Seven Brew Coffee coming to Orange Park

The Town of Orange Park’s planning and zoning board approved a site plan for a 7 Brew coffee shop at the corner of Wells Road and Park Avenue. The entrance to the business will be through a two-lane service road off Wells Road that leads to a Wawa Convenience Store.

The site plan calls for removing a now-existing driveway from Park Avenue into the 0.53-acre lot and an associated sidewalk.  The plan also adds a sidewalk along Wells Road and updated stormwater and utility connections for the 480-square-foot, double drive-thru facility.

Headquartered in Fayetteville, Arkansas, 7 Brew serves espresso-based coffee, chillers, teas, infused energy drinks, sodas, and more.

In 2021 the investment group: Drink House Holdings, led by Jimmy John Liautaud: founder of the Jimmy John’s sandwich chain, and Lonestar Steakhouse founder Jamie B. Coulter bought a majority stake in 7 Brew. Coulter also owned 100 Pizza Hut outlets in 12 states.

“We believe that the combination of Drink House Holdings’ industry resources and expertise, as well as our global brand-building experience, will help us to grow 7 Brew into a category leader while remaining true to the original mission of the brand,” said Coulter at the time of the investment.

7 Brew said it intended to use the cash to finance franchise growth.

The company’s business model follows that of Scooter’s Coffee, which opened an Orange Park location last month. In 2018 McCarthy Capital supplied Scooter’s with a cash infusion, and the drive-thru coffee chain expanded from 180 locations to over 300.

Another competitor: Dutch Bros Coffee, received an investment from TSG Consumer Partners in 2018. Dutch Brothers has more than 400 locations in 10 states, concentrated on the west coast.

7 Brew founder Ron Crume said Dutch Bros inspired his business. The former homebuilder constructed the modular 7 Brew units himself in a warehouse and then transported the units to locations for quick setup. Crume said his strategy was to take advantage of the small footprint of a drive-thru format to get into areas with existing retail where expansion with larger designs was not possible.  

Earlier this year, 7 Brew opened its first Florida location in Melbourne. The company said it planned to open 165 stores in the Sunshine State over the next five years.

During the Nov. 10 Orange Park Planning and Zoning Board meeting, Eric Almond of Almond Engineering complemented the town’s staff for their help with the approval process.

“7 Brew is planning 176 stores in the Florida market, and we’ve probably got 30 to 40 under various stages of design and permitting, he said, “not just in Jacksonville but in Pensacola, Tampa, Orlando, Daytona. The Town of Orange Park, by far, has been the best to deal with.”