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Blue Bottle Coffee: The Analytics Behind the Leading Specialty Coffee Chain
Why does Starbucks have 16,000+ US locations, Dunkin nearly 10,000, but the leading specialty coffee chain has less than 100?
One of life’s small joys for me is good (cold brew) coffee.
The market for away-from-home coffee is large and filled with well-known brands like Starbucks and Dunkin. These brands, while ubiquitous, are not specialty coffee brands — they’re mass market.
Local, independent shops serving specialty coffee are also common — you’ll find many scattered throughout midsize and larger cities.
Less common are brands that (1) serve specialty grade coffee and (2) are on a nationwide scale. Among the largest is Blue Bottle Coffee — owned by Nestle.
Why aren’t there more nationwide specialty coffee brands? Why can there be ~16,000 Starbucks in the US, 9,600 Dunkin, and only 76 Blue Bottle locations?
This week we’re breaking down the coffee industry, Blue Bottle’s positioning & niche within the market, and the growth opportunities & constraints associated with that positioning.
