Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Plans to Add 100 New York Stores Starting This Year

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Southern California location. Facebook photo.

After shuttering all 12 of its New York locations in 2016, Los Angeles-based Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf plans to open 100 franchise locations in the state, beginning with Manhattan stores later this year.

The expansion will be led by a new franchisee called Hudson River Coffee & Tea, which CBTL described as “a venture of outstanding operators, developers and real estate experts.”

Should 100 New York stores come to be, it would increase Los Angeles-based CBTL’s total number of locations in the United States by nearly 25 percent. The company currently has 311 self-owned and franchise locations in the U.S., and more than 1,200 locations across 30 countries worldwide.

Naturally, 100 locations in the New York City market would pit CBTL against some of the largest competitors such as Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts, yet New York has provided arguably the most fertile growth for mid-size chains over the past 20 months since CBTL left town — from JAB/Peet’s-owned Intelligentsia and Stumptown, to Nestlé-owned Blue Bottle, to New York-born chains such as Bluestone Lane, Ninth Street Espresso, Birch Coffee, Gregory’s Coffee, Irving Farm Coffee Roasters, Toby’s Estate, Café Grumpy, Think Coffee, and many others.

“New York has always been an important market for us,” JJ Smith, CBTL vice president of franchise operations and business development, said in a company announcement today. “Hudson River Coffee & Tea’s successful track record and expertise in real estate development makes it the ideal franchisee to bring The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf to coffee and tea-loving New York City.”