Earl Hovious was looking to change careers when he discovered he liked the Biggby Coffee franchise model.

He ended up opening a Biggby in Southgate in 2016 and another almost two years ago in Brownstown.

Hovious was attracted to the company because it was privately owned.

“A lot of franchises are owned by another holding company and Biggby is focused on the franchisees doing well,” Hovious said. “It’s not about us doing well on behalf of shareholders and that makes a big difference. We’re also not competing with corporate-owned stores.”


Popular with youth

Frozen lattes are the biggest sellers at Hovious’s stores.

“We have a younger audience that likes frozen drinks,” he said.

Blast drinks that include a sparkling water base and a caffeine energy additive are growing in popularity, too.

“We’re a premium coffee latte shop,” Hovious said. “We don’t have flavored coffees but we can add flavoring to it. Our customers are fanatical about Biggby Coffee. More than once a week someone will come in, throw out a Starbucks cup and say, ‘I didn’t know you were here.’”

The menu includes 170 drinks, mostly made by mixing flavors; breakfast sandwiches and, of course, brewed coffees.


On the horizon

Corporate Biggby is also working on developing a farm-direct business model that allows the company to buy from the growers in Columbia, Costa Rica and Africa. The process eliminates layers of brokers.

It’s no small enterprise, Hovious said, because coffee is one of the largest-traded commodities in the world.

“Oil is one and coffee is two,” he added. “When the crop comes in the cost goes down but we make a fair-trade deal at the beginning of the year to have a livable wage for the coffee growers. The people who are buying the coffee might not be aware, but the people selling the coffee care. The goal is to be 100-percent farm direct.”

Hovious said he continues to like the corporate initiatives, including a push to provide 100-percent organic products.


All in the family

In the beginning, Hovious was planning on leaving his software engineer job after finishing a 15-year project. At the same time his daughter, Sydney Brown, was graduating from college and they wanted to own a business together.

That gave birth to becoming co-owners of the Southgate location and then launching the Brownstown store together.

“The timing was right,” he said.

The Biggby Coffee company was started in Michigan in 1995 by two Michigan State University grads. Within five years the company had three locations in Lansing and began to expand by franchising.

In September 2011, Biggby Coffee was the fastest-growing coffee chain in America. Today, Biggby Coffee has over 370 stores in Michigan, Florida, Kentucky, Illinois, Ohio, New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Idaho, and Indiana.

Biggby Coffee is located at 21649 Telegraph Road. Call (734) 436-1753 or visit www.biggby.com for more information.