Ziggi's Coffee Adds QSR Veterans to Drive Nationwide Franchise Expansion

The man who built Clutch Coffee Bar from a single drive-thru window into a multi-unit chain, then sold it to Dutch Bros Coffee, is now advising Ziggi's Coffee. Darren Spicer joined the Colorado-based drive-thru brand alongside Betsy Hamm, former CEO of Duck Donuts, in a pair of executive hires announced April 2 that signal Ziggi's is entering a deliberate scale phase.

Ziggi's, founded in August 2004 by Brandon and Camrin Knudsen on Main Street in downtown Longmont, Colorado, currently operates close to 120 locations with more than 200 additional units in various stages of development. The brand crossed 100 locations in 2024, the same year it signed its largest franchise agreement ever: a deal for 50 stores in Atlanta, Georgia.

Spicer's hire carries particular weight in the drive-thru coffee space. After growing Clutch Coffee Bar from one unit to more than a dozen before its acquisition by Dutch Bros, he now advises emerging food and beverage brands through his firm, 110 Ventures. At Ziggi's, he will focus on store-level performance, local marketing, and new store development. That background, specifically the experience of scaling a drive-thru coffee brand to a successful exit to one of the segment's dominant players, maps directly onto Ziggi's challenge of activating a 200-plus-unit development pipeline without sacrificing speed-of-service consistency or brand standards.

Hamm, who joins as fractional chief operating officer, brings franchise operations depth from her time leading Duck Donuts. Her focus at Ziggi's will be operational alignment, franchisee support, and systems and structure for growth: the infrastructure requirements that become acute precisely when a brand crosses the threshold Ziggi's is now at.

Brandon Knudsen, co-founder and CEO, connected the hires to the brand's two-decade foundation. "As we mark 10 years of franchising, it's important to recognize that Ziggi's has been building this brand for more than 20 years," Knudsen said. "That foundation has given us a clear understanding of what works — and where we need to grow. Bringing in leaders like Darren and Betsy is about strengthening that foundation, learning from proven operators and making sure we're building a system that supports our franchisees for the long term."

Ziggi's launched its franchise program in 2016 after more than a decade of refining operations as a single-brand operator. The 2026 hire timing coincides with both the 10th anniversary of that program and a run of notable recognition: Franchise Times ranked Ziggi's No. 36 on its 2026 Fast & Serious list, USA Today named it Best Coffee Drive-Thru for 2024, and Restaurant Business Magazine placed the brand on its "Future 50" list of the fastest-growing small restaurant chains.

The brand's three store prototypes, double-sided drive-thru, café and drive-thru, and single-sided drive-thru endcap, require total franchise investment between approximately $526,500 and $2,018,000, with average unit revenues near $800,000. Ziggi's sources its coffee from Dillanos Coffee Roasters in Sumner, Washington, and has been extending its geographic reach steadily: November 2025 brought the brand's first North Dakota location to Fargo.

With Spicer's drive-thru-specific scaling credentials and Hamm's franchise operations experience now embedded in the organization, Ziggi's is signaling to potential franchisees and competitors alike that its next phase of growth will be built on systems, not just momentum.