Women Impacting Mason-Deerfield Panelists

Patsy Knopf

CEO, Rooted Grounds Coffee Co.

After many years of dreaming, planning, creating distinctive coffee taste profiles with a local roaster and designing the ideal logo, the brand Rooted Grounds Coffee Company, LLC (RG) was launched on November 14, 2015. With my husband, David Knopf's, invaluable background in business-to-business sales and marketing, and my desire to lead and leverage our new company with  decades of professional experience, we worked as a team to build RG.

Early sales strategies and distributions began at our family home and garage in Dayton, Ohio. Our goal with RG was to bring much needed craft artesian coffee to the traditional commercial settings such as offices, hospitals, auto dealerships, universities, hotels, and restaurants, and change the landscape of the coffee choices that were available for consumers across multiple distribution channels. We simultaneously partnered with local non-profits to carry out our vision to be rooted in the community of every market we serve, ranging from empowering youth education, helping those less fortunate with health and medical care, to supporting organizations that provide food for those in need.

Although we have had many ups and downs and learned what works along the way, our sales steadily grew. By the fall of 2016, it became necessary to lease a manufacturing and production facility in West Chester, Ohio. In early 2017 we bought our first roaster and RG began to roast its own small batch craft coffees. In 2020 we weathered the dramatic economic effects of the pandemic, refocusing our sales efforts on hospital systems, long term care, and higher education customers. Today, we are thrilled to be manufacturing in Mason, OH with our offices at the MADE HUB for Manufacturing. Our customer base spans twenty-two states with over five million in annual revenue in commercial settings, online consumer sales and retail stores. We maintain that our core mission is to be rooted in each community with local partnerships that have a meaningful impact on their neighbors in need.