Dunn Brothers Coffee expands to South Dakota with new franchise deal

Dunn Brothers Coffee signed a franchise agreement that will bring the Minneapolis-based brand to Chamberlain, South Dakota, a small-market move that turns the Upper Midwest into a test case for regional coffee growth. The company is leaning on the same things that built its name nearly 40 years ago: freshly roasted coffee, a neighborhood café feel and a format it can repeat without losing its identity.

The Chamberlain store was described as one of the first to carry several new brand enhancements under development, so the location is doing double duty as a new address and a test bed. That matters because Dunn Brothers is not chasing the biggest metros first. It is betting that smaller communities in places like South Dakota can support a brand with a clear roast story and a more personal café experience than a generic drive-thru stop.

The strategy fit a larger push already on the books. In 2024, Dunn Brothers set a goal of opening 250 new stores within five years and said it wanted to quintuple its retail footprint. Scott Harvey, who oversees franchise development and consumer packaged goods initiatives, has been tied to the effort to push the brand beyond its Midwest and Great Plains base. As of May 2026, the chain had about 46 locations across Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, and Minnesota still had the most stores.

That concentration is exactly why Chamberlain matters. Founded in St. Paul in December 1987 by Ed Dunn and Dan Dunn, with the first store at 1569 Grand Avenue, the company has spent decades building a regional identity that still fits on a smaller map. South Dakota is not a splashy expansion market, but it may be the kind of market that tells the bigger story: whether a heritage roaster can keep growing by going deeper into the Upper Midwest instead of trying to look like every national chain.