An American coffee shop chain has apologised for a sign appearing to celebrate the gentrification of a historically black neighbourhood.

Social media users reacted with outrage to an A-board advertising ink! coffee in Denver, Colorado, which said: "Happily gentrifying the the neighbourhood since 2014."

There have been calls for customers to boycott the company, which has 16 shops across the capital city and Aspen.​

The company apologised in a Facebook post (Adam Cayton-Holland)

"I will never set foot in that store. You're what's wrong with Denver these days," Twitter user Jeffrey Dallet said.

“Seriously disgraceful & disrespectful to the actual local businesses & people that know the area @inkcoffee,” another user with the handle @NichieBabie wrote.

The sign was reportedly displayed on Larimer Street in Five Points, an area of the Colorado capital with a large African American population.

Denver, once dubbed the "Harlem of the west", has seen a large influx of white and affluent people in recent years, which has driven out black and ethnic minority people and working class families.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) emailed the coffee shop on Wednesday to ask that the sign be removed.

"Your sign ... has been flagged as mocking of and hurtful to those, especially African Americans and other [People of Colour], who have been forced to surrender their homes and businesses to deep pocket gentrification efforts in Denver’s central/downtown communities,” Rosemary Lytle, President of the NAAP’s Colorado, Montana, Wyoming State Conference, said in an email obtained by The Denver Post.

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After the social media backlash, the company said in a Facebook post: "Hmmm. We clearly drank too much of our own product and lost sight of what makes our community great. We sincerely apologise for our street sign.