Honeybee Coffee closes South Knoxville store for 'restructuring' weeks after meltdown

Another Honeybee Coffee store has temporarily closed for "restructuring," according to signs posted at the Sevier Avenue coffee shop in South Knoxville on July 17.

The local chain's other two stores in Knoxville – the flagship in West Knoxville near Farragut and one in West Town Mall – have been closed since June 24 . Its store in Sevierville, located inside a hotel, also has closed.

All of the closures are temporary as Honeybee regroups from the abrupt entrance and exit of business coach Aaron Hensley , who took over the company in February and tried to remake it into a franchise . Staff members say nearly all employees quit after going without pay and working long days without tips.

The original Honeybee location in South Knoxville was a holdout as a few remaining staff members kept it open with limited hours. Honeybee founder Norris Hill said the brand might not continue to exist as it has since 2017, when he opened the first permanent location.

“My hope is that the ethos of what Honeybee has been in this community will not go away,” Hill told Knox News on June 28.

Hill and Hensley entered an agreement that allowed Hensley to take on a controlling 80% ownership if he took responsibility for Honeybee's growing debt. Hensley had made ownership offers to other small businesses in Knoxville before he landed the deal with Hill.

Kyle Baisley, Hill's attorney, said he is working with his client to find another local buyer or group of buyers who can keep Honeybee and its community afloat.

"We're currently working on talking with a few different interested purchasers that would come in and essentially assume ownership and control of Honeybee in the very near future," Baisley told Knox News. "We're trying to move quickly."

Amid a storm of negative attention online after Hensley posted a series of strangely worded posts announcing Honeybee would do away with tips and renovate its stores, the business coach took down Honeybee's social media pages and told Hill in a June 25 text that he wanted to leave the company. A day later, Hensley spoke with Knox News about his vision for the brand.

His resignation has made moving ahead easier, Baisley said.

"It puts us back in the driver's seat to try and save Honeybee as best we can," Baisley said. "I think it may have been very difficult if he had not done that."

Hensley deeply involved with martial arts company that was sued for fraud

Hensley's other business ventures include Rise USA , a business coaching company with a Gay Street office and a website that offers services in martial arts, nutrition, fitness and business.

Hensley moved to Knoxville from South Carolina in 2019 and registered the company with the Tennessee Secretary of State in September 2022, according to business records.

Since Knox News began reporting on Hensley's ownership of Honeybee, he has dropped any mention of the coffee brand on his personal website or social media pages. He has also redone the Rise USA website, which formerly offered a slate of services to businesses, including marketing and legal counsel.

Hensley's companies − which operate under the name Rise Brands − have a limited online presence. The website of one venture, called Hensley Capital , hosts nothing more than four links to vacation rentals listed on other sites. Hensley Capital was administratively dissolved in 2023 and is listed as inactive by the Tennessee Secretary of State.

For years, Hensley's main business was as a franchisee with Premier Martial Arts, a Knoxville company that was sued for fraud in multiple suits filed in 2023 .

At one time, he owned and operated 12 locations, according to a now-deleted bio on the Rise USA website. His personal website says he had a "multimillion exit," but does not name Premier Martial Arts.

Rise USA is now selling tickets to a two-day martial arts business summit outside Atlanta, where Hensley ran studios. For eight hours of seminars mostly from Rise USA coaches Aug 10-11, the tickets are listed for $2,495 each.

On his LinkedIn profile, Hensley lists himself as the director of studio growth for Premier Martial Arts in 2022. The company was purchased by Unleased Brands in December 2021.

Unleased Brands and Premier Martial Arts founder Barry Van Over are named defendants in the ongoing lawsuits filed in the Davidson County Chancery Court, which allege the company misled franchisees and caused some to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars.

While Hensley is not named in the lawsuit, he said he hopes to support franchisees who were wronged.

"I have spent my whole life teaching people how to defend themselves from a bully or an adversary," Hensley told Knox News in a June 26 interview. "I want to do anything I can to make sure those people have a platform. It actually has inspired me to do exactly what we're doing at Honeybee, which is find a way to take care of people."

But by the time Hensley took to Facebook on June 24 to announce two Honeybee stores were closed, he already had lost most of his people, according to former employees.

Hensley did take a page from the Premier Martial Arts playbook. After renaming his new company "Honeybee USA," he began trying to attract franchisees with a goal to expand the Honeybee brand across the Southeast and possibly the entire nation if he started to "dream bigger."

"Right now, our focus is Knoxville, obviously," Hensley said. "We'll see where it goes from there."

After speaking with Knox News, Hensley disconnected his phone number and did not respond to multiple attempts to contact him. He was not immediately available through the Rise USA office on July 17.

Knox News visuals editor Jennifer Dedman and husband Steve Dedman, who served as head brewer at Honeybee when it began brewing beer in 2021, are no longer involved with the company. Under the USA TODAY Network Principles of Ethical Conduct for Newsrooms followed by Knox News, Dedman was excluded from editorial involvement in our reporting.

Daniel Dassow is a growth and development reporter focused on technology and energy. Phone 423-637-0878. Email daniel.dassow@knoxnews.com .

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Honeybee Coffee closes South Knoxville store for 'restructuring' weeks after meltdown