Scooter’s Coffee is a testament to the idea that Americans’ obsession with coffee is recession resistant: The franchise grew during the Great Recession, and posted positive year-over-year sales comps in 2020.

But serving such a popular beverage is only part of what makes the brand so successful, says Tim Arpin, vice president of franchise recruitment at Scooter’s Coffee. He credits a strong leadership team that has spent years investing in infrastructure that helps churn out a quality product as fast as possible to loyal customers.

“The pandemic has really helped sharpen our focus on our core competency,” Arpin says, “which is that we are made up of ‘amazing people, serving amazing drinks amazingly fast.’”

With an average window wait time of about 40 seconds, Scooter’s is laser-focused on the coffee drive-thru model that has positioned it for a new growth phase. With over 300 units in early 2021, the brand is aiming to have 1,000 locations by 2024 and wants to be the second-largest coffee chain in the U.S.

“Prior to coming on board with Scooter’s, one of the reasons I was so impressed with the brand was because they’ve done the difficult part already, which is that they’ve resourced ahead of the curve,” Arpin says. “You see some brands trying to grow at a rate that they can’t possibly support. It’s the opposite at Scooter’s, where we have resourced appropriately so that we can grow responsibly.”

Scooter’s offers each franchisee a designated real estate manager who helps find a site and secure it. The franchisee then works with a construction manager that helps create the buildout from the ground up to make sure it’s as successful as it can be. A training team is sent to each site to ensure a smooth opening, and that’s just the beginning of support that franchisees receive.

“Every single aspect of the business has robust support behind it,” Arpin says. “That includes the vertical integration of food sourcing, where we roast our own beans, bake our own goods, and that allows us to keep the price of the products we serve in line with what will be profitable for franchisees.”

In order to grow, Scooter’s Coffee is looking for franchisees with a customer service-focused mentality. Arpin says that successful franchisees come from a wide array of backgrounds, but what they have in common is the grit to work through challenges, and a clear understanding and identification with the core values of Scooter’s Coffee: integrity, love, humility, and courage.

“We put a lot of emphasis on teaching our core values during the discovery process,” Arpin says. “This is a really muscular model and we know it’s successful, but we’re looking for people who have the courage to pull through years like the really challenging one we just had and have the humility to know that mistakes might happen along the way, but we learn from them and move forward.”

To find out more about joining the fast-growing coffee franchise in the U.S., visit franchising.scooterscoffee.com.