Expanding national footprint shows strong interest in innovative coffee franchise alongside its market viability in different community settings
The newest Just Love Coffee franchise has opened in Shelby Township, Mich., bringing to life the entrepreneurial dreams of owners Olsi and Irsida Kapoli.
The location, Just Love’s first in Michigan, was written up in QSR Magazine, which also had high marks for Just Love’s menu and unique vibe. Front and center were the Kapolis, who couldn’t say enough about the support they’ve received along the journey from discovery day to grand opening.
Taking the coffee-shop idea to new heights
“When we learned the story behind Just Love and experienced the amazing food and coffee the brand offers, we knew we had to bring the concept to our neighbors in Shelby Township,” Olsi Kapoli told QSR. “This is taking the idea of a traditional coffee shop to a whole new level.”
Kapoli, who left an IT career to launch his Just Love Coffee franchise, is an old hand in the kitchen. Growing up in Albania, he worked in relatives’ restaurants and coffee shops, and so knew what Just Love could be for the community.
“As I researched the brand, read information and watched videos from the founders, I really liked what they were all about,” he says. “And then when I began looking at the food, I fell in love with the waffle idea — we don’t have that in the Detroit area, so I would be bringing something new here. It’s not just a coffee shop; it’s a place to meet friends, to have a meal, to even listen to entertainment. It’s so welcoming, and so different from other coffee-bar concepts that are out there now.”
Creating a community gathering spot
That’s been the idea all along. Just Love Coffee franchises offer a relaxed, fun place to grab great coffee or bite to eat — or just unwind.
“Our goal with all of our locations is to serve as a catalyst for love in the communities we serve,” Chief Marketing Officer D.J. Smith told QSR. “We want friends and families of all ages and walks of life to find our shops comfortable and approachable. We want our guests to leave feeling more than satisfied. We want them to feel…well, loved. After all. ‘love’ is in our name.”
After the launch of two successful locations in Nashville and Brentwood, Tennessee, one of the hottest cities in the nation, Just Love Coffee is primed for expansion in 2019. Led by an executive team with proven experience in growing franchise systems, Just Love Coffee & Eatery is an ideal investment for both new and experienced entrepreneurs who want to get in on the ground floor of the most exciting business opportunity in the $12 billion U.S. coffee shop industry.
Current franchise owners are adding locations while new owners are growing the brand by establishing a visible presence in new cities and states
Consumers can’t get enough love. And that’s good news for Just Love Coffee franchise owners, who are taking the brand to an ever-growing number of communities around the United States.
In recent weeks, new Just Love franchises have opened in Spring Hill, Georgetown, TX and Murfreesboro, TN, while additional locations are underway in Dunwoody, GA, and Florence, AL. “All that activity, with many more on the way, points to a brand that has captured the public’s imagination”, says D.J. Smith, Chief Marketing Officer.
Strong growth in current markets
“We have been really pleased to see how Just Love Coffee continues to grow around our home turf in Middle Tennessee,” Smith says. “That’s a testament to the hard work of our franchise owners here, who got in early on the concept and have built a tremendous amount of brand recognition. To see them opening a second, or even third, location is very gratifying.”
In fact, the recent opening of a new Just Love Coffee franchise in Spring Hill, TN, set first-weekend sales records, and business at a new location in nearby Rutherford County has been equally brisk. “Many potential new owners visit these sites, see lines out the door and get excited about what Just Love offers”, Smith says.
Unique concept catches on with entrepreneurs
Indeed, Just Love Coffee franchise owners and their teams are creating the kind of foot traffic and revenue numbers that appeal to anyone who is looking to start a small business and wants to introduce a completely new concept to their community.
“This is a business that captures traffic all day long, thanks to great coffee as well as a menu that works for breakfast, brunch, lunch and even dinner,” he says. “Because it’s a new name, consumers are curious. They try us out, and once they’ve been in, they keep coming back and tell their friends.”
After explosive growth throughout Middle Tennessee, Just Love Coffee is primed for national expansion. Led by an executive team with proven experience in growing franchise systems, Just Love Coffee is an ideal investment for both new and experienced entrepreneurs who want to get in on the ground floor of the most exciting business opportunity in the $12 billion U.S. coffee shop industry.
Just Love Coffee franchise owners benefit from the talent and skill of our seasoned roastmaster
When Jason Smith became Just Love Coffee’s roastmaster, he found himself quickly going from a small, home-roasting operation to a much more robust setup. What he describes as a “very steep” learning curve has paid off, however, in award nominations and a growing line of high-quality roasts that draw coffee aficionados into every Just Love Coffee franchise on a daily basis. Here is how he sees the brand’s evolution to date, and what lies ahead:
What were the early days of Just Love like?
