New Leadership, New Address
Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii has promoted Tom Wylie from Chief Operating Officer to President and relocated its corporate headquarters from Denver to Lexington, Kentucky — moves the brand says reflect a deliberate shift toward operator-first infrastructure as it targets 55 locations by year-end 2026.
Wylie brings more than 20 years of franchise operations experience, including senior roles with Papa John's and Burn Boot Camp. He is also 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 Coffee Company. That dual perspective — as both a franchisor executive and an active franchisee investor — shapes his priorities at the brand. As COO, he oversaw real estate, site selection, construction, and new store openings with a focus on strengthening unit-level economics. "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."
Supply Chain and Systems Upgrades
The Lexington headquarters relocation came paired with the opening of a new East Coast distribution center designed to supply the brand's growing concentration of East Coast stores and destination-market locations. The dual investment addresses a practical constraint that often shadows fast-growing regional coffee concepts: supply reliability at scale. Bad Ass Coffee is also completing an overhaul of its back-office systems to give franchisees cleaner visibility into unit-level economics and store performance — the kind of operational transparency that multi-unit franchise operators increasingly demand before committing capital to additional locations.
The broader leadership restructuring added several new roles alongside Wylie's elevation. Iain Douglas transitions to Chief Strategy and Brand Officer, while the brand added Stacy Nichols as Controller, Arden McLaughlin as Director of Communications and Franchise Engagement, Dave Dodson as Head of Local Store Marketing and Activation, Rachael Buckley as National Brand Manager, and Ed Yancey to lead Franchise Development.
Growth From Within
The brand's expansion to 48 locations in 2026 has been driven predominantly by existing franchisees rather than new-to-brand operators — a dynamic that franchise development professionals often view as the strongest validation of a concept's unit economics. Bad Ass Coffee now counts 10 multi-unit owners in its system, with four more preparing to open a second location. "The clearest signal of where this brand is headed is our existing owners choosing to open their second and third stores," Wylie said. "That kind of reinvestment comes from experienced operators who know the model, and it is the growth we are building the company around."
With 13 new store openings projected for the full year, the brand expects to close 2026 at 55 total locations. The growth push is accompanied by evolving distribution ambitions: the brand has indicated it expects its coffees to become available through grocery, hospitality, and specialty retail channels — a move that would extend its premium Hawaiian coffee positioning well beyond its franchise footprint. For operators and buyers tracking specialty coffee's retail expansion, Bad Ass Coffee's channel diversification is worth watching as premium differentiation continues to define the competitive landscape in foodservice coffee.
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.
