Coffee News is an unassuming single sheet of brown paper found in restaurants across America. The two-sided assortment of local ads, trivia and funny anecdotes may not look like much, but it has caught the attention of one of the nation’s most well-known business publications.
Forbes magazine recently recognized the Bangor-based operation as one of the top 20 best franchises in the country to start now. Operated out of the home of resident Bill Buckley, the weekly publication has 1,070 franchises in the United States, Canada and 18 other countries from South Africa to Peru.
Though recognized several times over the years by Entrepreneur magazine, Coffee News has earned its first-ever recognition from Forbes, a fact Buckley attributes to the glossy magazine’s recent effort to attract franchisers to its ad base. “We’re just flabbergasted,” he told Mainebiz. “Not that we think we didn’t deserve it. We didn’t think people would notice. We’re a niche publication; we’re not The Wall Street Journal.”
Forbes, teaming up with a franchise database operator, ranked 400 franchise operators that require less than $100,000 to open a new location, have operated for at least five years and are currently opening new locations. Coffee News ranks 18th among the top 20, which were evaluated on initial franchise fees, number of locations, survival rates, and the ratio of corporate support staff to the number of locations. Read more.