Biggby Coffee

Type	Private
Industry	Restaurants
Founded	1995, East Lansing, Michigan
Headquarters	Lansing, Michigan
Key people	Robert Fish, CEO, Michael McFall, President and Mary Roszel, Co-Founder
Products	Biggby Coffee Harney and Sons tea and tisanes Made-to-order beverages Assorted food Bottled beverages Smoothies Merchandise
Website	biggby.com

Biggby Coffee (pronounced Big-Bee) is a privately owned coffee franchise business based in East Lansing, Michigan. Founded March 1995 as Beaner's by Bob Fish and Mary Roszel, the first location opened its doors in East Lansing near the campus of Michigan State University on March 15, 1995, in a former Arby's. The company changed its name to Biggby Coffee in late 2007.

Biggby began franchising in 1999. As of January 2012, Biggby Coffee has 140 stores open or under contract in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin. The company headquarters is located at 2501 Coolidge Road, East Lansing, Michigan.

History

Founding

After working in the quick-serve restaurant business for most of his life, Bob Fish took his knowledge and love for great-tasting coffee and applied it to his idea for a new type of coffee shop. Fish teamed with Mary Roszel to create a coffee shop where coffee-lovers and the coffee-curious alike could benefit from a less pretentious approach to the standard gourmet cafe paradigm. On March 15, 1995, the two opened their first location at 270 W. Grand River in East Lansing with the goal of creating a coffee shop experience that was warm, inviting and based on a philosophy that enabled its employees to give the consumer an extraordinary and memorable experience. Fish and Roszel then opened a second cafe in downtown Lansing, MI in 1997.

Fish, Roszel and Michael McFall (who was originally hired by Roszel as a barista in the first store) decided to franchise the company and founded Global Orange Development, LLC in June 1998. In August 1999 the first franchise location was opened in Okemos, MI and in October of the same year, another location was opened in East Lansing. In the following four years, nine more locations were opened throughout Michigan and Ohio. Today, McFall is the president of the company.

Controversy

In late 2007, the chain decided to change its name from Beaner's to Biggby Coffee amid concerns that the name, which was meant to celebrate the coffee beans, is also an ethnic slur for Hispanics, "beaner". The first store opened under the name BIGGBY COFFEE on October 29, 2007 in Westland, MI The change in name was completed in all stores by January 31, 2008. In December 2007, BIGGBY was awarded MBC Global’s 3rd Quarter Multicultural Achievement Award for completing the name change on a completely voluntary basis. In that same year, the company was named to Entrepreneur Magazine's Annual Franchise 500(R) list, ranked 289 out of the 500 companies profiled. In 2008, BIGGBY moved up 34 spots to number 255, the second among coffee retailers on the list.

Awards and Recognition

In September 2011 the company was named the fastest growing coffee chain in America by CNBC, which ranked the chain number one based on their growth percentage from the previous year. Biggby was ranked above other popular brands such as Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts and Caribou Coffee. Biggby was also named a top 30 food franchise in the United States by Franchise Business Review, which compiled results based on surveys from franchisees in the food sector, representing more than 75 brands and 20,500 franchised businesses. For the year of 2012, BIGGBY was ranked as number 268 on Entrepreneur Magazine's Annual Franchise 500(R) list.

Expansion

Biggby coffee shop, downtown Ann Arbor, MI

Biggby Coffee had planned to have more than 250 stores by 2010.

“We’re aggressively expanding in the Midwest and the Southeast, and we do have a growth plan to continue to double our units every two years,” Biggby President Michael McFall said in July 2008.

However, by March 2011 Biggby listed 122 franchise locations on its website.

Despite this, in July 2011, the company officially released a "new store footprint" that reduces the cost of opening a franchise location by approximately 40 percent. McFall said that despite the economic slow down that limited growth in Michigan and beyond, the new store footprint allows potential franchisees the opportunity to experience both a faster and higher return on capital and can expand current franchisees’ ability to open additional stores.

“By streamlining our utilization of resources, including simplifying the contractor process, material sourcing and delivery, we were able to reduce overall costs by $70,000 -$80,000 per location. The overall look and feel of the new stores remains the same as stores open prior to the redesign.” McFall said in July 2011.

Customer Feedback

Customers can give feedback directly to Biggby Coffee headquarters through the "B Heard Hotline" or through the B Heard feedback form located on the company's website. Customer's will speak directly to a home office employee when calling during normal business hours and can provide both store-specific and general feedback (good, bad or indifferent) through both mediums. The B Heard Hotline number is listed online and in all franchise locations.

Menu and Recent Menu Changes

Biggby's specialty drink menu is broken down into the following categories: Sweet and Creamy Lattes, Traditions and Classics, Hot Chocolate, Frozen Hot Chocolate, Creme Freeze Smoothies and Tea Lattes. MONIN syrups are used for drink flavoring along with Phillips Syrups, which are specifically customized and developed by and for the company. In October 2008, Biggby introduced "B Mellow", a marshmallow flavored syrup that added six new drinks to their menu. After a four month period of development between Biggby and the Ohio-based Phillips Syrups company, the sauce became the first of its kind in the retail coffee industry.

Along with assorted pastries, fruit, yogurt parfaits, cookies, sandwich wraps, salads and other specialty baked goods, Biggby introduced "Bragels" to their menu in October 2010. Marketed as the in-between breakfast and lunch meal, bragels are made-to-order bagel sandwiches in different meat, cheese and bagel varieties. Later that same year, biggby launched a new mobile website and introduced the option of "Reduced Calorie" drinks to their menu. Reduced calorie drinks cut calories and fat by 30-50% depending on the drink and substitute in sugar-free and lower calorie ingredients when possible. Fish said this initiative was developed "to make it even easier for BIGGBY COFFEE customers to know what choices they have, regardless of whether you’re on a calorie or sugar-restrictive diet or not." In 2011, all drinks, including specials and seasonal beverages, were added to the online menu along with their nutritional information.

Cup sizes

Short	10 US fluid ounces (295mL)
Tall	16 US fluid ounces (473 mL)
Grande	20 US fluid ounces (591 mL)
Super	24 US fluid ounces (709 mL)
Grabbit2Go Mug	64 US fluid ounces (1893mL)
Grabbit2Go Mug	100 US fluid ounces (2957mL)

Advertising

Biggby Coffee uses the statement: "B Happy, Have Fun, Make Friends, Love People and Drink Great Coffee" and the slogan: "Biggby Coffee is my happy place" in their advertising. Michigan artist, Wally Pleasant is the voice behind the jingle in the company's radio and television commercials, which he won an Emmy for in 2011.

External links

• Official website