CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Charlotte coffee company is shaking up the shelves at area Walmart stores.
Enderly Coffee Company is a West Charlotte small-batch coffee roaster that’s been part of the community since 2012.
“The coffee that we’re putting on the shelves, it’s all specialty coffee, and it’s all fresh-roasted,” Tony Santoro, owner of Enderly Coffee Company, said.
It’s part of what sets the small-batch roaster apart from the rest of the coffee crowd.
Santoro said thanks to a campaign by Walmart to put 85 local coffee roasters on its aisles in regions across the country, bags of Enderly Coffee Company’s products can now be found on store shelves.
“For a small, local business like ours, the opportunity to A. put it on their shelves but B. to grow with the company, it’s a pretty big deal,” Santoro said.
Enderly Coffee Company is now showcasing its Charlotte “Born & Roasted” labels at 37 local Walmart stores from Boone, North Carolina, to Cheraw, South Carolina.
“It’s quite humbling, and it just shows like the power that local corporations, larger companies have to support local and the impact they can make on the small businesses like ours just by simply putting our coffee on one of their shelves,” Santoro added.
Santoro said he and his wife started Enderly Coffee Company in 2012. They were teachers in Charlotte at the time and roasting coffee was Santoro’s hobby in his backyard.
He decided to take a leap of faith to pursue his hobby, and he and his wife have been building the coffee brand in the Queen City over the last decade.
The company opened its café on Tuckaseegee Road in the Enderly Park neighborhood, where the business’ name comes from, in 2018.
The slogan seen out front of the café reads, “People first. Coffee always,” and its description on its Facebook page says it is a, “West Charlotte, small-batch coffee roaster aiding neighbors by turning modest profits into great works of compassion.”
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“We’re all in this together,” Santoro said. “Like, this world is one place. We’re all in it together, so any way we can lift others up, I think we ought to.”
Enderly Coffee Company put its motto into action during the pandemic when it organized ‘Coffee Drops’ for front-line workers that were sponsored by community members. This, all during a time when Santoro didn’t know what would come next for the business as it navigated how to operate in a different way.
“I just did everything I could to keep our staff employed, keep everyone safe, and then try to keep revenue coming in,” Santoro said.
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Now, Enderly Coffee Company is seeing a huge increase in the movement to support local brands coming out of the pandemic, asking people to give its coffee a shot next time they see it on a store shelf.
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“When you’re shopping at Walmart, just check out the coffee section, see if you see any new brands,” Santoro said. “Support ones that are small batch, that are local. The money definitely goes further when you’re supporting local.”
The company is hoping people taste the care that’s put into its coffee brand that’s growing just as fast as the Queen City.
Contact Kendall Morris at kmorris2@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.