Bay Area’s Philz Coffee Will Keep Up Pride Flags, CEO Says After Backlash

Philz Coffee’s pride flags aren’t going anywhere.

The Bay Area-based company said Friday that it is reversing its decision to remove the rainbow flags from stores after backlash from baristas and others — and will put every flag taken down back up.

“I made a mistake, and I am sincerely sorry,” CEO Mahesh Sadarangani said in a statement on the company’s website. “To our Team Members, to our customers, and to the LGBTQIA+ community that has been with us since the very beginning, the confusion and hurt we caused around our new policy for Pride flags failed you.”

Early this month, a Change.org petition started by Philz baristas said the company had decided to remove the flags, gathering thousands of signatures against the move. Sadarangani confirmed the decision in an emailed statement to the San Francisco Chronicle on April 9.

“We are working toward creating a more consistent, inclusive experience across all our stores, including removing a variety of flags and other decor,” Sadarangani said in the statement. “This is a change in how our stores look, not in who we are.”

The next day, San Francisco Pride and other groups led a protest outside the company’s shop in the Castro neighborhood, where pride flags are a major part of the community’s self-expression and history.

Suzanne Ford, executive director of SF Pride, said Sadarangani reached out to her and Jupiter Peraza, an activist and a member of the city’s Trans Advisory Committee, the next week for a conversation about what had happened and how it affected the neighborhood and queer Philz workers.

“She and I sat down with Mahesh, and for about an hour and a half and were able to share the impact of their announcement on the LGBTQ community and what it meant as a trans woman to wake up feeling very upset about something that happened in her own neighborhood,” Ford said. “And it’s not just about the customers [the decision] hurt. It hurt a lot of their team members,” Ford said. “Their team members were vocal to their management.

Ford said she felt encouraged by the CEO’s response.

“Philz is a better company than they were last week,” Ford said. “And I feel like Mahesh probably is a different person than he was last week.”

The company, which was founded in San Francisco’s Mission District in 2003, currently has 82 stores spread across California and Chicago and more than 1,500 employees.

In August, the company was purchased by private equity firm Freeman Spogli.