What 2022 (and beyond) Will Bring

By Brian

As the leader of a growth-minded business, I believe firmly in both radical transparency and audacious intentions as a way of doing work. I don’t like keeping secrets, I don’t like always curating a better-than-it-actually-is picture. And I think that big goals, wild objectives, ideas in the clouds are really helpful to motivating a team that’s already accomplished so much.

So as we roll the calendar from 2021 into 2022, we’re here to share our intentions for this next year — where is Summit going, how many Summits will there be, and how does this all work if Summit is adamant about remaining Summit?

By the end of this year, we have seven open cafés, with five more in development — including our first out of state, in the Atlanta suburb of Roswell. The makes 12 in total, and in 2022, we intend to double that. It took us 22 years to open three stores, another 18 months to line up the next nine, and now we’re committed to sitting here next December with 25 stores either open or in development.

Audacious? Absolutely. Possible? Absolutely. I don’t believe in broadcasting things for shock value — we do it to create both excitement and accountability. Because, let’s be real, growing this small business into something bigger is really exciting. It’s fun, it’s super hard, we’ve made some mistakes and we have made a lot of good bets.

But the accountability part is what I really love. Sitting around the office, we’ve got a leadership team of 13 (and growing) where everyone is contributing in their own specialized way to bring this vision to life. Kate is selling cafés, and Dora is setting them up for success. Tim is making sure we’re taking care of the staff, and Brett is making sure we’re taking care of the Earth. Leah is crafting the narrative around it all, and Andrew is building strategy for these not-so-wild dreams. Tyler keeps bringing new spaces to life, with the artistic partnership of Brooke, and Wes is behind every closed door making sure things work as they should. And Donovan has his coffee team sourcing and roasting and brewing the best darn coffee in the Southeast, with Olivia and Sarah out in the field helping to spread the Summit gospel.

We’re in Charlotte, and Lake Norman, and Asheville. We’ll continue to expand in those markets, and soon we’ll be in Roswell, and then other places around Atlanta. We’ll be in South Carolina (looking at you, Charleston and Greenville), and in Virginia. We’ll expand the brand in the Triangle area, and keep working night and day to make sure each café experience is as unique and local to that neighborhood as it should be.

We’re scouting cities and neighborhoods, talking to brokers and developers, meeting with prospective franchise partners and searching for more conversations. This is a wild and fun time for Summit — we’re committed to growing quickly AND responsibly, because with growth comes a very important urgency to do well by the business that’s already here.

So, we’re coming for you 2022. Watch out, and come join us if you want to bring a Summit Coffee to your world.

Interested in learning more about franchising with Summit Coffee? Fill out the form below or shoot a note over to kate@summitcoffee.com to learn more!