Coffee Franchise

displaced dub

Hi All

Does anyone on here have any experiance of running a coffee franchise like Costa or Butlers?

dollydishmop

No experience, sorry.

But if you do open a Costa, can you please open it near me...I'm a Costa-Addict But only tend to get my fix when visiting the UK :pac:

antoinolachtnai

I do not have any experience of this. However:

Costa is franchised nationally, as I understand it. There is a single franchisee for Ireland. I'd be surprised if they'd sub-franchise.

Butlers: I'd be extremely surprised if Butlers would franchise in Ireland. If you were a big enough player, maybe, but hard to see. They want you to open a minimum of five shops according to their site.

http://www.butlerschocolates.com/pages/Franchising/Franchising.htm

KED

Hi .... I have no experience in coffee franchising .... so please take my opinion/comments lightly.

A colleauge of mine was pursuing "The Streat" coffee franchise, after alot of negotiating he paid €9k downpayment to the "The Streat" - which i believe was non-refundable. After more soul searching, he panicked and decision not to continue. He sought his deposit back in good faith. Unfortunately, they declined.

I my opinion coffee shop franchise are overrated especially in this recessionary times. Rent, Rates, Staff Costs, Shop Fit Outs costs, - you'll have to sell alot of coffee to pay yourself a wage.

I too am looking at franchising where start up costs are low and overheads are low (one man operation .... where no premise is required).

Only advice - is FOOTFALL - make sure footfall is high. Would recommend your staking out a similar type coffee operation for the whole day and calculating their daily turnover (based upon average assumptions). If promising - i would stake out for a couple of days. At least this will give you an idea of potential T/O and then you can compare against costs.

As for my colleague - he is a happy man - as "The Streat" franchise did eventually open up in the same location - same shop as he had picked - but by all accounts it seems to be trading poorly.

BTW - I'm looking at franchising for 2+ years so it is not easy to make that jump from a PAYE worker to self employed - hoping to make the change in New Year .... getting cash together now .... and thankfully have family support.

YellowSheep

KED wrote: »

I too am looking at franchising where start up costs are low and overheads are low (one man operation .... where no premise is required).

Please let me know when you found one..... Cheers Oliver

KED

YellowSheep wrote: »

Please let me know when you found one..... Cheers Oliver

I FOUND ONE ! March 2011 in my start date.

YellowSheep

Hi KED. Congratulations and good luck with it. Cheers O

Woodgate

KED wrote: »

I FOUND ONE ! March 2011 in my start date.

Well done, can you PM me any info.