Portland Since ‘73
Former New York City schoolteachers, David and Susan Kobos founded The Kobos Company in October of 1973. They began in a small 1200 square foot retail space in the Water Tower at John’s Landing, just south of downtown Portland, Oregon. The concept for their new business venture was to offer freshly-roasted coffee, fine select teas, an assortment of spices, and an array of specialty cooking utensils to their community. After purchasing a Probat roaster directly from Germany David began roasting coffee in the front of the store. The Kobos passion for coffee and our commitment to quality was a direct result of this hands-on roasting experience. Our company grew and prospered.
In 1981, with the opening of our third retail location, we included an espresso bar in the store’s layout and thus became a pioneer in what was to become a hot retail trend.
In the late 1980s, we added our wholesale division and today this section of our company provides coffee to restaurants and espresso bars, as well as coffee distributors and institutional customers.
In 1995 we moved our headquarters from the John’s Landing area to a 42,000-square-foot office, warehouse, roasting plant and retail space on the edge of Portland’s Montgomery Park neighborhood. This larger space enabled us to purchase coffees in container-size lots. The ability to buy in such quantities helped us to become a more efficient coffee roaster and to create greater consistency in the quality of our coffee.
After 50 years in business, we continue to focus on providing the very best freshly-roasted coffee and fine select teas to our customers.
