Black Rifle Coffee Company has made a lot of noise since blasting into the market only 5 years ago. The company is recognized for much more than coffee beans like being veteran owned and openly stating their political stance on many issues. The companies first YouTube video explains just how different this brand would be: “Buy our coffee. Or don’t. We really don’t care.” 

Mostly known for their online presence where they’re very active on social media and selling bags of coffee beans in partnered stores, the Black Rifle Coffee Company continues to grow both in the number of their stores and their loyal following. More recently they’ve made coffee shops available to prospective franchisees.

How much does it cost to open Black Rifle Coffee franchise? The Black Rifle Coffee Company is privately owned so there aren’t many details on the fees to expect. Experts we spoke with estimated a franchisee would be required need a liquid capital of $250,000 and a net worth of $500,000. At the time of there are between 10 – 15 of these coffee shops in the United States.

To know more about this one-of-a-kind coffee company, annual revenue, the advantages and challenges read on. Take our franchise quiz to find out if this is the right option for you. 

Financial Requirements and Fees

Not a lot of information can be found on the financial requirements needed to franchise a Black Rifle Coffee Company except the two details mentioned above in an unofficial article. If you’re interested to know more, you can contact them and ask for their updated franchise disclosure document.

More on this later in the analysis, but Black Rifle Coffee recently announced they are going public with an estimated valued of $1.7 billion. They are merging with a company called SilverBox-Engage based out of Austin, Texas. Once the company officially goes public as a SPAC, we should know more details about the cost to open a coffee shop under this brand.

Average Sales / Revenue per Year

According to The Wall Street Journal, Black Rifle Coffee Company’s revenue reached $163 million in 2020. 70% of their sales came from e-commerce. The company is also projected to reach $240 million in revenue in 2021.

Black Rifle Coffee Franchise Facts

The Black Rifle Coffee Company was founded in Salt Lake City, Utah in December 2014 by four veterans namely Evan Hafer, Mat Best, Jarred Taylor, and Richard Ryan.

According to Evan Hafer, Black Rifle Coffee Company was started with the goal to serve high-quality brews to veteran communities. Between deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, Hafer worked in perfecting both his firearm skills and coffee roasting skills. His love for two things has led him and his fellow veterans to open Black Rifle Coffee Company.

The coffee business focuses on premium roasted brews. They import their coffee beans from Brazil and Colombia. Their roasting facilities are located in Manchester, Tennessee and Salt Lake City, Utah where they roast their beans five days a week.

Black Rifle Coffee Company is also very well known for supporting the veteran community. The company has over 530 employees and more than half of them are military veterans, reservists, and military spouses. They’re also known for their strong marketing approach. For instance, some of the names of their coffee beans are named from weapons such as Silencer Smooth, Gunship, and AK-47. But don’t let the names scare you off. The coffee brand offers a variety of coffee beans from light to dark roast, giving customers plenty of options on what blend of coffee they prefer. Even if you prefer a mild mannered brew.

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Aside from coffee, Black Rifle Coffee Company is known for selling apparel such as shirts, hats, hoodies, blankets, and accessories. Their merchandise caught headlines back in January 2021 when one of the people who stormed the US Capitol was seen wearing one of the coffee brand’s designs. Hafer spoke about how he disagreed with the mob’s actions that day and felt “offended” by the continuous identification of that man with their coffee company.

Black Rifle Coffee Company is found in the United States and Canada. Their presence is mostly online where you can order bags of their coffee beans via their website and they’ll have it delivered to you. They also sell their beans in stores such as in Walmart, Bass Pro Shops, and other retail stores. Recently, Black Rifle Coffee Company has started to put up stores in the United States that functions as a café as well. Their newest store is in Moore, Oklahoma and is just the fourth national store by the brand.

Though Black Rifle Coffee Company isn’t the only coffee brand founded by veterans (there’s also Victory Coffee which people sometimes mistake as Black Rifle Coffee Company since the former was featured on Shark Tank), it has become a big coffee name that it’s just getting quite as popular as Starbucks. People are even wondering if they can buy stock from Black Rifle Coffee Company. The good news is you’ll probably be able to buy shares of the company sometime in 2022.

According to Reuters, the coffee company plans to go through a merger with SilverBox Engaged Merger Corp I which will value the combined businesses at $1.7 billion. It is expected to happen in the first quarter of 2022. Though no major details have been revealed yet, it’s considered good news for those interested in purchasing stocks from them.

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For franchising details, you may have to personally contact the Black Rifle Coffee Company. But aside from franchising, you can also do business with them by applying to become a dealer. If you have a store and would like to start selling Black Rifle Coffee Company beans on your shelves, all you have to do is fill up this form and wait for their representatives to contact you. Currently, Black Rifle Coffee Company has its headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah.

