Black Sheep Coffee has signed a franchise development agreement with SUR Group for at least 20 stores across West Yorkshire, northern England and southern Scotland, Hospitality & Catering News reported on 29 October.
The deal is expected to create about 300 jobs over five years and extends the brand into Northumberland, Cumbria and Dumfries and Galloway, a cross-border territory where any Scottish agreement sits under Scots law, as UK franchise law: how England, Scotland and Northern Ireland differ sets out.
SUR Group is Glasgow-based and, according to the trade report, is Black Sheep Coffee’s largest franchise partner by store numbers. It joined the network in May 2024 and opened its first Black Sheep shop in Glasgow in January 2026. World Coffee Portal says SUR now runs six outlets in the city and one in Ayr, and that Black Sheep has signed franchise agreements for more than 100 new stores in the last nine months. L’Express Franchise reported on 15 October that the brand had signed three other franchise deals covering at least 39 shops.
What the agreement covers
The agreement hands SUR responsibility for delivering the openings across the new territories, which Hospitality & Catering News names as Northumberland, Cumbria and Dumfries and Galloway, alongside West Yorkshire. Sites could include high streets, retail parks and drive-thru developments, and the new shops would complement Black Sheep’s two existing locations in Leeds, formats now standard across the coffee franchises in the UK.
The company says it will consider different store formats to suit each site, mixing traditional coffee shops with drive-thru units, a reflection in its words of the growing weight of convenience-led formats in the UK coffee market.
What each side said
Gabriel Shohet and Eirik Holth, co-founders of Black Sheep Coffee, said they were thrilled to build on the brand’s presence in Leeds with at least 20 new stores, and described SUR as a brilliant partner in Glasgow and Ayr. Tariq Din, business development director at SUR Group, will lead the expansion programme, including identifying sites and working with landlords across the agreed territories. Suhail Rehman, multi brand franchise partner at SUR, said the group is proud to grow the partnership.
What a development agreement is
A franchise development agreement commits a franchisee to open an agreed number of sites in set territories. The UK has no franchise statute and no disclosure document, so the terms, including fees, timetable and any penalties for missed targets, are set by the agreement itself and are not public.
Landlords and the site search
Din said the group has spent the last couple of years learning what makes a Black Sheep shop work, and that it wants to hear from landlords with access to high-footfall sites, from high streets to drive-thrus. Hospitality & Catering News adds that the company’s expansion continues to be supported by franchise partnerships, which let it enter additional UK markets through operators with experience of local trading conditions and commercial property requirements.
What is not yet known
The reports do not give an investment figure, the fees SUR pays Black Sheep, or dates for the first openings in the new territories. The agreement is for a minimum of 20 stores, so the final number could be higher. No site has been named, and the coverage reviewed does not say how many of the 20 are planned as drive-thru units. The five-year timeframe applies to the jobs estimate, and neither source states that all 20 openings are due in that period.
