The company is selling - for $10,000 to $20,000 - licenses to use the Dazbog name. Dazbog, with 30 employees, supplies coffee to 1,000 grocery stores, coffee shops and restaurants.
"Coffee is a tough business when you have a retail store," said Leonid Yuffa, who started Dazbog in 1996 with his brother, Tony. "It will help our brand and help the independents grow their business."
Yuffa said he wants to give small coffee houses the same advantages that the big chains now claim: a brand name and consistent look and product.
In the past two months, Dazbog put its name on six small shops in Colorado. Those shops won't pay royalties on sales as a franchisee might. But they must adhere to operational rules, such as brewing temperature for coffee and standards of store cleanliness.
Dazbog will supply coffee products as well as branded coffee mugs, signs, umbrellas and other marketing supplies.
Several years ago, many predicted thousands of independent coffee shops would disappear in the face of competition from big chains. Yet those small players surprisingly have kept pace.
About half of the 17,400 U.S. coffee shops are single-unit owners. And 38 percent are owned by Starbucks Corp., according to the Specialty Coffee Association of America.
The remaining 12 percent of stores are run by smaller multiunit chains such as Peaberry Coffee, based in Denver.
>The Dazbog name replaced Capri Coffee at a number of shops. Earlier this year, Windsor-based Capri Coffee Break Franchising Inc. and its franchisees became entangled in public legal battles after the chain lost the right to use the Capri name. Eleven franchisees separated from Capri in March.
"It was a bad situation," said Valerie Rick, a former Capri franchisee who changed the sign at her downtown Denver store to Dazbog. "At this point, we're just ready to move forward."