Coffee Shop Feasibility Study in South Carolina

Larger, branded and heavier in the state mix

South Carolina leans toward coffee shops and snack bars: a location quotient of 1.24x and a place of 7 of 39 among South Carolina's asset classes. Its 107 approvals from FY2017 to FY2026, worth $40.1 million, rank 25 of 53 among states. The median of $310,000 is 1.29x the class median nationally, and 62.6% of loans are franchised. Those figures are notable, yet our screen finds nothing distinct: the median, the cancellation floor and the charge-off floor each sit too close to South Carolina's all-class record or to coffee shops nationally.

The loss record a lender reads first

Of 33 South Carolina loans disbursed in FY2017 to FY2021, 9.1% have been charged off, and 6.1% failed within five years of approval. Cancellation reached at least 11.4% of South Carolina approvals over FY2017 to FY2024, 13.9% at the ceiling. The 33-loan cohort is thin, and since these are floors, the loss figure can still climb as open South Carolina loans age.

Program mix and lenders

Nearly everything is 7(a): 104 loans against 3 under SBA 504. The middle half runs from $100,650 to $523,500, a higher band than a walk-up counter usually needs, consistent with branded units that carry site work or a drive-through lane. The Huntington National Bank leads with 16 loans worth $6.8 million; TD Bank, National Association's 9 loans total only $364,400, small credits; United Community Bank has 7 worth $5.4 million, TowneBank 6, and First Bank of the Lake 5 worth $2.5 million. York County leads with 17 approvals, Charleston and Greenville have 12 each, Beaufort 11 and Horry 9. Volume climbed from 4 loans in FY2017 to 22 worth $8.6 million in FY2024.

With a charge-off floor of 9.1%, a South Carolina coffee study has to be conservative. It should measure traffic and drive-through stacking at the site, map competing cafes and franchise units nearby, and cost the build against a ticket near $310,000. Because most loans here are franchised, it has to test royalties and brand-mandated build-out against realistic local sales rather than the system average, and prove debt service coverage across the first five years, when most of the recorded losses came. The appraisal on any owned pad site should stand on the real estate, apart from the brand.

No coding limitation is attached to this class in our data; the South Carolina figures follow each loan's recorded industry code.