Coffee Bean Franchise - A Unique Opportunity

The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf has grown to become a very successful coffee chain, both nationally and internationally. In fact, it is one of the oldest and largest chains for specialty coffee and tea stores opening up first in Los Angeles in 1963.

Originally, the Coffee Bean was a privately owned company. However a Singaporean entrepreneur named Victor Sassoon purchased franchises in 1996 and opened up different coffee beans throughout the southeastern part of Asia. Currently, the Coffee Bean franchise has over 400 locations in 14 different countries.

While most all Coffee Bean franchise opportunities that exist are for overseas locations and not in the U.S. Domestically, it is still largely a company-owned operation. If you're looking for one of these franchise opportunities your best bet is to be located in Singapore, Egypt, Korea, Australia, East Malaysia, Kuwait, the Philippines or Korea. Additionally, there are opportunities in Indonesia, Brunei and the United Arab Emirates.

Within these international opportunities, territories where existing franchises already exist are available for either franchising or sub franchising. You can visit their website to see what existing locations are currently available.

The only franchise opportunities that exist domestically are for those who have the ability to manage and invest in multiunit territories, usually 20 units or more for any individual.

Domestically, the Coffee Bean does not offer franchising for individual stores. Financing for the franchise is to be provided by the investor and no financing support is offered by the franchisor.

Perhaps a more accessible option is to partner with the company instead. You can enter into an agreement to sell their products in your own café or restaurant. However, you're restricted with using their name, logo, trademark or likeness in any way. This means you cannot advertise the fact that the products you sell are Coffee Bean products without the company's permission.

The Coffee Bean franchise is an excellent opportunity for international investors. For example, in the Israeli market the business is very profitable, whereas Starbucks was not nearly as successful. This is perhaps due to the fact that most, if not all products at the Coffee Bean are kosher.

While the Coffee Bean franchise opportunity probably does not exist for most investors, it is a solid investment opportunity and worth researching further to see if it is an option for you. At the very least you can study the success of this business model and look for other franchise opportunities which offer similar models.