Bearclaw Coffee Franchise
January 22, 2007 by Sean Kelly
Filed under Business
Debi and Doug Scroggins founded Bearclaw Coffee in 2002 when they opened their first store in Dexter, Michigan. Since then, Bearclaw Coffee says it has opened stores throughout the Midwest , East Coast and South. Bearclaw offers three different types of franchise stores: their signature drive-thru cabin, a freestanding sit-down facility, and a strip mall end cap store that can be drive-thru, sit-down or a combination of both.
Yes, you read that correctly: Drive-thru cabin. You can be the first in your town to own a drive-thru cabin.
Check out their folksy Bear Claw Coffee website.
Just don’t get too hung up on figuring out how many locations they have. The press release says “21 stores located throughout Michigan,” the home page says 15, the location page lists 19, and no mention of the East coast and Southern locations… but hey, that adds to the folksy charm.
LEAVE A COMMENT. Bearclaw Coffee, its employees, franchisees & customers are invited to tell us more about Bearclaw Coffee and the Bear Claw Coffee franchise opportunity.
READ: Are There ANY Reputable Coffee Franchises?
Bearclaw Coffee is taking several initiatives to expand and improve its business. Currently, the company operates three stores, and the franchisees 20 fixed locations with two more scheduled soon. There are four Bearclaw mobile units which run routes during the business week and sell at festivals on the weekend. All but one store is in Michigan, however we are talking to franchise candidates in many other states now.
While there are a few sit down locations, the preferred business models are the Bearclaw Double Drive Thru and the Bearclaw Mobile built into a Mercedes Sprinter van. The customers pay the standard amounts for expresso based specialty drinks, chais, teas and smoothies as at mall locations, but they do not hang out for hours on one cup of coffee. We like our customers to be served with a smile in 60 to 90 seconds.
The Bearclaw branding is distinctive. The van literally towers above competitors at festivals.
Bearclaw must be one of the lowest cost food franchises. The owners, Debi and Doug Scroggins are committed to keeping capital costs low and operating costs tightly controlled. They make contracts based on volume and pass on all the savings to the franchisees. Only coffee has a 10% mark up as time an attention must be paid to the quality assurance. All other items come directly from distributors who bill the franchisee. There are franchisors who require that all purchases go through the company and that is usually costly for the franchisee.
The company does have a folksy image, but the advertising is first class and the web site will soon reflect that.
Most of the inquiries that I now receive are from satisfied customers and from referrals from current owners.
We participate in the VetFran program and I expect many new inquiries from retiring service people when an article on Bearclaw is published in the February issue of Military Times.
Your comments are welcome.