12 | Dunn Bros Coffee
The company also offers the full measure
of training in all aspects of the operation,
which includes coffee roasting, preparing of
specialty drinks, using of accounting soft-
ware or marketing tools, and more. Today,
the technical aspects of the point-of-sale sys-
tems are accomplished through cloud com-
puting systems. Basically, this means that
software upgrades, product pricing and data
mining can be generated to each location
from a centralized network with little or no
input from the franchisee. The system not
only helps franchisees rapidly access market-
ing, sales performance and pricing data, but
also enables them to focus more on the work
at hand, which is delighting their guests.
And these days, customers are not only
coming to Dunn Bros for coffee, some actu-
ally seek more substantial cuisine through a
modification the company began testing four
years ago. From 2008 to 2009, when all were
hunkering down in the recession, Plahn says
Dunn Bros took their profits and reinvested
in the company with the idea that they could
take the approach in coffee and apply it to a
bakery concept. “Our goal was to elevate the
food experience. We saw that all the large
players were missing-out on having a high
quality food program,” explains Plahn.
The company brought in a chef and part-
nered with masters of meat and cheese in
Boar’s Head, and soon, salads, signature dish-
es and fresh baked goods were complement-
ing the deliciousness doled out at four des-
ignated locations. There are now more than
a dozen locations that have seen sales signifi-
cantly increase through the menu additions,
in some cases, in-unit sales have almost dou-
bled. Plahn says the elevated food menu will
be implemented in additional existing loca-
