Hollister coffee shop set to change hands

An ownership change is poised to take place on Friday for a Hollister coffee shop.

Matt Farmer said he and his wife, Jessica, are exiting Vintage Paris LLC, the 17-year-old business they’ve owned since 2012. The Farmers are selling the venture for undisclosed terms to another married couple and frequent customers, Greyson and Mary Smither.

The longtime Vintage Paris owners began considering the sale of the shop last year and started conversations about the possible transaction with the Smithers in November, Farmer said. The complexity and needs of the business didn’t match the focus Farmer said he and his wife had to offer to it anymore, a realization partly impacted by health issues with their son, now 3 years old.

“A lot of our family priorities shifted, and it caused us to be less present at the coffee shop,” Farmer said. “Vintage Paris just kept getting busier and more complex and more to manage. Our absence and more complexity doesn’t make a lot of sense for a business.”

The Farmers said closure of the shop was a consideration, but the opportunity to sell to the Smithers, who the couple also call friends, came along at the right time, Farmer said. The Smithers were looking to purchase a coffee shop elsewhere but to no fruition.

“It was exactly what they wanted and needed, but they didn’t realize it was going to be an option with us,” Farmer said. “So, it worked out really well.”

In a post on the Vintage Paris Facebook page, the Farmers said Greyson Smither, a regular at the shop since 2012, is a College of the Ozarks graduate and has experience in the hospitality and facility service industries. The Farmers also both graduated from the private Christian college in Point Lookout, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting. 

“Vintage Paris has been a second family to us, and our hearts are full at the opportunity to take the baton from Matt and Jessica and continue to steward Vintage Paris in a way that glorifies our Lord and serves our wonderful community,” Greyson said in the Facebook post. “We are committed to honoring the legacy that Matt and Jessica have left with Vintage Paris.”

The Farmers purchased Vintage Paris 14 years ago from original owners Mike and Kelly Klemm and moved the shop across town in late 2021 to its current home at 7900 State Highway 165, according to past SBJ reporting. The couple opened a second store with a different menu, dubbed Collective Coffee Shop, in late 2018. That store inside Bloom Church, 2353 State Highway 248 in Branson, shuttered in 2023, Farmer said.

In addition to his involvement with Vintage Paris, Farmer, who previously worked for CoxHealth, has been employed since March in a remote job as program director of digital health for Akron Children’s Hospital in Ohio. His wife plans to remain a stay-at-home mom to their two children.

“We felt very emotional about it when we were making the decision and talking through it, but as we’re getting closer, there’s so much peace that what we can’t be involved in, what we can’t contribute to for our community and for the business, they’re going to be able to do that,” he said of the new owners.

In the Facebook post, the Farmers said gift cards will continue to be honored after the ownership transition. Those who have scheduled a mobile coffee cart event will not be impacted, nor will the orders and accounts of wholesale clients of the company’s roastery.

Farmer told SBJ that all 18 of the shop’s employees are expected to stay on amid the transition. He said the company is coming off a strong revenue year of around $500,000 and added he and his wife won’t be a stranger to the business or the Hollister community they will continue to call home.

“We’ll be staying on to support Greyson and Mary for not just the transition period over the next few weeks, but also long-term,” he said. “I’m going to be available as just a good friend or a consultant or whatever capacity it turns out to be in for a long time.

“We’re really excited to be able to help them along that journey and then also be able to go to Vintage Paris and enjoy it ourselves.”