In the Rogue Valley, where coffee drive-throughs are as ubiquitous as stoplights and espresso the beverage of choice, talk of another chain coming to town might produce a yawn.

But there's a land of opportunity beyond the Cascades and Siskiyous, and the owners of the Human Bean coffee chain are just beginning to tap into the possibilities.

"Outside this area the coffee drive-through market is largely undeveloped," said Dan Hawkins, one of four founding partners. "Here, there's good, friendly competition, but you just don't see that in other parts of the country yet."

Dan Hawkins and another St. Mary's High School alum, Tom Casey, and their wives, Tami Casey and Rhonda Hawkins, launched the Human Bean in 1998. Dan Hawkins had worked in his family's Tiger Mart and Gas for Less convenience stores. Tom Casey had been in construction equipment sales before they teamed up. Rhonda and Dan Hawkins launched their enterprise across from Butler Ford outside of Ashland in June and then on July 4, Tami and Tom Casey opened a stand on Pine Street in Central Point.

The Ashland and Central Point locations grossed about $500,000 in sales the first year. Last year, Human Bean revenue was in the $5.5 million neighborhood and it's projected to grow close to $6.5 million this year.

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There are now 28 locations in operation and 10 more will be opened by the end of 2007. The company employs 90 people, including seven in its Rossanley Drive headquarters.

"There has never been a dollar plan," Dan Hawkins said. "We haven't been paying attention to how much money we've got coming in or setting goals because there's been so much growth. The sky is the limit really. We didn't have a set dollar amount when we began, we just wanted to do everything we could to serve the customer, increase sales and do things to build the brand."

It cost about $100,000 to get a site up and running nine years ago, compared to the $250,000 to $300,000 it does now. The partners found a quality coffee they could market and learned from their mistakes.

They purchased a 30 percent stake in Portland Roasting and can have coffee shipped via FedEx ground service within two days. By working with Mark Stell and his family at Portland Roasting, they've participated in the Farm Friendly Direct program to help third-world growers in Guatemala, Costa Rica, Papua New Guinea, El Salvador, Peru and elsewhere.

The partners have been picky about locations and have turned down more possibilities than they've gone with. And they purchase property, rather than lease, whenever possible. Their theory about picking locations with easy right-hand access on arterial routes people take to work has proven a winner. The founders quickly learned it takes more space than they originally factored to handle the demand they created.

The original Pine Street location proved too small and led to a second one just down the street by Cash Connection.

"We weren't able to get all the customers through we hoped to get in a morning," Tom Casey said. "We had people hanging out on the street because we couldn't serve customers in a timely fashion and we had to watch them go down the street; that's never a good sign."

They quickly outstripped the capacity of their machinery as well, wearing out coffee and espresso makers as volume picked up.

"We hadn't foreseen some of the volume we were creating," Dan Hawkins said.

More recently they've hired Mark O'Grady to handle repair and support franchisee operations.

"We realized that we made mistakes within 12 months," Tom Casey said. "We started building storage areas off to the side. Now we build drive-throughs with foundations, rest rooms inside and adequate storage."

They opened one or two new sites annually the first four years before deciding to franchise in 2002.

"So many people, both local and outside the valley, called us and were asking us how to do it," Dan Hawkins said. "We didn't mind trying to help out, but it got to a point where it made more sense to take it to the next level."

A franchise costs $15,000. And instead of royalty fees, as are charged by competitor Dutch Bros. of Grants Pass, Human Bean simply wholesales its containers and beans to franchisees.

One thing they could do was help franchisees avoid some of the bureaucratic and property issues that they encountered early on.

"When someone signs up with us we roll up our sleeves," Dan Hawkins said. "We're spending hundreds of hours to get the job done, because we never want to see a store close."

Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail business@mailtribune.com.