Dutch Bros Coffee, the national chain of drive-thru kiosks, is coming to Northeast Florida with at least one identified location – Palencia in St. Johns County.
St. Johns County received an application for a 950-square-foot drive-thru for the chain on 0.8 acre at U.S. 1 and McCoy Way in St. Augustine.
Dutch Bros Inc. is based in Grants Pass, Oregon.
Spokesperson Madison Fahey said May 12 all of the shops that are opening are company-owned and locally operated.
“We’re still in the very early stages of planning for this potential location so we don’t have much information to share at the moment,” she said of the Palencia site.
She said the company’s real estate and development team uses a few factors to determine how many and where the shops will be.
Dutch Bros Inc., a public company trading on the New York Stock Exchange, said it is one of the fastest-growing brands in the food service and restaurant industry in U.S. by location count.
As of March 31, there were 716 Dutch Bros Coffee stores in the U.S. in 14 states. The first Florida locations are planned in the Orlando area.
Oregon, California and Texas have the most locations. All of the stores are in the Midwest and West.
Brothers Dane and Travis Boersma founded Dutch Bros in 1992 with a double-head espresso machine and a pushcart in Grants Pass, Oregon.
“While espresso-based beverages are still at the core of what we do, Dutch Bros now offers a wide variety of unique, customizable cold and hot beverages that delight a broad array of customers,” the company says.
Dutch Bros offers cold brew, chai, hot coffees, energy drinks, teas, lemonades, smoothies and its signature Dutch sodas.
The food menu includes granola bars and muffin tops.
In the first quarter ended March 31, Dutch Bros opened 45 shops, 42 of which were company-operated, across nine states.
Of the 716 stores, 438 are company operated and 278 are franchised.
Dutch Bros expects to open at least 150 shops in 2023, with at least 130 company-operated.
QSRmagazine.com.com, a trade site, reported Jan. 12 that In terms of unit count, the only beverage chains bigger than Dutch Bros in the U.S. are Starbucks and Dunkin’.
It reported that similar to Chick-fil-A, employees greet drivers outside and take orders, and then two lanes merge into one.
Workers run smaller orders to cars farther back in line and those vehicles can then take an “escape lane”to exit the drive-thru without having to wait until the window. This layout is built into all new models.
QSR.com said more than 60% of new locations in 2023 will be in California and Texas. Many of the rest will be in other Western states, including Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.
There will also be continued growth farther east in Oklahoma, Missouri and Tennessee. New markets this year will be Kentucky and Alabama.
Dutch Bros joins several coffee drive-thru kiosk chains opening in the area, including Ellianos, Scooter’s, 7Brew, The Human Bean and continued expansion by Dunkin’ and Starbucks Coffee Co.