The Operational Overhaul
Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii is in the middle of a full back-office technology overhaul designed to give franchisees clearer visibility into unit-level economics and sharper tools for managing store performance. The initiative is part of a broader infrastructure build that also includes a new East Coast distribution center in Lexington, Kentucky — where the brand has relocated its headquarters from Denver — to tighten supply chain consistency across its growing network of destination and coastal locations.
Leading that build is Tom Wylie, elevated from Chief Operating Officer to President after joining the brand earlier in 2026. Wylie is a co-owner of AWA Investments, the multi-unit, multi-brand franchisee group that is the largest investor in Bad Ass Coffee's parent company, Royal Aloha Franchise Company. He brings more than 20 years of franchise operations experience, with prior leadership roles at Papa John's and Burn Boot Camp. As COO, he oversaw real estate, site selection, construction, and new store openings with a focus on strengthening unit economics — the same lens he now applies to the brand's technology and supply investments.
"Everything we did in the first half of the year was about giving our owners a stronger business to build on," Wylie said. "As a franchisee myself, I know consistency in the supply chain and discipline in how we grow matter more than any single opening."
Systems Built for Franchisees
The back-office revamp is specifically framed around franchisee performance data — a priority that reflects growing operator demand for real-time labor management, cost reporting, and inventory visibility at the unit level. For a 48-location specialty coffee franchise competing against well-capitalized chains with mature tech stacks, improving digital operations infrastructure is increasingly a prerequisite for attracting and retaining multi-unit operators. Bad Ass Coffee's approach — tying system upgrades to franchise reinvestment behavior — mirrors a broader trend in the franchise technology space, where brands are deploying cleaner back-office tools as a franchisee recruitment and retention lever.
The brand also overhauled its market-by-market development and marketing approach, concentrating resources on net new growth in targeted geographies rather than opportunistic single-unit expansion. On the leadership side, Iain Douglas moved into a Chief Strategy and Brand Officer role, while the brand added a Controller, Director of Communications and Franchise Engagement, Head of Local Store Marketing and Activation, National Brand Manager, and a Franchise Development lead.
Growth From Within
Bad Ass Coffee now counts 48 total locations and 10 multi-unit owners, with four additional franchisees preparing to open a second location. The brand projects 13 new store openings for full-year 2026, which would bring total unit count to 55. Much of that growth is coming from existing operators reinvesting in the model — a dynamic Wylie describes as the clearest signal of brand health. The brand was also named to the 2026 Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies.
Looking further out, the brand has flagged plans to expand distribution into grocery, hospitality, and specialty retail channels — a move that would extend its digital and supply chain operations beyond the four walls of its franchise locations and into wholesale and omnichannel territory. With a modernized back-office platform and a distribution hub anchoring its East Coast push, the operational groundwork is being laid to support that wider commercial footprint.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
