Ziggi’s Coffee isn’t exactly opening new drive-thru shops on every corner in Northern Colorado, but it might seem like it.
The Longmont-based business, not quite 15 years old, is experiencing a growth spurt as a result of its relatively new franchise model.
There are Ziggi’s drive-thrus under construction in Johnstown Plaza and Windsor, one coming to east-central Loveland, another to west Loveland and yet another to Berthoud. And new shops recently opened in Estes Park and south Fort Collins.
“The drive-thru coffee market is incredibly competitive right now,” said Mead resident Brandon Knudsen, who founded and owns Ziggi’s with his wife, Camrin.
If Ziggi’s doesn’t act now, he said, “all the good spots are going to be taken.”
In November 2017, Jill and Steve Anderson opened the first Ziggi’s franchise, a small double-drive-thru shop at 4201 N. Taft Ave. in northwest Loveland. Now, Ziggi’s has seven corporate stores, eight franchises that are up and running and four locations under construction.
“I believe we’re on track to open 12 to 15 this year. The year after that, it could be 20, it could be five,” depending on how negotiations go, Brandon Knudsen said.
New Johnstown, Loveland, Berthoud locations
The Andersons own the single-drive-thru shop under construction off Thompson Parkway in Johnstown’s 2534 development, which is set to open March 25, and they have purchased property at the northeast corner of East Eisenhower Boulevard and North Madison Avenue.
Knudsen acknowledged that “traffic patterns are tricky” at that corner, a continuous-flow intersection, but he said it’s “definitely a fantastic location.”
He said Ziggi’s won’t need to capture the drivers going in directions other than past the coffee shop.
“You need only 300 to 400 cars a day to do very well,” he said. “You’d be amazed how many people are heading west on Eisenhower in the morning. It’s crazy.”
That shop should open next fall, he said.
In Berthoud, the Knudsens bought an acre-plus of land off Mountain Avenue just west of Hays Market for a shop they will own themselves.
Although a few of Ziggi’s locations have a sit-down cafe configuration, the Berthoud shop will be a drive-thru, he said.
“There already is a cute little cafe in Berthoud. We have no intention of trying to compete with them,” he said.
The new shop will be within walking distance of Berthoud High School, and when it opens this summer it will offer a convenient option to the residents of the newer housing developments in that area, he said.
Fast and convenient
The convenience of a drive-thru coffee shop for people on their way to or from work or out on errands is Ziggi’s model. When the Andersons were getting ready to open their Loveland franchise two years ago, Knudsen said Ziggi’s provides top-quality drinks and great customer service, but what sets his business apart is its speed.
“Our goal, from the time they place their order to getting the drink in their hand and driving away, is two and a half minutes,” he said at the time.
While the drive-thru coffee concept isn’t new, with local shops and larger chains having offered it for years, that approach to delivering coffee to customers is accelerating.
In a Bloomberg.com article last year, Starbucks chief financial officer Scott Maw talked about his chain’s new drive-thru strategy and used two Starbucks coffee shops in Fort Collins as an example. The one with a drive-thru has two-thirds higher sales than a nearby sit-down shop in a shopping center, he said.
A brand-new Loveland Starbucks with a drive-thru is nearing completion just east of Hobby Lobby on North Garfield Avenue, to replace a sit-down Starbucks in the same parking lot.
All the options
Knudsen said he and Camrin became familiar with the drive-thru coffee concept almost 20 years ago while students in Ashland, Ore., where the original Human Bean opened “in a little teeny shack.” Camrin had a job in that shop, he said.
Now, Knudsen counts The Human Bean Drive-Thru and Dutch Bros Coffee, which also originated in southwest Oregon, as his main competitors for drive-thru coffee consumers.
He had nothing but good things to say about those companies and their products.
“Each one has its own personality. We have our own personality,” he said. “It’s good to have options.”
Jenae Nequette, director of operations for The Human Bean in Northern Colorado, echoed that opinion.
“I’m excited about all the different coffee options,” she said. “I frequent other options myself.”
The Northern Colorado Human Bean franchise, owned by Frank Sherman and based in Evans, has eight locations, a mobile unit, and a shop under development in St. Michaels Town Square in west Greeley, Nequette said.
The Northern Colorado chain has been around since 2004, and Nequette said it’s not in a big hurry to add new locations.
“We really take growth as it comes,” she said. “We just want to make sure we’re putting ourselves in the right places to serve the community as best we can and keep up with our own growth and maintain our standards.”
Meanwhile, Dutch Bros, which got its first shop north of Colorado Springs when franchise owners Nate and Krisanna Frary opened a double-drive-thru in north Loveland in June 2016, now has six in Northern Colorado, including four owned by the Frarys, according to spokeswoman Angi Veek.
The chain has more than 325 locations in seven states and is on track to add 30 new coffee shops this year, she said, although none in Colorado in the next two quarters.
Although Dutch Bros is hoping to grow to 800 locations in the next five years, the company “doesn’t look at things in terms of competitive or not,” Veek said.
“We focus on our culture, customers and communities,” she said. “There’s room for everyone.”
Learning the drive-thru routine
Ziggi’s Knudsen agreed, saying that Northern Colorado is “years and years and years away from being full of drive-thrus.”
“Say there’s seven drive-thrus in Loveland; you go to a town in Oregon, and there’s 30,” he said. “In Longmont, we have four stores, all a mile apart, and all are doing very well. We’d like to add three or four more.
“The drive-up is so new to Colorado,” he said. “(Coffee drinkers) do want the experience of someone saying hi to them and smiling at them in the morning.
“People in Colorado are just learning about that routine,” he said. “You say hi to the barista you always say hi to, you get your coffee, and then your day’s started.”
Craig Young: 970-635-3634, cyoung@reporter-herald.com, www.twitter.com/CraigYoungRH.