East Lansing-based Biggby Coffee meets goal of 48 new franchises in 2013

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EAST LANSING — Biggby Coffee is one of the fastest-growing coffee chains in the United States, and it looks to continue on that path.

The East Lansing-based chain announced Tuesday it had met its goal of establishing 48 new franchises in 2013. Now sights are set on 2014, when the company aims to add 60 new locations.

“We’ve never quite hit our goal, and our goals have always been pretty aggressive,” Biggby founder and CEO Bob Fish said. “We have interest right now from more (franchises who want to sign), but they have to wait until next year. That’s about a concern to be able to handle our new openings and making sure the franchises we have are being serviced properly.”

Biggby will begin signing new franchises the second week of January.

The latest 48 additions take the completely franchised chain up to 205 total locations. Fish said the last of those 48 came in Champaign, Ill., but Biggby continues to focus on its home state, specifically metro Detroit.

“Our goal is to sell mostly in Michigan,” Fish said. “Most are going to be concentrated in metro Detroit. Right now we have about 40 (locations there), but we’d like to take it up to about 150.

“There’s a very concerted effort to ramp things up in metro Detroit.”

Original article: http://www.mlive.com/business/jackson-lansing/index.ssf/2013/12/east_lansing-based_biggby_coff.html