By now many of you have seen the reports of Graeter’s closing their location in Newport / Fort Thomas near Starbucks. The franchisee who runs this location is ‘closing’ all 8 stores. While I do not know the specifics related to International Brand Services LLC, the franchisee, it appears they are having some financial difficulty.
I spoke with the owner of the location on Grand Avenue and he indicated that the franchisee had been behind on their rent payments and he had known that they were planning on closing. As a recent blog post from Developing Now indicates, Richard Graeter is negotiating a lease on the store front to turn the location into a company owned store. So there appears to hope that a Graeters can remain in our community but not likely without some service disruption and a likely closing for some period of time.