Coffee Shop Feasibility Study in Kansas

Drive-through scale, mostly franchised

Coffee in Kansas is a franchise-heavy class with a median loan above the national figure. Over the FY2017 to FY2026 window, Kansas coffee shops and snack bars won 74 SBA approvals totalling $36.0 million. The $278,000 median runs 1.16x above the class norm across the country, and loans in the core of the range sit between $103,750 and $559,500. State by state the class is 30 of 53, and inside Kansas it holds 9 of 39; also, its location quotient of 1.24x shows a mildly larger share of Kansas lending than the national one. Franchise brands account for 58.1% of loans, which matters because franchisors often set the build standard and the cost.

The lending side

SBA 7(a) accounts for 71 loans and SBA 504 for only 3, so nearly all of this lending funds equipment, build-out and working capital, with few owned buildings. Silver Lake Bank is the sole name on the lender table, with 5 loans worth $782,900, so there is no dominant bank and the market is spread across many institutions. Johnson County has 33 loans, Sedgwick has 10 and Shawnee has 7, while Douglas and Riley have 3 each.

Loss floors worth reading carefully

This cell carries the highest loss floors in the group. Among 33 loans funded in FY2017 to FY2021, 9.1% have gone to loss to date, and 6.1% did so inside five years of approval. Another measure: at least 7.8% of approvals dated FY2017 through FY2024 were withdrawn before funding, or 9.8% when unfunded loans count as dropped. These floors are measured on a modest cohort, so they are noisy, but they are not trivial, and none of them is flagged as distinct.

A recent surge

Approvals jumped to 17 loans worth $10.7 million in FY2025, from 4 loans worth $5.3 million in FY2024. FY2019 had 12. FY2026 closed with 6. A lender can read that jump as a signal of franchise expansion, and as a reason to watch the next cohort's early performance.

What the study must test

A Kansas coffee study must test traffic and access first: morning commuter counts, drive-through queue length, parking and ingress at the specific corner. Competing franchised and independent outlets within the same trade area decide whether another shop splits existing volume or finds new demand. Cost should be checked against the $278,000 median, including franchise fees where applicable, and debt service coverage run at a conservative ticket count and a ramp period, since the loss floors suggest that early-year cash shortfalls end some of these businesses. The appraisal for a leased site rests on equipment and goodwill, which lenders discount heavily.