CapitalSpring

Through a strategic partnership with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.capitalspring.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=how-capitalspring-is-powering-the-next-era-of-growth-for-cafe-yumm-2731267" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">CapitalSpring</a>, the fast casual franchise concept&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cafeyumm.com/about/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=how-capitalspring-is-powering-the-next-era-of-growth-for-cafe-yumm-2731267" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Café Yumm!</a> is modernizing its systems, expanding its reach and strengthening its ability to serve guests across the Pacific Northwest while staying true to the mission and values that have defined the brand for more than three decades.“Café Yumm! was co-founded in the 1990’s. One of its cofounders, Mary Ann Beauchamp, was an Army brat who traveled extensively around the world. Her dad liked beans, her mom liked rice, and she liked both. So a lot of her recipes were connecting those two ingredients,” said&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberly-boone-223835270?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=how-capitalspring-is-powering-the-next-era-of-growth-for-cafe-yumm-2731267" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Kim Boone</a>, president of Café Yumm! “The signature Yumm! Sauce she created was originally meant to entice her toddlers to eat at restaurants. At the restaurant she owned, she cooked all the ethnic dishes she loved, but the rice and bean bowl with its signature sauce was what made the restaurant so popular. The name of the brand is derived from how much the customers loved the dish!”From the beginning, the founders built the company around a triple bottom line mindset — people, planet and profits — long before it became a widespread business standard.“When we make decisions, it might not always be the highest profitability decision,” Boone said. “We start everyone at Café Yumm! 10% over minimum wage, for example, and then they can earn up to three to four raises in the first few months. We have a really great benefits package, and we feed people a meal every day.”The combination of values-based decision-making and a simple, well-executed operating model made franchising a natural step for expansion. “Around 2005, the cofounders realized that they needed to franchise to grow the brand quickly,” Boone said. “It was easy to franchise; they had developed a great business model with simple processes.”Today, Café Yumm! operates 22 restaurants across the Pacific Northwest, with five franchised locations, and has expanded into consumer packaged goods through a growing grocery line.<h2>Why Café Yumm! Chose CapitalSpring</h2>The next phase of growth required a partner aligned not only with the brand’s ambitions, but also with its worldview.The decision to partner with&nbsp;<a href="https://1851franchise.com/capitalspring/info">CapitalSpring</a> came after a significant turning point for the company. “The founder’s husband passed away a few years ago, and that is when we started embarking on this new growth phase,” Boone said. “We engaged a broker and they introduced us to CapitalSpring.”Before closing the transaction, both teams invested significant time in getting to know one another. That process reaffirmed their alignment in mission and philosophy. “We were recently at a conference and I had so many people tell us how wonderful it is to work with the CapitalSpring team,” Boone said. “Having that validation from others was really neat.”For Boone,&nbsp;<a href="https://1851franchise.com/capitalspring/capitalspring-franchise-times-webinar-emerging-brand-growth-2730527#featured">CapitalSpring’s reputation and relational approach</a> made all the difference. “It’s their network of resources that is so important, whether it be working with consultants on packaging and design, or the real estate team, or the data and technology experts,” she said. “We wouldn’t have access to consultants or vendors of this caliber without them.”<h2>Supply Chain, Marketing Repositioning and Real Estate Support</h2>As Café Yumm! prepared for multi-unit expansion, it became clear that major upgrades to the brand’s infrastructure were necessary. For years, the company relied on legacy systems simply because investing in new ones wasn’t feasible.“We had systems that served us as a small brand, but to cue us up for strategic growth, we had to revamp,” Boone said.When it comes to technology, for example,&nbsp;<a href="https://1851franchise.com/capitalspring/capitalspring-franchise-private-equity-podcast-2729867#featured">CapitalSpring’s support unlocked a full modernization plan</a>. “We’ve worked with a tech consultant; we are revamping our entire tech stack with accounting software, business intelligence software, everything,” Boone said. “We’re launching a new POS with&nbsp;<a href="https://pos.toasttab.