---
title: "Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii Kicks Growth into High Gear Through Southeast and Nontraditional Expansion"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/469547c2-fe9e-414e-a695-b8f329890b47
source: "Franchising.com"
original_url: https://www.franchising.com/news/20260603_bad_ass_coffee_of_hawaii_kicks_growth_into_high_gear_through_southeast_and_.html
category: "Coffee & tea"
industry: "Restaurants"
segment: "Coffee & tea"
topics: ["Development & multi-unit"]
published: 2026-06-03T12:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-10-31T16:11:00.171Z
image: https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1561758033-d89a9ad46330?w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop
---

# Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii Kicks Growth into High Gear Through Southeast and Nontraditional Expansion

**TL;DR:** Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii is expanding through non-traditional locations, including trailers, food trucks, and coffee kiosks, in addition to its traditional café formats. The brand is accelerating development with multi-unit partners in the Southeast and East Coast regions.

*originally published in Franchising.com on 2026-06-03. [Read the original](https://www.franchising.com/news/20260603_bad_ass_coffee_of_hawaii_kicks_growth_into_high_gear_through_southeast_and_.html).*

## Story

The non-traditional portfolio spans trailers and food trucks, coffee kiosks, carts and counters, drive-thru only kiosks, and "captive audience" shops inside venues such as airports, sporting arenas, grocery stores and shopping malls. Anchor examples include the brand's flagship presence at a 19,000-square-foot travel plaza off I-94 in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Locations like Kenosha illustrate how the non-traditional model can be deployed in high-volume, captive-audience real estate without requiring a standalone café build.

"Our franchisees are operators first, and the conversation keeps coming back to flexibility," said Tom Wylie, President and Chief Operating Officer of Bad Ass Coffee. "When you're building inside a territory, having more than one format to deploy changes the math. A traditional café anchors the market. A kiosk inside a travel plaza, airport terminal, arena or grocery store extends the brand into traffic patterns a single café can't capture. That optionality is how we accelerate development with the multi-unit partners who are driving our growth."

The non-traditional footprint can operate alongside traditional café formats in various venues. In Florida, the brand operates seven locations.

Together, traditional café formats and non-traditional units provide a set of tools to serve locations in the Southeast and the broader East Coast region.

Bad Ass Coffee continues to have a national presence. The company highlights a proven business model and innovative technology, along with a development support system, including teams and tools to help identify appropriate territories. The approach combines Hawaiian branding with a framework that supports growth and connects with today’s consumers.

## Entities

- Franchising.com (publication)
- unit expansion (topic)
- QSR (sector)
- franchise growth (topic)
- brand development (topic)
- Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii (company)
- Tom Wylie (person)
- non-traditional expansion (topic)

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Originally reported by Franchising.com (https://www.franchising.com/news/20260603_bad_ass_coffee_of_hawaii_kicks_growth_into_high_gear_through_southeast_and_.html). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/469547c2-fe9e-414e-a695-b8f329890b47).