Black Rock Coffee Bar IPO: Shares of drive-through-focused coffee chain debut

Early trading in shares of Black Rock Coffee Bar has started on the Freedom client platform. This is a rare example of a consumer company going public in what is a revived U.S. IPO market, recently dominated by tech listings.  Black Rock Coffee Bar will officially be listed on the Nasdaq under the symbol BRCB later today, September 12.

Black Rock Coffee Bar, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based drive-through-focused coffee chain, has raised $294.1 million in an IPO that priced above its marketed range. The chain sold 14.7 million shares at $20 each. It had offered shares for $16 to $18 each. At the IPO price, the company has a market value of $956.3 million, Bloomberg reported.

The deal was led by JPMorgan, Jefferies, Morgan Stanley, Baird, Stifel, William Blair, and Raymond James.

Black Rock Coffee is using an “umbrella partnership C-corporation,” known as an “Up-C," Daily Coffee News writes. In this structure, the public buys shares in a new holding company (the C-corp). That C-corp uses the IPO cash to buy units of the underlying operating company (an LLC) that actually runs the coffee shops. The operating company then uses that cash for purposes such as paying down debt or operations. The structure also allows existing owners to maintain tax benefits.

Black Rock Coffee Bar offers espresso-based drinks, nitro coffee (nitrogen-infused cold brew), flavored coffee, and energy drinks. Founded in 2008 with a 15-square-foot kiosk in Beaverton, Oregon, the company initially operated exclusively through a drive-thru window. As of June 30, the chain had expanded to 158 company-owned drive-thru coffee shops and lounges across Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Texas, and Washington.

The coffee shops are supplied by two roasting facilities, one in Portland, Oregon, and another in Vancouver, Washington. The drive-thru format accounts for 72% of the company’s sales. At the same time, Black Rock Coffee is betting on sit-down locations and developing digital channels, including a loyalty program that already captures 15% of transactions.

According to its IPO prospectus, total revenue for the six months ended June 30 rose 24% year over year to $95 million, with comparable sales up 10.1%. The net loss narrowed from $7 million at year-end 2024 to $2 million in the first half of 2025.

The company plans to open 30 new coffee shops in 2025 and to expand at an average annual rate of about 20%, with the goal of reaching 1,000 locations by 2035.

"We are in the early stages of our long-term growth journey, with significant whitespace in both existing and new markets," the company said in the prospectus.

The company sources most of its coffee beans from Brazil, Ethiopia, Colombia, and Mexico. It warns that inflated costs or lower availability of arabica coffee beans, dairy, and other commodities could have an adverse impact on its business, according to its prospectus.

Coffee prices have hit a record high this year, driven by droughts in top producers Brazil and Vietnam, as well as a U.S. move to impose 50% duties on beans imported from Brazil. Moving forward, the company expects much of the tariff exposure stemming from refrigeration units, espresso machines, and coffee beans.

The results of Black Rock Coffee’s IPO generally reflect a fair valuation of the company, based on revenue of $179.4 million over the last 12 months and an industry average P/S ratio of 5.33, according to Freedom analyst Alem Bektemirov. His target price for the company’s shares therefore does not imply further upside. Bektemirov identifies competition from a wide range of rivals as the key risk.

At the same time, Black Rock Coffee Bar is expanding aggressively and increasing revenue and operating profit at the store level while keeping unit economics stable and administrative costs under control, noted Donovan Jones, head of investment group IPO Edge.

Black Rock Coffee operates in an intensely competitive space with larger and more established peers like Starbucks, Dunkin', Tim Hortons, Scooter's Coffee, Peet's Coffee, and Dutch Bros., Barchart.com analysts note. Moreover, the scenario is set to become bleaker for the company as a weaker-than-expected new jobs count in August is projected to result in a further decline in discretionary spending among consumers.

Yet, the analysts conclude, Black Rock Coffee's "steady, albeit not spectacular, growth rate" is a base that the company can build upon to further expand.

This is the first IPO in the restaurant industry since Gen Korean BBQ went public in 2023, Restaurant Business writes. Consumer offerings have generally been rare, thanks largely to a volatile stock market and uncertain economy. Restaurant IPOs have been sporadic, with several offerings in 2021, only for inflation to freeze the market until Cava’s offering in 2023.

The volatility of that market has kept a number of companies from going public, notably Panera Brands. The IPO demonstrates growing business confidence in the U.S. drive-thru coffee segment, where several fast-growing operators are vying for market share, notes World Coffee Portal.

According to Project Café USA 2025, World Coffee Portal’s "definitive report on the U.S. branded coffee shop market," 82% of U.S. industry leaders surveyed see plenty of growth potential for branded coffee shops in the country, with 30% citing drive-thru as one of the most important trends influencing the U.S. branded coffee shop market. Drive-thru is also popular with U.S. coffee shop consumers, with 27% of those surveyed using the format for their most recent coffee shop order and more than half preferring it to entering a coffee shop.

Leading the segment is Dutch Bros., which achieved a $5 billion valuation when it went public in 2021 and has since doubled its store count to exceed 1,040 stores.  

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Freedom Broker clients will be able to trade shares of Black Rock Coffee before the start of the main U.S. session. Premarket trading will open 2-3 hours early, at 15:30-16:30 Astana time. Investors can participate by selecting the ticker BRCB.US on the Freedom platform.

The AI translation of this story was reviewed by a human editor.