Community spins off CC’s to facilitate out-of-state expansion

Community Coffee has spun off its coffee house division into a separate company—CC’s Coffee House—that will focus on expanding the number of licensed, or franchise-owned, coffee houses around the country. The new company, created earlier this year, will concentrate initially on expanding CC’s Coffee House stores into institutions and businesses, such as universities, hotels and hospitals, as opposed to freestanding outlets. “We just feel for us that is a good place to start as we look at expanding our licensed operations,” says Mark Verges, business development manager for CC’s Coffee House, adding the company will be creating a more formal licensing program intended to help grow the CC’s brand out of state. Community Coffee opened its first CC’s Coffee House in 1995 in New Orleans, and for years, as the number of company-owned and franchise stores grew, it operated CC’s as a division under the Community umbrella. Verges says the new company will be better able to focus on licensing, though the Saurage family will own it, as it does Community Coffee. There are 14 CC’s Coffee House locations in the Capital Region and 31 statewide, according to the CC’s website. The stores are a mixture of company- and franchise-owned. —Stephanie Riegel