Client Feature: Brewing change with Caruso’s Coffee

Family-owned coffee roasters enjoy a collaborative relationship with First Financial Bank

Overview

As the coffee industry faced environmental and economic challenges in 2025, Caruso’s Coffee wanted a stronger banking relationship than their currently impersonal experience with their larger national bank. Owners and brothers Michael and Dominic Caruso sought a financial institution that would get to know their industry and their business’s specific needs and trends. Drawn to First Financial Bank because of the Financial Bank because of the middle market size and the team’s collaborative energy they have been more than pleased with the decision to change banks.

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The Problem

Caruso’s Coffee had seen rough years before 2025. Covid presented a huge challenge; they knew how to pivot and survive. However, the chaotic environment inspired the Caruso brothers to look for a bank that would better understand their story and how they position themselves to get through difficult times

2025 was a challenging year for the coffee industry. A drought in Brazil’s coffee growing region in late 2024 damaged supplies. As a result, coffee prices rallied sharply from $1.80 to $4.40 per pound. This exceeded the previous 50-year high of $3.40 by almost 30%. Importing goods also became more volatile as America explored new tariff strategies. Because 99% of coffee consumed in the U.S. is imported, this meant that an already challenging environment became one the coffee industry has never experienced.

While certainly stressful, Caruso’s Coffee knew they would figure out how to navigate it. The Caruso family has been in the coffee business since the 1980s. Michael and Dominic’s parents started roasting one pound at a time out of a little store in Brecksville in 1982. In 2003, their father officially founded Caruso’s Coffee. Within a year, Michael joined the sales team focusing on foodservice accounts. Dominic stepped in to lead coffee purchasing, hedging, and focusing on sales to grocery and club stores. When their father retired in 2019, Michael became Chief Operating Officer, and Dominic became Chief Executive Officer.

While perhaps not a household name, Caruso’s is one of the largest coffee roasters in Ohio and the Great Lakes region. They currently produce a little over 3M pounds annually with about half of their coffee being sold through coffees shops, convenience stores, restaurants, and office coffee distributors. The other half is sold through traditional grocery and club stores, including the well-known regional brand Erie Island Coffee which you can find at any number of grocery stores or coffee shops in Northeast Ohio. In some cases, consumers may not even know it’s Caruso’s — they specialize in and produce a lot of private label and custom recipes for a wide range of Clients.

Caruso’s Coffee had seen rough years before 2025. Covid presented a huge challenge; they knew how to pivot and survive. However, the chaotic environment inspired the Caruso brothers to look for a bank that would better understand their story and how they position themselves to get through difficult times. 

“Even before 2025, there weren’t a lot of touchpoints with our previous bank,” recalled Michael, the Chief Operations Officer. “It wasn’t a great partnership.”

Banking with First Financial

The transition was not a hasty one. Dominic and Michael reached out to several banks, including First Financial Bank. In fact, Michael remembered his first conversation with Joe Calabrese, a Business Development Officer: they concluded that First Financial Bank wasn’t the best fit for the solutions the Carusos were looking for at that time. The Carusos kept talking to other banks but stayed in touch with First Financial  

“First Financial allowed us to tell the story about our company and how we were positioning ourselves to survive. We kept showing them what we were doing, how things were working each quarter, and showed them that our plan was a good one.” – Michael Caruso, COO of Caruso’s Coffee

The conversations went beyond Michael and Dominic and Joe — First Financial Bank took the time to meet the financial director, to learn and understand the business beyond just numbers on a balance sheet and income statement.

“It came down to the people. Their lender hit it off with our finance guy; their treasury management officer has been great with my internal team. From the very first call I have felt good about this..” – Michael Caruso, COO of Caruso’s Coffee

Michael is happy to say his first instinct was correct, even though their ask was not small: Caruso’s Coffee moved their entire banking relationship to First Financial, and they closed in late December. The transition included debt refinancing, lines of credit, and all treasury management products including credit card program management. The Caruso brothers were especially impressed at the team’s ability to move as quickly as they did to close before the end of the year.

The fact that the rest of the Caruso’s Coffee team has been comfortable with the change means a lot, too. Michael and Dominic take pride in the number of long-term employees who have grown their families while growing with the company. They view their employees as family, and customers as friends. Headquartered in a region like Cleveland, each local account is a personal relationship — and they are thrilled to see this dynamic in their relationship with First Financial Bank.

“I’m very confident that First Financial Bank will be able to assess different opportunities, whether that is adding roasting or grinding capacity, or growing in other ways” attested Dominic. “I think they’ll be a great partner to help us evaluate what our future needs are.”