Coffee Franchises Opportunities

The coffee business is booming! 1. Data from the Coffee Research Organization and the National Small Business Development Support Center Clearinghouse show that coffee is the most popular beverage in the world, with more than 400 billion cups consumed per year. Coffee is the second largest commodity in the US, with annual sales exceeding $18 billion – 75 percent of the caffeine consumed in the US is from coffee. 2. Specialty coffee is especially hot, with $6 billion in sales and growing by 20 percent annually. Specialty coffee accounts for nearly eight percent of the US coffee market. Half of all Americans drink some form of specialty coffee -- espresso, latte, ice coffee, cappuccino etc. 3. Coffee drinkers average about 3.1 cups of coffee per day. Currently there are approximately 12,000 coffee shops in the US, and that number is expected to increase to 50,000+ by 2010 to meet the ever-growing demand for a cup of Joe. 4. The average price for an espresso-based drink is $2.45 and for brewed coffee is $1.35. Coffee shops with drive-through facilities sell an average of 250 cups of espresso-based and other coffee drinks per day. Those shops with high visibility can exceed sales of more than 500 cups a day. 5. There are several ways to capitalize on the coffee craze. Numerous franchise opportunities exist for popular coffee shop and café businesses. Many coffee franchises focus on specialty offerings. - Maui Wowie offers pure Hawaiian products, and sells fruit smoothies along with coffee beverages. - PJ’s coffee is a coffee shop differentiated by its New Orleans tradition. It’s A Grind coffeehouses feature a blues/jazz motif. 6. There are also independent business opportunities in the coffee business. - Palm Beach Specialty Coffee works with distributors of its machines and products; and requires a smaller investment that a full-service retail coffee shop. The bottom line: coffee is a recession-proof business...