How A $40K Coffee Kiosk Grew Into A 912-Store, $859M Business — And Why Its Owners Declined A $1B Buyout

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Don and Linda Eckles launched Scooter's Coffee after banks rejected their business idea.

The couple told Forbes in April that they borrowed $40,000 from friends and family to open their first coffee kiosk in the Omaha, Nebraska, area in 1998.

Scooter's Coffee now has more than 900 locations across 32 states and generated $859 million in systemwide sales last year, according to media reports. "We couldn’t and didn’t do this ourselves," Don said.

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The first Scooter's Coffee location eventually broke even, giving the Eckles confidence to open a second store.

By the fifth location, they had borrowed another $150,000 to build two kiosks at a nearby mall. The expansion nearly pushed the company under after construction costs rose, according to Forbes.

Around the same time, customers and friends began asking to open their own Scooter's locations. That led the company into franchising in 2001, giving Scooter's a way to expand without the Eckles carrying the cost of every new store.

More than a decade into running Scooter's, Don contacted then-Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK, BRK.B)) CEO Warren Buffett to see whether the conglomerate might be interested in buying the company. Buffett wrote back asking for more information, and the two "went back and forth a couple of times," according to Forbes.

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The deal did not happen. Buffett decided Scooter's was too small "to move the needle for Berkshire," but he suggested another Nebraska investor, McCarthy Capital, now known as M-One Capital.

That introduction eventually led to a 2018 deal that freed Eckles to focus more heavily on expansion.

Scooter's Coffee expanded through franchising, which helped the company grow beyond its original drive-thru coffee kiosks.

That approach helped Scooter scale rapidly and turn the business into a highly profitable operation. Forbes estimated its net margin at about 62.5%, while top franchisees post net income margins above 20%.

That growth has continued this year, with Scooter's Coffee announcing its 900-store milestone and later signing a franchise agreement with Boddie-Noell Enterprises to open 31 new locations across North Carolina and Virginia.

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Don and Linda remain majority owners, though CEO Joe Thornton now leads day-to-day operations after taking over the role in 2024.

Reuters reported last year that Scooter's Coffee was exploring a sale that could value the chain at close to $1 billion.

After decades of building the company from a borrowed-money kiosk into a national franchise system, the Eckles are not ready to hand it over. "For now, we love being a privately held company," the Eckles told Forbes.

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