How Much Does Black Rifle Coffee Make in Profit?

Black Rifle Coffee Company is seeing increasing gross profits of 94% from 2019. Their gross profit in 2020 is $69 million.

Recent reports have the gross margin of the business at 40%, which is phenomenal profitability for a coffee brand. With the added benefit of merchandise sales and a fast growing brand in the United States there’s plenty of room for growth with this brand.

Advantages of a Black Rifle Coffee Franchise

What advantages can you expect from franchising Black Rifle Coffee Company? Here are a few that come to mind.

Following

Black Rifle Coffee Company has a huge following both online and offline. Their Instagram page has over 1.7 million followers. Their Facebook page has 1.6 m followers. They’re known for their videos on Youtube reaching millions of views. The company also has more than 270,000 active coffee club subscribers and 1.9 million lifetime consumers.

So if you do get to run a Black Rifle Coffee Company in your area, you don’t have to worry about drawing in the crowd. The Black Rifle Coffee Company brand is extremely recognizable and to be blunt appeals to gun-toting Americans that love freedom. If this sounds like your dream customer this could be the coffee concept you’ve been waiting for.

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Helpful Community

Black Rifle Coffee Company is known to help out veterans. They even have a goal to hire 10,000 veterans as their employees. With a community that extends their help to veterans all over the United States, it’s a business one should be proud of being a part of. By the way, you do not need to be a veteran to operate this franchise. Anyone who supports the military qualifies.

Coffee Enthusiasts

Evan Hafer, one of the founders of Black Rifle Coffee Company, knows coffee and is very passionate about it. The brand and coffee blends didn’t come out of some marketing agency think tank. They came from legitimate inspiration.

This makes their coffee taste good because the people running the business know what it takes to roast good coffee. It’s not just people who want to run a coffee store for the sake of selling them. Black Rifle Coffee Company is handled by people who speak the coffee language fluently.

Challenges of a Black Rifle Coffee Franchise

Like all other businesses, there will be challenges. Here are a few you can expect when you franchise Black Rifle Coffee Company.

Heavy on the Politics

Politics is one of those topics best left out when you’re doing business. It can cause a lot of backlash. But Black Rifle Coffee Company does not shy away from discussing issues and even being vocal about where they stand on politics such as Hafer disclosing he voted for Donald Trump (and Donald Trump likewise endorsed them back in 2017).

So if you decide to franchise this company, expect to receive a lot of comments, whether those are in support of your coffee brand’s beliefs or not. Make sure your political ideology matches up with this brands position before getting into business with them.

Misuse of Apparel

As mentioned above, the Black Rifle Coffee Company has been linked to one of the people who stormed the capitol in January 2021 because the man had been wearing one of the coffee brand’s designs. But this isn’t the only instance where their apparel was seen in a negative light.

Last year, Kyle Rittenhouse, who was charged with shooting two men in Wisconsin during a protest, was seen wearing a Black Rifle Coffee Company shirt. He captioned it “Kyle Rittenhouse drinks the best coffee in America.” Along with the post was a discount code to buy the shirt. Evan Hafer has already released his statement that the company does not profit from this tragedy.

Though these things have already happened a long time ago, this paints the coffee brand in a negative light, and talks of these issues might come up from time to time which could label Black Rifle Coffee Company with such bad publicity.

Some people believe there’s no such thing as bad publicity. If that’s how you feel then you’ve got nothing to worry about. Just be aware that this particular brand seems to get caught up in the news cycle more than other coffee brands.

Limited Cafes

Even though this is a fast growing brand there’s still a lot of people that aren’t familiar with it. Due to the positioning of the brand, you can’t expect it to reach the level of market penetration that Starbucks or McDonalds. Safe to say this will never be a global conglomerate. And that’s okay!

The coffee company is known to sell coffee beans online more than having a stand-alone coffee shop. As more coffee shops open up around across America more coffee drinker will become familiar with the brand. Interacting with customers offline can also help build a better coffee community for this company.

Is the Black Rifle Coffee Franchise Right For You?

To franchise Black Rifle Coffee Company is to be one with their beliefs. It would be difficult to separate your political views and principles from them but still do business with them. So before you join this coffee company, it’s best to think about and study the pros and cons where this company could take you to once you join their family.

What is an alternative coffee company to franchise?

One coffee company you can franchise that also supports the military is Green Beans Coffee. They’ve been around since 1996 with more than 70 locations. Aside from coffee, this brand also sells freshly-baked treats. They’re mostly located in suburban communities, airports, and metropolitan cities.

The initial investment to franchise Green Beans Coffee is $249,500 to $502,000. The franchise fee is $25,000.

May this guide be helpful enough in your quest to franchise a coffee company that supports veterans in the United States. The first five years of this coffee business has seen incredible growth. I look forward to what the next five years has in store for this brand.