Heroes Coffee expanding into Wal-Mart stores

Springfield-based Heroes Coffee Co. has its sights set on Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Licensees Dustin and Katie Jackson are planning to open cafes inside Wal-Mart Supercenters at South Campbell Avenue and East Independence Street by mid-October, according to a news release. Lease terms for the roughly 300-square-foot stores are undisclosed, according to Heroes Coffee co-owner Amy Ferguson.

"We've been working on this for a while corporately, just trying to find a way to grow our stores," Ferguson said. We were able to contact (Wal-Mart) and start some communications with them. As we progressed, they were very interested."

Earlier this year, the Jacksons launched a Heroes Coffee kiosk inside Springfield-Branson National Airport.

"We've had great response by travelers from all over the world at our airport store," Dustin Jackson said in the release. "Now, we have a chance to show one of the world's biggest retailers what (small businesses) can do."

The Wal-Mart locations would bring new cafe openings to four for the company, which also added a kiosk in September inside a Supervalu grocery store in Pequot Lakes, Minn., the release said. Wal-Mart cafes would be located in the front retail section of the supercenters.

The new cafes are expected to create up to 14 jobs.

Heroes Coffee, owned by Tim and Amy Ferguson, relocated its corporate headquarters downtown last year.