Kerman coffee shop is closing, but the grind continues: ‘We’ll be back’

KERMAN, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – The owners of a Kerman coffee shop are closing the business down, citing competition from newly opened corporate coffee shops, but are planning to brew up new business elsewhere in the Central Valley.

Bill and Teresa Beukers own Clash Coffee Boba Lemonade and have taken their business from a concept, to a coffee trailer, to brick-and-mortar.

“I used to go to coffee shops a lot,” Teresa said. “We really got into coffee, coffee culture, being able to, you know, just have a place where we can hang out.”

After discovering other coffee chains use added sugars, dyes and preservatives, Teresa says the Beukers family started marking up their own coffee at home. From there, a plan started to brew.

“We always wanted to open up a coffee shop that was our natural, that used direct trade coffee,” Teresa said.

Bill had a long history of working in the service industry and he brought his experience to the family project. Before long, the Beukers had a fully operational coffee trailer located at Shaw and Blackstone in Fresno.

From 2021 through 2022, the Beukers family says it was a “grind,” to make Clash Coffee profitable. But before long, it became exactly that and the family set their sights on a brick-and-mortar location in Kerman.

In 2023, the Beukers family say they saw great success following their grand opening in Kerman inside Tony’s Market. But soon, Bill says things changed.

“I expected summer to slow down. I’ve been in the restaurant business in Fresno for a long time, and summers are usually slower,” Bill said. “August [came] and kids were going back to school. We started picking up again and we saw an increase week after week – then about the end of September, in October, and almost like the faucet kind of turned off.”

According to Bill, the Dutch Bros opening up the road hurt Clash Coffee financially, as well as another Starbucks opening between its shop and the high school. The owners also cited the struggling U.S. economy. The issues combined put the family at an impasse.

“Our lease was up,” Bill said. “The house we’re living in that we are renting, the lady selling it, and we need to be out by the end of February. So it’s just all these factors.”

But the Beukers agree that the ups and downs come with being entrepreneurs and say the family has overcome homelessness and they have faith that they’ll return better than before.

“You’re going to have struggles, you’re going to have fights,” Bill said. “But that’s all part of the story.”

Clash Coffee Boba Lemonade says they will be opening a location in Oakhurst which they hoped to be their second location — but will now be their only location. The shop’s last day in Kerman at Tony’s Market will be on Feb. 27.

YourCentralValley.com has reached out to both Dutch Bros and Starbucks for a statement in response.