Dive Brief:
- Black Rock Coffee, which has over 100 units across seven states, has hired Mark Davis as its CEO, the company said Wednesday in a press release.
- Davis officially took his position in May, according to his LinkedIn profile, and has roughly two decades of restaurant experience.
- The new CEO joins the coffee chain as it works toward doubling its store count by 2026.
Dive Insight:
In his new role, Davis will use his past experience creating strategic business plans and implementing profit-building initiatives to help the brand become “a segment leader,” according to the press release.
The company has been keen on rapid growth in the past two years. It opened its 33rd location in Oregon, where it is based, in June 2022. At the time, the chain said it was planning rapid expansion throughout the West and into the Sunbelt in states like Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Texas and Washington. The company has been growing its unit count by about 25% year over year, focuses on suburban locations and offers drive-thrus, according to Nation’s Restaurant News. Black Rock also offers a monthly coffee subscription service.
"There is a tremendous opportunity to further accelerate the company's growth through the development and execution of consistent processes and systems that will shine a spotlight on the organization's key differentiators, increase same-store sales, drive staff retention and establish industry-leading revenue margin based on systemwide alignment and collaboration,” Davis said.
Prior to joining Black Rock, Davis was chief operating officer at Coffee & Bagel Brands, where he worked for three years. He also was CEO at Tokyo Joe’s for four years, and COO at Breckenridge Brewery for two years. He began his career as VP Operations at Panera Bread, a position he held for over nine years. Davis will succeed Jeff Hernandez as CEO. Hernandez remains co-founder and executive chairman.
Other coffee chains have seen leadership changes of late, with Dutch Bros promoting Christine Barone to CEO earlier this month. Starbucks brought on a new CEO, Laxman Narasimhan, who started in his role in March.
