Dive Brief:
- Caribou Coffee has opened its first standalone coffeehouse and drive-thru in Texas this week, the company said in a press release.
- The company-owned unit in Watauga, Texas, a suburb of Dallas-Fort Worth, is the second in the state and adds to a franchise location in the Dallas Forth Worth International Airport. It plans to open a third location in Grapevine, Texas, later this year with the possibility of more restaurants in the future.
- The new unit is part of the chain’s strategy to expand further into the Southeast and invest in areas that have not had new locations in over a decade. The coffeehouse chain will have eight locations in the Atlanta metro by the end of this year, adding to the four units it opened in 2024 in the state. Last year, the chain opened four locations in North Carolina and two in Florida.
Dive Insight:
The new unit will likely see a significant amount of traffic. The Watagua location is in a busy retail corridor with restaurants, grocery stores and medical practices that see thousands of consumers each day. Within a three-mile radius, there are 50,000 households with people commuting to and from work, Adam Krook, director of operations at Caribou Coffee, said in a statement.
The design incorporates a walk-up and drive-thru window to better accommodate on-the-go consumers. Krook said employees can typically get orders out within its national average of less than four minutes.
Caribou Coffee’s newest location also falls under the chain’s development strategy of using second-generation retail space in order to reduce time and cost to develop.
Caribou’s company-owned expansion coincides with the chain’s push for more franchised units. It opened domestic franchising in October 2021, signing 300 units two years later. The brand, which has 800 units globally, plans to open 12 franchised units and 25 company-owned units this year, according to its 2025 franchise disclosure document.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly listed Adam Krook’s job title. Krook is director of operations at Caribou Coffee.
