Cutters Point expands coffee business overseas

GBA strikes deal to open stores in Middle East

Paige Richmond

of the Gateway

A Gig Harbor coffee company is taking business a new direction. Cutters Point is heading east — to the Middle East, to be exact.

The venture is part of a franchise investment with GBA, a Tacoma-based strategic business consulting firm. In the next five years, GBA CEO David Shaw plans to open 200 stores in countries like Dubai and Qatar.

The idea came as a surprise to Brooke Payne and Aaron Amidon, co-owners of Cutters Point. The deal was proposed by Shaw; neither Payne nor Amidon imagined expanding their company overseas.

“It wasn’t our choice,” Payne said. “GBA came to us. And they see huge market potential over there.”

Amidon said he was skeptical of the idea at first, since Shaw contacted him via the company’s Web site. Several spam-type invitations for new business deals come through cutterspoint.com every day, so Amidon deleted Shaw’s e-mail after reading it.

But when Shaw called four days later, both Amidon and Payne began to consider the deal seriously.

After background checks, in-person meetings and conferring with their lawyer, the co-owners agreed to the deal.

Nearly all of Cutters Point’s operations overseas will be in the hands of GBA.

“Basically, we gave them the ability to go make money,” Amidon said.

Because Cutters Point operates as a franchise business, the company won’t be directly involved in running the stores in the Middle East, aside from roasting and supplying the coffee beans.

Payne said those stores will have the “same look and feel” as the stores in Washington, California and Arizona, per the franchise agreement.

But there will be changes, as well: The flagship store in Doha, Qatar, will be 3,000 square feet, larger than any current Cutters Point storefront. And Payne said Shaw will spend four times as much on the Doha store that a typical franchisee spends on a store in the states.

No matter how big the company grows, both Payne and Amidon plan to keep their business community-focused and — in Amidon’s words — “locally relevant.”

The company’s motto has always been “Gig Harbor’s coffee,” as seen hanging behind the counter at the Olympic Drive location.

“That’s one of the challenges,” Payne said about the new Middle East stores. “How do we take our culture and our desire to serve our community to another country?”

The expansion might not be the last for Cutters Point, either. The company hopes to find area developers who will build a number of Cutters Point franchise throughout one area of a state.

A single developer could be responsible for all of Colorado or part of southern California, for example.

“It’s exciting to think that it’s possible for what started so long ago in the harbor could go elsewhere,” Amidon said.

On the Web

For more information on Cutters Point, visit www.cutterspoint.com.

Reach Reporter and Columnist Paige Richmond at 253-853-9243 or by e-mail at paige.richmond@gateline.com.