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=how-capitalspring-is-powering-the-next-era-of-growth-for-cafe-yumm-2731267" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Toast</a>. The reporting capabilities are great, but we didn’t have the capital before to invest in these.”One of the biggest breakthroughs came from implementing&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chabi.io/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=how-capitalspring-is-powering-the-next-era-of-growth-for-cafe-yumm-2731267" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Chabi</a>, a business intelligence platform that aggregates data across the new tech stack. “We never had access even to entertain the idea of business intelligence,” Boone said, “but now we can look at our business and metrics in a way we never have before.”Boone emphasizes the transformative impact the partnership has had on the team. “The tech consultant CapitalSpring introduced us to spending 20 to 30 hours with our team just talking about challenges and opportunities,” she said. “They crafted a full plan for us. We would never have had access to someone of that caliber.” And the impact extends far beyond technology.“They’ve introduced us to supply vendors we haven’t had access to,” Boone said. “With only 22 units and a small CPG line, we wouldn’t have access to a vendor of this caliber. Those umbrella contracts create a ton of value and help with logistics, too.”Café Yumm! is also refreshing its consumer brand and marketing strategy to meet the expectations of younger audiences. “The company has been around a long time, and the target market has been moms and millennials,” Boone said. “As Gen Z enters the workforce, we are repositioning our marketing. It’s been incredibly helpful to lean on their expertise.”On the development side, CapitalSpring’s analytics-driven real estate process is reshaping how the brand evaluates new markets. “They offer new site selection assistance; they can analyze data to determine the average income, traffic patterns, and more,” Boone said. “It changes the whole approach.”<h2>A Growth Plan Built for the Future and Built on Data</h2>With CapitalSpring as a strategic partner, Café Yumm! is pursuing a two-pronged growth plan: expanding company-owned restaurants in the Pacific Northwest and scaling its CPG line into a national brand.Much of that growth will come from data-driven operational improvements. “We’re taking a look at all of our costs and finding ways to reduce them,” Boone said. “We are transitioning to an item-based scheduling model and taking a hard look at labor. A lot of that comes back to the tech stack and the data now at our fingertips.”Boone says the relationship works because&nbsp;<a href="https://1851franchise.com/capitalspring/capitalsprings-perspective-on-the-state-of-the-restaurant-industry-and-2025-predictions-2728362">the CapitalSpring team challenges the brand to think differently</a> while still respecting the culture.“CapitalSpring’s approach to business and the way they think about metrics is that they ask a lot of questions and challenge our thinking, but they do it in a way that is focused and thoughtful,” she said. “Not all private equity firms are like that.”For a mission-driven brand like Café Yumm!, choosing the right partner was essential. With CapitalSpring, Boone says, the team has found an investor that sees the brand’s potential while respecting the values that have shaped it.“I truly believe that the cultural fit was the most important part,” she said. “CapitalSpring has been exactly the kind of partner we hoped for: supportive, collaborative and deeply invested in our long-term success.”For more information on CapitalSpring visit:&nbsp;<a href="https://1851franchise.com/capitalspring/info">https://1851franchise.com/capitalspring/info</a>.The statements above represent the opinions of founders and senior executives of portfolio companies in which private funds advised by CapitalSpring have invested. These individuals are not clients of CapitalSpring and have not received any compensation for their endorsement. Because their companies benefit from a relationship with CapitalSpring, including&nbsp;investments by CapitalSpring and private funds that we advise, conflicts of interest may exist. Past performance is not indicative of future results. These endorsements should not be interpreted as investment advice or recommendations.

