand continuity.”

“In the community, we all knew S&D,” Concord Mayor Bill Dusch said. “We all love when they’re roasting coffee out there.”

Now, it joins the ranks of even better known Charlotte-area retail brands that have died out over the years, from textile giants like Cannon Mills to banks such as Wachovia and NationsBank.

Dropping the private label S&D name won’t hold the same personal attachment to people in the region as some other, more prominent names would if they had been disposed of, said, Cindy Fox, marketing and retail expert professor at UNC Charlotte Belk College of Business.

She cited by example Ohio-based Kroger’s move to keep the Harris Teeter after it bought the Matthews-based grocer in 2014.

“It really has to do with how well (the brand) resonates with consumers. Fox said. “A lot of people are drinking their coffee and not knowing it because it comes in under a private brand.”

‘The nature of capitalism’

Loss of the S&D Coffee & Tea name follows other once-popular and well-known Charlotte region businesses and retailers like Wachovia’s 2008 purchase by Wells Fargo.

“Businesses become the identity of your town,” said Dan Morrill with the nonprofit Preserve Mecklenburg.

For example, Morrill noted he grew up in Winston-Salem, home to tobacco maker RJ Reynolds. He graduated from RJ Reynolds High School. “They were everywhere, in everything.”

Around Charlotte, textile mills, like Atherton, Chadbourn and Savona, with deep roots in the community, are gone, Morrill said. Many of those mill buildings have or are undergoing adaptive re-use spaces for retail and office space.

“They come and they go, it’s the nature of capitalism,” Morrill said.

For some, it’s relocation while others, like S&D, it’s absorption into a larger entity. What’s lost, Morrill said, is a sense of personal connection and continuity.

“Business, in general, has become less personal. When you go into Best Buy, people say hello but you know they’ve been scripted. It’s not really a personal thing, it’s a marketing thing,” Morrill said.

“You lose that deep connection, that there are some things you can depend on that are going to be there and be part of your community,” he said.

S&D history

Buck Davis and Lawrence Switzer started S&D in 1927 in Charlotte, according to the company website.

They roasted coffee, adding a popular chicory flavoring, and supplied local mom-and-pop stores. S&D eventually became one of the country’s largest coffee roasters, supplying coffee and tea products to major restaurant chains.

Longtime S&D owners Roy and Sue Davis, and later their sons, were involved in the community donating to the hospital and groups like the Boys & Girls Club, Dusch said.

“S&D has a long history since it moved (its headquarters) to Concord in 1930 near downtown,” Mayor Dusch said. At one time the company employed more than 1,000 people.

In 2016, the Davis family sold S&D Coffee for $55 million to Cott Corp., a publicly-traded water and filtration company with headquarters in Canada and Florida. S&D had 732 employees at its corporate office and two production facilities and one fulfillment center in Cabarrus County, plus warehouse and distribution centers in 38 states.

Then two years ago, Arkansas-based Westrock Coffee bought S&D from Cott Corp. for $405 million, combining the private label retail coffee and tea supplier with the food service coffee, tea and extracts provider.

Westrock has 635 employees at its three locations in Concord at Commercial Park, Main Street and Westwind Boulevard.

Last month, Westrock and S&D said they would rebrand under one name — Westrock Coffee.

“We’re just trying to have one concise, consistent brand message under one name. So that when we do introduce our brand to those who may not have heard about Westrock Coffee or S&D, that name will be both synonymous both in the U.S. and around the globe,” Lucie Pathmann, Westrock senior vice president of corporate marketing, told the Observer.

The rebranding started in January and is now complete, she said. Westrock Coffee’s new logo on building signage, fleets and social media comes with a redesigned website, WestrockCoffee.com.

S&D name is gone but it’s expanding

On March 17, Westrock Coffee said it is expanding its extracts manufacturing operations at its Commercial Park facility in Concord. That includes adding two fully automated production lines to increase the overall capacity of liquid extracts and herbal products processing by over 50%, according to the company.

The expansion is driven by demand since the COVID pandemic, Pathmann said, as more people want ready-to-drink flavored coffee and teas, plus cold brews, for Westrock customers like convenience stores brands.

Page Castrodale, executive director of Cabarrus Economic Development, said the name change on the downtown building sign was notable since S&D has been part of the community for so long.

“They’re operation is still there, and we’re just glad that they have continued to show commitment to Cabarrus,” Castrodale said.

More about Westrock Coffee

Westrock Coffee, which started in 2009 in Rwanda, has expanded its operations in Arkansas and is opening 90,000-square-foot, two building operation in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. It’s the company’s first roasting, manufacturing and packaging facility outside of the U.S.

Pathmann declined to say which companies Westrock Coffee supplies to but said it is served in major hotels and restaurants, and food service retailers.

Westrock has 1,200 employees worldwide. It produces more than 220 million pounds of coffee a year and sources coffee and tea from 35 countries, according to the company.

And, Westrock Coffee, headquartered in Arkansas, is further expanding its worldwide brand. On Monday, the 13-year-old company announced it would merge with Riverview Acquisition Corp. in a deal valued at about $1.1 billion as it readies to go public.

There’s no word yet about another potential name change.

This story was originally published April 6, 2022 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Another iconic company name fades away in Charlotte region with S&D Coffee & Tea rebrand."