Biggby Coffee opens in Middletown and is second location for owners

The Biggby Coffee shop features a drive-thru, two conference rooms with eight seats each and TVs, three study pods, a play area for families and seating for an additional eight customers.

Scott Bunch called the five-month build out and grand opening “quite a journey.”

The Springboro couple, owners of S&M Global Investments, signed a franchise agreement in November 2022 and received a $15,000 small business grant from the city of Middletown in April. Bunch said the grant helped finance the drive-through construction and the furniture and TVs for the conference rooms.

“It’s a beautiful space,” he said Tuesday while sitting in one of the conference rooms with his wife.

The addition of a drive-thru is “absolutely huge,” especially during the winter months and for customers with small children, he said.

The couple envisions the conference rooms being “community gathering areas” for family events and church and business meetings, he said.

Molli Bunch said the spaces have been “well received” by Realtors who said they plan to use them as places to complete paperwork.

The couple also owns and operates a Biggby franchise on Ohio 741 in Springboro where they live. Opening a business is “terrifying” because they invested their life saving into the venture, he said.

The city said the Bunchs were expected to invest more than $425,000 into the interior build-out, addition of a drive-thru and equipment procurement.

But they’re confident the Middletown location will be successful, especially as development in the East End continues with a proposed $200 million project on 50 acres at the southeast corner of Ohio 122 and Union Road.

That project is expected to include a 3,000-seat, multi-purpose Event Center, Class A retail and office, hotels, restaurants and a variety of residential products on the property, according to developers.

Until then, he said, they need to figure out “what busy looks like in Middletown.”

Bunch said he plans to hire about 20 employees with an annual payroll of $220,000 that will generate $4,400 in taxes, according to city leaders.