Coffee chain seeking 100 stores in region.(Caribou Coffee Co.)(Brief Article)

Caribou Coffee Co., the Minneapolis-based alternative to Starbucks Corp., wants to make it easier for underserved caffeine lovers throughout the region to grab a cup of Joe.

The outfit, which bills itself as the nation's second-largest non-franchised coffee company, plans to open 100 new stores in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., area during the next "several years," Caribou co-founder John Puckett said.

"This area is so underserved, so Caribou sees a niche to be somebody other than Starbucks," said Mark A. Millman, president of Lutherville-based Millman Search Group Inc., a retail consulting firm.

The Baltimore-Washington area could handle …