Ann Arbor-based Arbor Mitchell Coffee & Vending Services, which delivers coffee services to offices around Washtenaw County, has been sold to Paramount Coffee of Lansing. Paramount purchased the assets - the customers, equipment and inventory - of Arbor Mitchell, which counts the University of Michigan and DTE as its largest customers.

While it has become a division of the long-time Lansing coffee roaster and has kept its separate name, Arbor Mitchell will move its offices and warehouse to Ypsilanti Township in early February, said Robert Morgan, chief financial officer of Paramount.

The acquisition will allow Paramount to move into a new area of coffee service, Morgan said. “Office coffee is a whole different niche for us.”

Paramount, 75 years old and employee-owned, markets to large retailers, grocery stores, private label customers, cafes and restaurants and directly to customers over the Internet. The company offers a line of organic and Fair Trade coffees along with conventional lines.

Arbor Mitchell delivers national brands such as Folgers and Starbucks, as well as Zingerman’s. With the acquisition, Paramount will add its own roasts to the mix.

The company will aggressively seek out new office coffee clients, beginning in Ann Arbor and fanning out, Morgan said. “The goal is to hit Ann Arbor like a bulls-eye and expand from there. We want to take Arbor Mitchell’s niche of providing quick, turn-around service, which is a good model, and expand it.” Paramount will keep Arbor Mitchell's five employees and is expected to add drivers as it expands, Morgan said.

Paramount recently signed a lease for 13,700 square feet of space for its warehouse and offices on James L. Hart Parkway, near the I-94 and Whittaker Road exit, sharing space with Washtenaw Community College’s building trades program, said Neal Warling, president and CEO of Bluestone Realty Advisors, who brokered the deal. Some 12,700 square feet will be used for warehouse space and 1,000 square feet for offices.

The space had been empty for two years, Warling said, but coincidentally had been occupied by Perk & Brew coffee roasters. The property is owned by Demattia Group. Arbor Mitchell didn’t need its 18,000 square-feet of space on Highland Drive off Ellsworth Road, space the company had used before Arbor Mitchell sold its vending operation, Morgan said.