Rob [Webb, Just Love’s founder] already had created our core blends and had built out some profiles for what would come next. I learned my way around the roaster, which was a 12-kilogram machine that could roast 25 pounds at a time, because I needed to understand its capabilities.
I also connected with other roasting professionals and the Specialty Coffee Association, which was then the Specialty Coffee Association of America, so I could get more insights and up our game. Their curriculum is master-level stuff, and it has greatly improved my skills and what we are able to do with our roasts.
You’ve got a new roaster — what does it do for the product line?
It’s capable of about three times what our current one can do and has some automation features alongside manual ones I use now. That means I can switch between the two if I want to make a change during a roast and has some other features that will be a very nice addition to the roasting process.
We also can add to our product line more quickly. I’m now roasting several blends alongside our single-bean products, and we are going to start rotating them in and out so we always have something new to offer our customers, as well as favorites that will be available pretty regularly. It also means I can add something in quickly if beans become available, such as a recent batch we got from Papua New Guinea. Being able to produce these unique, small-batch roasts alongside our more regular ones is really amazing.
Now we are roasting close to 1,400 pounds a week, or around 95,000 pounds a year. And those numbers are just going to keep on going up.
What’s your bean-buying process like?
We work with brokers, and they have people all around the world who are experts in grading the beans at their point of origin. They know the coffee growing and buying infrastructure in each country, and they have strong relationships that give us buying power.
We also have a direct relationship with Mission Lazarus in southern Honduras, a missionary site with a very large coffee farm on their property. I have had the privilege of going there a couple of times to work on the mission and also spend some time on the coffee farm, so it has been a thrill for us to roast some of their beans.
What do you demand from coffee suppliers?
We want a guarantee that the beans are responsibly sourced, and that our brokers are working ethically with the farmers. Our coffees need to carry certifications that show they are at the high end of what’s available in that particular market.
How have you improved as a roaster?
One major thing is I don’t jerk the heat around during roasts anymore! The rate of rise, or how fast the temperature is changing during the roast, is vital to the process. We are now using a program that allows me to watch those curves on my computer and assess the rate of rise more closely. That means I can make a change more quickly and with less guesswork.
There’s so much that can be done incorrectly! You can bring too much heat early on, or not enough heat at the end, and you wind up baking those beans. They taste like bread and crackers. I don’t know that my learning curve will ever end, because each bean is slightly different, and changing the roasting process can give you a different result that, hopefully, provides the taste you are after.
How big a role do the franchise owners play in your buying and roasting process?
We hear from them about what is selling well, what their customers like and what they’d like to see more of. That is really important, because if we are hearing from several franchise locations that there’s a specific issue with a coffee, we can make adjustments. The franchise owners are our customers, and we are determined to give them a great line of beans so they can increase sales and grow their businesses.
After the launch of two successful locations in Nashville and Brentwood, Tennessee, one of the hottest cities in the nation, Just Love Coffee is primed for expansion in 2019. Led by an executive team with proven experience in growing franchise systems, Just Love Coffee & Eatery is an ideal investment for both new and experienced entrepreneurs who want to get in on the ground floor of the most exciting business opportunity in the $12 billion U.S. coffee shop industry.
Willingness to grab additional markets from the outset indicates enthusiasm for the brand and commitment to establishing a strong regional footprint
One of the best indicators of a franchise brand’s strength is the size of the multi-unit ownership pool. As the thinking goes, if someone is interested enough to buy more than one location at the outset, or to quickly expand into a second location and beyond, the brand is on very solid footing.
Consider, then, that one-third of Just Love Coffee franchise owners have plans to open at least two locations — and they arranged to have that expansion capability locked in from the outset. Given the relative newness of the franchise, that’s a remarkable number.
Opportunity to control a wider area
For franchise owner Thomas Scott, who has two Just Love Coffee locations in the greater Nashville metro area and soon will bring a third online in nearby Spring Hill, Tennessee, it’s good economics.
“For me, it was about scale,” Scott explains. “I purchased two existing locations at once, and I knew that if they performed well, I would want to expand my footprint. Nashville is a rapidly growing community, as is all of Middle Tennessee. By taking additional markets on early, and then making plans to build them out over time, I was able to create a much more comprehensive strategy for growth while also protecting my market share.”
Markets offer solid expansion opportunities
Being able to have that kind of flexibility within a given market is important to entrepreneurs as they look to starting a coffee business, adds D.J. Smith, Marketing Director.
