“What we do is translated around the world” – Nick Newbill, Marketing Director, 7 Brews

7 Brew Coffee opened its first drive-thru store in Rogers, Arkansas in 2017 and has accelerated store growth over the past 12 months, reaching more than 200 stores in 26 states by March 2024. Nick Newbill, the coffee chain's marketing director, tells the World's Coffee Portal:The diligence required to scale quickly, why staff are the 'secret sauce' to customer satisfaction, and leveraging new industry expertise after a major private investment round

7 Brew Coffee store in Universal City, Texas | Photo courtesy of 7 Brew

What have been your most significant successes and challenges over the past six years?

One of our most significant successes was a 275% increase in unit size in less than a year in 2023. We are also very proud of the loyal following we have accumulated over the years. This would not have been possible without our team members. and franchise partners. This is proof that the training we provide allows us to consistently deliver superior speed, quality and customer service across all of our stores.

However, our success has not come without challenges and learning opportunities. It will take a lot of effort to expand at the pace we have managed. This process requires a well-oiled machine when securing construction permits for modular stands. This simplifies not only staff hiring and training, but also the entire process of opening a new store.

We also focus on recruiting and retaining the best team members. These are the “secret sauces” for guest satisfaction. We strive to provide courteous, friendly, and prompt service with a wide variety of menu items to choose from. Our team members make it possible.

What makes 7 Brew unique in the increasingly competitive U.S. drive-through coffee market?

7 Brew stands out in the hospitality and drive-thru beverage space thanks to our culture of human connection and positivity. Consumers want choice and quality service, and that's exactly what 7 Brew provides.

Our customers can choose from over 20,000 beverage variations from an extensive list of flavored syrups, sweet sauces, milk alternatives and other ingredients. In addition to being able to fully customize their drinks, 7 Brew customers receive excellent and efficient service. That service includes interacting with friendly faces. Our stand does not have a speaker box. There is always someone at the car window taking orders.

Based on our tremendous growth trajectory to date, we believe there will continue to be a strong market need for our models.

“The Blackstone team has great resources that will enable us to reach our next stage of growth.”

What trends are currently shaping the U.S. drive-thru coffee shop market? How is 7 Brew responding to them?

We are seeing advances in technology across the drive-thru beverage space and we see this as an opportunity to connect with our customers and understand their preferences on a deeper level. For example, we've had great success with loyalty technology. Consistently, over 90% of his transactions at 7 Brew are tied to customer accounts through the loyalty program.

That said, the implementation of technology at 7 Brew has been deliberately chosen to simplify operational costs and time investment for franchise partners. Our simple approach to technology strengthens relationships between employees and customers. We use technology to complement the work of our team members, rather than complement their work.

We see technology as a way to record order history and drink preferences so we can intuitively predict or recommend what our customers want and serve them better.

Most of our sales come from coffee products and cold/chilled beverages. One of our newest categories is Cold Brew, which we believe is promising given industry trends and customer demand.

In February 2024, 7 Brew received investment from New York-based private equity firm Blackstone. What can your business achieve with funding?

We are on a strong growth trajectory thanks to our brewing crew and franchisees, and in Blackstone we have found a partner who understands our culture. The Blackstone team has incredible resources that will enable us to reach our next stage of growth.

Partnering with Blackstone gives you access to industry and market expertise, franchisee relationships, data science, operations, and real estate expertise.

We want to break sales and development records, and we think Blackstone is the ideal partner to help us do that, because the whole idea of ​​what we do goes around the world. We look forward to expanding to more states across the country and hopefully beyond.