Inside the new Prima Coffee Equipment store and showroom in Louisville. All images courtesy of Prima Coffee Equipment.
Online coffee equipment seller Prima Coffee Equipment this month opened a brick-and-mortar store in its home city of Louisville, Kentucky, stocking it top to bottom with a wide selection of home and professional coffee gear.
Doors to the 1,100-square-foot showroom, demonstration lab and retail store opened Jan. 8, offering an open floor plan for guests to browse. The store is adjacent to Prima’s e-commerce operations.
“Every product on our shelves is accompanied by a hands-on demo, allowing customers to test and compare different gear firsthand in our adjacent coffee lab,” Prima Coffee Equipment Product Marketing Manager Ryan Felbinger told Daily Coffee News. “Outfitted with top-tier grinders and specialized water treatment, the lab is an absolute playground for any coffee enthusiast. In other words, you can now nerd out and have fun with us in person.”
A facility next to the store will continue to be the studio for Prima’s robust online videos, which include equipment overviews, comparisons, brew guides and more. Felbinger said that while there are not yet any public events scheduled, the space can accommodate throwdowns and other small local coffee community gatherings.
“The purpose of this project was to serve our local community,” Felbinger said. “We don’t currently have plans to expand outside of our current space.”
Prima Coffee Equipment was founded as a coffee-focused offshoot of Louisville-based restaurant supply company Prima Supply in 2009 by its owner, Andy Lowe, and multiple employees with a passion for coffee. The company’s catalog has grown to include an extensive selection of home and commercial coffee equipment, tools and accessories, including water purification systems and more.
In 2021, the company took on its first exclusive distributorship, launching the El Rocio V2 Zarre espresso machine in the United States.
“We have not entered into any exclusive partnerships since that time; however, it will be a major part of our strategy moving forward,” said Felbinger.
Another recent expansion for Prima is its establishment of a dedicated Coffee Cart category, focused on mobile coffee equipment components and kits. The category centers on carts designed and built by California-based manufacturer The Woodress equipped with new coffee-specific modular portable power and water solutions by Caffewerks.
“The Prima team and I have been hard at work in 2024 developing this new category in response to a rapidly evolving commercial coffee market,” said Felbinger. “We offer a free five-part course for aspiring mobile coffee entrepreneurs covering a host of topics from creating a business plan, to equipment selection to strategies for growth. In combination with our new equipment offerings, we believe we’ve created the ultimate resource for new coffee cart owners.”
The Prima Coffee Equipment Showroom is located at 4603 Poplar Level Road in Louisville. Comments? Questions? News to share? Contact DCN’s editors here. For all the latest coffee industry news, subscribe to the DCN newsletter.
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Howard Bryman
Howard Bryman is the associate editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine. He is based in Portland, Oregon.