How CapitalSpring Is Powering the Next Era of Growth for Café Yumm!

1851 Franchise

Café Yumm! is expanding its company-owned restaurants and CPG line, backed by a private equity investment from CapitalSpring, to leverage new technology, data, and supply chain improvements.

This brand page has been paid for by CAPITALSPRING. Content within this page that is paid will showcase a Sponsored icon. This means the brand has engaged 1851 FRANCHISE to write the content. Content without the Sponsored Icon is aggregated media placements the brand earned. Questions can be sent to editorial@1851franchise.com

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For emerging franchisors, growth is almost never a straight line. After founders bootstrap their early expansion and prove the concept in a handful of markets, they face a critical question: When is the right time to bring in strategic capital?According to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/erik-herrmann-205aa624">Erik Herrmann</a>, partner and head of the Investment Group at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.capitalspring.com/">CapitalSpring</a>, the answer isn’t tied to a single milestone but rather to a convergence of signals indicating a brand is ready to scale beyond its original footprint.<h2>From Local Success to Regional Ambition</h2>One of the clearest signs that a franchise brand is ready for institutional capital, or for a partner like&nbsp;<a href="https://1851franchise.com/capitalspring/info">CapitalSpring</a>, is the transition from local success to regional ambition.“It’s about having demonstrated a solid proof of concept, building out the unit economics and the positioning of the concept,” Herrmann said. “Some proof of portability beyond one specific local market is a key indicator. We find that you tend to hit this inflection point after growing organically and locally. You want to go and take it to the next level and go regional, and that tends to be a good time to bring in an investor.”At this stage, brands are no longer proving whether the concept works. They are determining how fast and how far they can grow. Strategic capital becomes less about survival and more about acceleration.<h2>Why Unit Economics Tell the Real Story</h2>For investors, the most compelling franchise brands are not defined solely by consumer demand but by&nbsp;<a href="https://1851franchise.com/capitalspring/how-capitalspring-is-fueling-prime-pizza-next-era-of-expansion-2731270#featured">the strength of their business model.</a>“The first thing to remember is that if you are a franchisor, the product you are selling is not the one the end customer is buying,” Herrmann said. “You aren’t selling hamburgers, you are selling a hamburger franchise. You are selling a business model. From an investor standpoint, how good is that business model relative to what else is out there? There are thousands of models, so you need to stand out and have a real clear differentiation and point of view in the category. The franchisee is investing capital in the brand. What kind of payback can they expect to achieve on that? That is what is really going to drive the decision.”Equally important is affordability. Lower startup costs can dramatically expand the pool of potential franchisees.“You may have two concepts that generate the same returns, but one has much lower startup costs,” he said. “There are going to be more people who can invest in that model. How broad is that potential base of franchisees is certainly a key factor for investors?”<h2>Growth Capital vs. Traditional Financing</h2>Another key consideration for franchisors is understanding the difference between growth capital and traditional financing, and knowing when to shift from one to the other.“The nice thing about franchising is that it is not capital-intensive,” Herrmann said. “It really depends on where you are in your life cycle. An early-stage franchisor might be losing money because they are investing in infrastructure to start, for example. The more corporate stores the brand operates, the more capital-intensive it is. But with franchising, you can also grow to thousands without putting a dollar in.”So why bring in capital at all? Often, the motivation goes beyond funding. “The reason you see growing franchisors using capital is that they either want to take money out of the deal, or they are looking for a strategic partner to help with growth,” he said.<h2>The Value of the Right Partner</h2>Ultimately, the decision to bring in strategic capital is less about timing the market and&nbsp;<a href="https://1851franchise.com/capitalspring/franchise-investment-partner-capitalspring-2731017">more about finding the right partner</a>.“The key is working with a partner that brings real turn-key value and has done it before,” Herrmann said. “You are selling a business model, so how do we refine it to really stand out? Do we have the right product scope or does it need to be tweaked? The right design and branding? Is there a way we can cost engineer the build-out to make the ROI more compelling to the franchisee?”Beyond operational improvements, experienced investors can unlock growth opportunities that might otherwise remain out of reach. They open doors with multi-unit developers, bringing established relationships with large franchisees and the know-how to reach them. “It’s not just about selling franchises,” Herrmann said. “It’s also about making sure you have the resources to ensure they are supported and have the infrastructure to be successful.”When it comes to institutional capital, Herrmann is clear that the decision should be tailored to each brand’s goals.&nbsp;“There really isn’t a one-size-fits-all,” he said. “It’s about what your objectives are as a franchisor and the areas that you need help with. It is a very personal decision.”To find out more information, please visit&nbsp;<a href="https://1851franchise.com/capitalspring">https://1851franchise.com/capitalspring</a>.

The right time to seek strategic capital is when the fundamentals are proven, the ambition to scale is clear and the need for a value-added partner outweighs the cost of giving up equity.

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How CapitalSpring Is Powering the Next Era of Growth for Café Yumm!

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