Brand Deploys Food Trucks, Kiosks and Carts to Reach Captive Audiences in High-Traffic Areas
- The Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii franchise is expanding beyond single-unit cafes into non-traditional franchise locations such as shopping malls, travel plazas, airports, grocery stores and sporting arenas.
- High-volume, captive-audience locations are important as the brand accelerates development with multi-unit partners, Bad Ass Coffee leaders say.
- Bad Ass Coffee also continues its push to develop traditional cafes, particularly on the East Coast.
- Nationally, the brand expects 25 to 30 new store openings driven by multi-unit partnerships and non-traditional growth.
Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii meets people where they are – and where they’re going, as in airports and shopping malls. The franchise known for its premium Hawaiian coffee is expanding its development pipeline of multi-unit cafés across the Southeast and in non-traditional franchise locations to reach captive audiences across the U.S.
The brand’s non-traditional portfolio includes trailers and food trucks, coffee kiosks, carts and counters, drive-thru-only kiosks and “captive audience” shops inside venues such as airports, sporting arenas, grocery stores and shopping malls.
Anchor examples include the Bad Ass Coffee’s flagship presence at a 19,000-square-foot travel plaza off Interstate 94 in Kenosha, Wis., developed in partnership with multi-unit operator Paul Bhardwaj of Golden Oil. The non-traditional model at Kenosha leverages high-volume, captive-audience real estate without requiring a standalone café build, which Bad Ass Coffee officials say is an increasingly important lever as the brand scales nationally.
Captive Audience Advantages
“Our franchisees are operators first, and the conversation keeps coming back to flexibility,” says Bad Ass Coffee President and COO Tom Wylie. “When you’re building inside a territory, having more than one format to deploy changes the math. A traditional café anchors the market. A kiosk inside a travel plaza, airport terminal, arena or grocery store extends the brand into traffic patterns a single café can’t capture. That optionality is how we accelerate development with the multi-unit partners who are driving our growth.”
Non-traditional franchise formats offer convenience for travelers, shoppers, sports fans and others in those captive-audience locations. “If this captive audience receives a high-quality product or level of service, it will hopefully develop lifelong affinities for your brand,” according to an International Franchise Association article. “When captive customers return to the open marketplace where choices are plentiful, they will choose to continue to seek your products and services.”
Other advantages offered by non-traditional franchise locations include the following:
- Built-in foot traffic.
- Enhanced brand visibility, awareness and credibility.
- The ability to capture untapped markets with consumers who might not experience the brand otherwise.
- Smaller footprints and streamlined operations resulting in lower overhead.
- Lower marketing costs typically needed to attract customers to standalone locations.
- Premium pricing opportunities as consumers show willingness to pay more for convenience.
Badass Expansion
In addition to expanding its non-traditional footprint, Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii is aggressively pursuing traditional café development on the East Coast. In Florida alone, the brand operates seven locations. Its largest investor, AWA Investments, a multi-unit operator with stores from Nashville through the Florida Panhandle, recently committed to a 10-unit agreement spanning the Gulf Coast of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, with plans to open a new Gulf Shores, Ala., café in early summer.
Bad Ass Coffee officials say the traditional café pipeline and expanding non-traditional unit count provide a broader set of development tools to fill in territory across the Southeast and the wider East Coast corridor. Nationwide, the brand anticipates 25 to 30 new store openings this year driven by multi-unit partnerships and non-traditional growth.
The brand’s growth fuels an insatiable consumer craving for coffee, particularly at non-traditional franchise locations, where and when they want it. “The growing penetration of coffee offerings across non-traditional foodservice channels presents a significant global foodservice coffee market growth opportunity,” according to Fortune Business Insights, which estimated the global foodservice coffee market to grow from $666.24 billion in 2026 to $1.186 trillion by 2034, exhibiting a compound annual growth rate of 7.47%.
About Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii
Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii was born in 1989 on the Big Island of Hawai’i, and named for the tenacious donkeys that once carried heavy bags of Kona coffee down Hawaii’s steep volcanic slopes. The brand is dedicated to sharing premium Hawaiian coffees “with a kick” from the Hawaiian Islands through 45-plus U.S. franchise locations, with more than 100 additional shops in development.
Today, Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii stores also serve popular blended drinks, teas and food along with other international premium coffees, and sell popular branded merchandise while providing exceptional service and the Aloha Spirit. Bad Ass Coffees are available in franchise stores, online and will soon be available through grocery, hospitality and specialty retail channels. The Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii brand and franchise is owned by Royal Aloha Franchise Company, LLC.
Visit Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii to learn about franchise opportunities.
