East Lansing's Biggby Coffee fastest-growing in nation

Category: Uncategorized

---

East Lansing’s Biggby Coffee fastest-growing in nation

 

By Melissa Anders
Lansing State Journal

EAST LANSING – The Biggby craze is catching on.

 

CNBC has pegged Biggby Coffee as the nation’s fastest-growing coffee retail chain.

 

The business news cable television channel recognized the East Lansing-based coffee chain in a special report on “America’s Coffee Addiction.” The special premieres Thursday at 9 p.m., with re-peats at 10 p.m., midnight and 1 a.m.

 

Biggby opened 10 new stores last year for a total of 115, a 9.5 percent growth rate, according to co-founder and CEO Bob Fish. That’s a little more than the data CNBC used – it listed the shop with a 7.3 percent growth rate and eight new stores. The cable network used data from Technomic Inc., a Chicago-based food industry research and consulting firm.

 

Biggby’s growth outpaced that of larger rivals, including Starbucks Corp. and Dunkin’ Donuts.

 

Biggby, which has about 25 stores in the Lansing area, is not slowing down anytime soon. Eight more stores have opened so far this year, and another 13 are in development, Fish said.

 

The chain, which started out as one shop in East Lansing, now has locations in eight states.

 

“It’s really rather remarkable,” Fish said.

 

The company had nearly doubled its number of stores every two years since its founding in 1999, but that growth slowed during the recession, Fish said.

 

Now, he hopes to tap into the interest from current operators to add stores, coupled with a strong pipeline of new franchisees, in order to grow to 300 stores by 2015.

 

For more on this story, read Thursday’s Lansing State Journal.

To read the original article, click the link below.

 

Original article: http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20110928/NOISE/109280329/0/GW01/East-Lansing-s-Biggby-Coffee-fastest-growing-nation?odyssey=nav|head