The brand promise of Scooter’s Coffee is “amazing people, amazing drinks… amazingly fast.” The 600-unit franchise takes that mantra very seriously—it is at the core of everything Scooter’s Coffee does to keep its customers and franchisees happy.
It’s working: the brand has a proven 664-foot drive-thru kiosk buildout that is producing an AUV of $1.28 million for its top quartile performers and overall AUV of $885k. Same-store sales grew by nearly 6 percent in 2022, and the brand averaged a 18.01 percent net profit margin across all locations.
To further emphasize its efficiencies in order to increase profitability, the coffee brand recently opened the Scooter’s Coffee Innovation Lab. The lab is a flexible and expandable space where Scooter’s can continue to refine the fastest and most efficient ways of preparing its signature drinks. According to Missy McKinley, senior vice president of operations at Scooter’s Coffee, the lab is purpose-built to drive franchisee success.
“Priorities for the lab include testing the desirability, viability, and feasibility of new equipment, and optimizing processes before deploying them into franchisee stores,” McKinley says. “With the addition of cloud-based cameras the lab can be observed remotely for cross-functional feedback and learnings. Additionally, the use of cameras allows for optimization of barista ergonomics and time-in-motion analyses. All of this helps drive our core competencies and unit-level profitability.”
Not only does the innovation lab help the brand develop new processes to create its fan-favorite beverages and food, but it will also help establish new menu go-tos. It’s a menu that already showcases artisan espresso drinks, like its signature Caramelicious. Other beverage offerings include Cold Brew & Cream, single-origin coffee, and a new line of organic hot and iced teas. Customers can also choose from an array of fruit smoothies, baked-from-scratch pastries, and a newly added proprietary energy drink, SCOOOT! Energy that is helping drive afternoon sales. Whenever a new menu item is added, the “amazing people, serving amazing drinks, amazingly fast” mantra is the guiding force behind them.
“We work very hard to provide the items our customers love and expect on every visit,” McKinley says. “They are in a hurry, and we want to make it as easy as possible for them to order, get their drink quickly and be on their way. With that, we are always looking to draw new customers. We will continue to explore new options and new customer favorites, but always with our brand promise in mind.”
Another key differentiator for Scooter’s Coffee is the way it sources its coffee and baked good supplies. The coffee beans are all roasted and blended at a central, Scooter’s-owned manufacturing facility. The baked goods are made at the same warehouse and distributed brand wide, producing reliable and consistent COG pricing that franchisees can count on. While franchisees and shop owners at other coffee shops dealt with rapid inflation and supply-chain shortages, many Scooter’s Coffee franchises were insulated from those challenges thanks to the unique Scooter’s system.
“Because we’re purpose-built for our franchisees, we have a sole focus on what they need,” says Craig Stevenson, senior director of manufacturing for Scooter’s Coffee. “We’re not managing 30, or even 100 other customers like some other manufacturers are. During the pandemic, things changed quickly. We can make decisions rapidly and the speed at which they are executed makes franchisees feel supported.”
For more on franchising with Scooter’s Coffee, visit the company’s franchising page.