“People who decide to open a Just Love are excited about the concept and get what a different kind of specialty coffee venue this is,” he says. “They are eager to get the doors open on that first location, and at the same time, they want to think ahead about a second or third site. Our territories are designed so that owners have a very strong voice in where, and when, Just Love Coffee franchises appear in their community.”
After the launch of two successful locations in Nashville and Brentwood, Tennessee, one of the hottest cities in the nation, Just Love Coffee is primed for expansion in 2019. Led by an executive team with proven experience in growing franchise systems, Just Love Coffee & Eatery is an ideal investment for new and experienced entrepreneurs who want to get in on the ground floor of the most exciting business opportunity in the $12 billion U.S. coffee shop industry.
The look and feel of every Just Love doesn’t happen by accident, thanks to a team dedicated to blending fun, comfortable form with necessary function
When Mike Huff met up with Just Love Coffee Cafe franchise owners at their recent annual conference, they might have thought he would just be talking about buildouts. That’s fair, because as Just Love’s Director of Construction he’s certainly tasked with working on new franchise locations.
Once they began speaking with Huff, however, they learned that he’s helping them with much more when it comes to carefully crafting the perfect Just Love franchise location.
Creating a unique vibe that works
His goal, Huff says, is to see what is working at each location and make those elements better. That includes everything from the overall atmosphere to a design that incorporates traffic patterns to avoid bottlenecks for customers as well as enhance employee productivity.
“A Just Love Coffee Cafe franchise has to be inviting because we want to get and keep customers in the space,” Huff says. “That is key to our success. We want to make sure that people know this a locally owned, localized business. At the same time, we are working on design elements that work for and with people on both sides of the counter, and also are exploring ways to increase seating capacity so that more people can come and stay longer.”
Different elements reflect unique communities
Every Just Love Coffee franchise has a cohesive blend of new and old materials, which keep the space cozy and also avoid a stale, stodgy look. To keep that going, Huff says the design team is always looking at ways to incorporate things like reclaimed wood or brick into a store design, as well as high points such as the original Just Love’s “wishing wall” to really create a standout element.
“We want the stores to reflect and highlight what Just Love is and means, and we can do that on the walls and in the decorative elements we use,” he adds. “A community board, local photographs, artwork from local artists — there are many ways that we can blend community involvement with what Just Love is all about.
After the launch of two successful locations in Nashville and Brentwood, Tennessee, one of the hottest cities in the nation, Just Love Coffee is primed for expansion in 2019. Led by an executive team with proven experience in growing franchise systems, Just Love Coffee & Eatery is an ideal investment for both new and experienced entrepreneurs who want to get in on the ground floor of the most exciting business opportunity in the $12 billion U.S. coffee shop industry.
Ongoing evolution and growth strategy insights are high points of annual meeting designed to connect owners and foster collaboration
Annual conferences, no matter what the industry, can be long and boring. Or they can be short, informative and energizing, as was the recently wrapped Just Love Coffee franchise owners’ meeting.
The event, which will be the flagship of a growing number of in-person conferences that will bring together franchises in different markets for training and other operational initiatives, set the tone for what Just Love Coffee franchise owners can expect in their gatherings.
Forging friendships, sharing best practices
Because it was another first for the growing brand, it was important to convey a lot of information, but also allow franchise owners to get to know each other and begin to share insights and best practices, says D.J. Smith, Marketing Director.
“We wanted to make sure that owners got to meet everyone on the corporate team, including people they’ve spent time talking to and emailing with, but may not have met in person,” Smith says. “And we also wanted to build in some time for them to meet with each other. Starting a business can be a lonely endeavor sometimes, and having those supportive relationships with others who are in the trenches alongside you is something we very much encourage.”
Seeing what’s coming helps create buy-in
The event also saw presentations on everything from sales and marketing to architectural designs and design elements for both new and existing Just Love coffee café franchise locations. That mix of back-office information, along with what’s going to be happening out front with the look, feel and offerings of every Just Love, created a strong sense of where the brand is going. It also helps franchise owners stay connected.
“We are all driving in the same direction, and that means keeping lines of communication open and letting people know what great ideas are percolating for Just Love’s future,” Smith says. “When we can get everyone in one room, show them want we’re working on and get their input and ideas, it creates the kind of synergy that has helped Just Love grow so rapidly, and will keep it expanding in communities all across the country.”
After the launch of two successful locations in Nashville and Brentwood, Tennessee, one of the hottest cities in the nation, Just Love Coffee is primed for expansion in 2019. Led by an executive team with proven experience in growing franchise systems, Just Love Coffee & Eatery is an ideal investment for both new and experienced entrepreneurs who want to get in on the ground floor of the most exciting business opportunity in the $12 billion U.S. coffee shop industry.
