Bad Ass Coffee Expands Non-Traditional Franchise Locations
Bad Ass Coffee innovates with non-traditional franchise formats for high-traffic markets.
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Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii is diversifying its franchise model beyond traditional cafes, launching food trucks, kiosks, and carts in high-traffic areas like airports and malls. The brand is targeting 25 to 30 new franchise openings driven by these non-traditional formats and existing multi-unit partnerships, particularly in the Southeast.
Why It Matters
This expansion into non-traditional locations may enhance scalability for franchisees, offering more flexible options for capturing customer traffic and potentially improving unit economics.
Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii is embarking on a significant expansion strategy, committing to the development of 25 to 30 new locations across the U.S., primarily through non-traditional franchises such as food trucks, kiosks, and carts situated in high-traffic areas like shopping malls, airports, and sporting arenas. This move is part of a broader initiative to enhance accessibility to the brand’s premium Hawaiian coffee and to reach customers wherever they gather.
The brand’s expansion incorporates both non-traditional formats and traditional cafes, especially in the Southeast and along the East Coast. Notably, Bad Ass Coffee has partnered with multi-unit operator Paul Bhardwaj of Golden Oil to establish a flagship presence at a 19,000-square-foot travel plaza in Kenosha, Wisconsin. This location exemplifies the brand's focus on leveraging high-volume spaces that cater to captive audiences, enhancing foot traffic without the need for standalone café investments.
Tom Wylie, President and COO of Bad Ass Coffee, underscored the strategic importance of flexibility in franchise models, stating, “When you’re building inside a territory, having more than one format to deploy changes the math. A traditional café anchors the market. A kiosk inside a travel plaza, airport terminal, arena or grocery store extends the brand into traffic patterns a single café can’t capture.” This adaptability is essential for accelerating growth with multi-unit franchise partners.
The non-traditional franchise formats provide several advantages, including built-in foot traffic, increased brand visibility, and the ability to tap into new markets where consumers may not have considered the brand previously. Such models may foster brand loyalty among customers who experience the quality of the products and services offered in these settings.
Looking ahead, the pace at which Bad Ass Coffee can maintain this aggressive expansion strategy may depend on the operational performance of new locations and the brand's ability to capture market share in competitive environments.
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