Franchising

Summit Coffee continues Charlotte area expansion

Provided

May 13, 2022

Summit Coffee opened a café on The Plaza last week and announced that it has awarded two new franchises in the Ballantyne and Eastover neighborhoods of Charlotte, adding to planned expansion across the Queen City, according to a company press release.

Summit Coffee has 10 locations under development in the Charlotte metropolitan area and 13 open or underdevelopment overall.

Will and Eleanor Funderburg are the proprietors of the café, located at 2501 The Plaza. The couple have both been long-time fans of the brand and when Will Funderburg noticed the offer to "Own A Summit" in the company's newsletter, he jumped at the chance to learn more.

"Wow — the time is finally here!" Will Funderburg said in the release, upon the location's grand opening. "It started as a realization that we wanted to work on a passion project/side hustle together, then continued to develop as an intention to create something we could enjoy with friends and neighbors, something that would create fulfilling jobs locally, and ultimately emerged as somewhere where our family (and our community) can create memories for years to come. It has been quite the journey and we're super excited to share this milestone with everyone."

Summit now has eight open cafés in North Carolina: two in Davidson, three in Charlotte, one in Huntersville and two in Asheville. Four more cafés are set to open later this year, including one each in Mooresville and Cornelius, the chain's first out-of-state site in the Atlanta suburb of Roswell, Georgia, and the newly awarded unit in Eastover. The Ballantyne site will open early in 2023.

Anthony and Amanda Rossi will open the Ballantyne Summit and two couples, Linda and Ed Gallagher and Eric and Jennifer Hughes, will jointly operate the Eastover café.

"We're thrilled to be adding all of these couples and locations to our growing family," Summit CEO Brian Helfrich said in the release. "We love finding franchise partners who share our passion for offering the most unique, best-tasting and responsibly sourced product, maintaining both a commitment to community and a consciousness of our need for environmental stewardship, and creating unique destinations that reflect the nuances of their respective communities while delivering the experience that loyal Summit fans have come to expect when they walk through our doors."

Summit ultimately plans to have 20 sites in the Charlotte metro area, Helfrich added, and is actively seeking franchisees to open and operate cafés there as well as in Atlanta, Charleston, South Carolina, and the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill region of North Carolina.

Summit's menu consists of unique drinks such as Blueberry Honeysuckle and Rose Matcha lattes, the iced coffee-based Lavender Dream sweetened with honey syrup and topped with a lavender cold foam, plus a variety of teas, wine, beer, baked goods, granola and energy bars.