Village Coffee Offers a Non-Franchise Franchise Opportunity

by Sean Kelly on September 5th, 2007

(FranchisePick.Com) If you’ve ever dreamed of owning your own gourmet coffee shop, you’d be smart to give Tommy Lowery a call (or at the very least read his interview at the FranBest Coffee blog).

Tommy Lowery, the founder and President of Village Coffee, is a passionate guy. He’s passionate about coffee. He’s passionate about people. And he’s passionate about the business of bringing the two together.

He’s also passionate about giving business owners the best chance possible to succeed. He founded the Village Coffee license program in part to give would-be gourmet coffee shop owners an alternative to coffee franchises he saw that marked up the products and supplies they sold to their franchise owners as much as 30% - 50%.

Says Tommy: “We only charge 10% over the distributor cost. This equates to an annual savings of $17,000 for an average Village Coffee licensee. A franchisee or licensee of our competitors would have to sell an additional $59,000 to make up for that $17,000 in additional mark-up. We’re trying to leave more of our licensees’ hard-earned revenue in their bank accounts, where it belongs.”

Instead of the percentage of gross sales most coffee franchise companies charge, Village Coffee charges a flat $400 per month licensing fee. That means that no matter how much revenue a Village Coffee licensee brings in in a given month, they only have to pay $400.

The Village Coffee licensing program also allows much more individual freedom in terms of store decor, buildout, decorating, and operational procedures than coffee franchises.

Keep in mind that the other side of paying lower fees is that the licensor is going to be able to provide only limited support. However, for some people who are more independent-minded, a licensing program like Village Coffee could be a happy medium somewhere between buying into a franchise system and going it alone.

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT VILLAGE COFFEE, READ TOMMY LOWERY’S INTERVIEW AT FRANBEST.COM/COFFEE