Wealthy appetite

Hungry for a good bit of business?
John Bensalhia looks at the best food and drink franchises available on the menu…

 

Puccino’s

From little acorns… Puccino’s has evolved from a solitary mobile coffee cart in 1995 to nearly 100 units throughout the UK, Ireland and Italy. This is the result of franchising out the Puccino’s concept. And with a team of dedicated franchisees maintaining its high standards, Puccino’s offers a high level of service.

Puccino’s serves high quality coffee from the Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group Espresso and in addition to this, serves fresh food and drink. Among this range are cold drinks, salads, tapas, paninis, pizza, pasta and grills – all customer selections are prepared right before them.

There are three different franchise types – The Espresso Bar is the first, mainly comprising train station outlets. These can range from smaller suburban stations to larger city centre places. These franchises can be run from kiosks or deli bars. A ballpark figure for this franchise is around £75,000 although this figure can vary, depending on the size and location of the unit.

The price also varies for the Deli Bar option, a high street takeaway coffee shop that includes the Espresso bar menu and a range of light meals and snacks (for daytime trade only). The price range for this one varies between £70,000 and £160,000.

Also over £100,000 is the Café bar, which is a licenced combination of coffee bar and restaurant which boasts all day breakfasts, light lunches and three course meals.

The Puccino’s franchise fee is £15,000 and there is also an ongoing royalty fee in addition to the cost of setting up an outlet. The price of the fee covers ongoing support from the operations team and the services of an operations manager. The initial help covers the opening and then throughout the tenure of the franchise.

Coffee Republic

Coffee Republic first opened its doors in 1995 by a brother and sister team Bobby and Sahar Hashemi. Both Bobby and Sahar gave up their professional jobs to follow a dream, which was to create the best coffee in Britain.

They recognised that there was a niche in the market for great tasting coffee and this is when they started to carry out research on beans, blends, flavours, machines and styles. After the research was completed they developed a secret blend of coffee, which is still being used today in all of their Coffee Republic bars.

The first store opened on the 6th of November 1995 in South Molton Street London which was a huge success. Coffee Republic has now grown across the UK and internationally and is continuing to move forward in franchising and concessions.

By combining its renowned coffee pedigree with a brand new range of high quality fresh food and in-store baked breads and pastries Coffee Republic has also created an all-day business catering from breakfast time right through to early evening snacks.

With Coffee Republic, training is everything. Franchisees attend a basic skills course which covers all aspects of the operation. They then go to work in a training bar where they get an opportunity to learn new skills, among real staff and guests. Finally, they are shown how to make the best use of promotional concepts and how to plan and organise their business. All training is individually tailored to each franchisee’s needs and overall will take around two weeks.

On-going support is available when the training period ends. Coffee Republic’s dedicated and proven team is available to help with answers to problems, or offer any extra training needed.

The heart of its business is the Business Process Manual (BPM). This is a tool to help franchisees ensure they are always running their business the Coffee Republic way. It forms part of the agreement with Coffee Republic and will be updated from time to time to reflect changes introduced for the benefit of the franchise network as a whole.

There are three upfront costs payable to Coffee Republic. The franchise fee is £17,500 plus VAT; the training and support fee is £5,000 plus VAT; the brand audit fee is £1000. There are also on-going fees that are paid weekly: the management service fee or royalty is 7.5% and there is a marketing fund of 1.5%. Additionally there are the costs associated with the retail unit and the start-up. These costs vary from location to location and it should be noted that these numbers are only a guide.

Coffee Republic’s franchise system allows anyone with the right positive attitude to join as a franchisee, regardless of his or her background. There are, however, four attributes that Coffee Republic people have in common:

• A desire to earn a good income
• An interest in food and drink
• A love of working with people
• A deep desire to be the boss

Wiltshire farm foods

Wiltshire Farm Foods was established more than 15 years ago, and there are now 58 franchise in operation throughout the UK and Ireland. The frozen ready meals service has a small amount of franchises available, due to high demand, and at the time of writing, opportunities are up for grabs in the areas of Southport, Liverpool, Camarthen and Monmouth.
Wiltshire Farm Foods offers comprehensive support, £2m national marketing spend, an established customer base and good sales potential of more than £1m.

A typical franchisee would employ up to 10 people and so because of this, potential candidates must prove to have the ability to connect with other people and have real entrepreneurial skill. A typical investment figure for this franchise is between £50K and £100K, although business investments can be arranged for outstanding candidates.

Subway

Formed in 1965 in Connecticut, USA, by Fred DeLuca, Subway has gone on to become a multi-billion pound business. Its presence is felt in over 80 countries at over 25,000 outlets. In the UK and Ireland alone, Subway plans to have over 2010 stores by 2010.

Subway first began franchising in 1974, again in Connecticut. There are more than 25,000 franchisees throughout the 80 countries. The price tag for this franchise can be up to £245,000. An initial investment for a traditional location can be between £100,000 and £245,000 although a non-traditional location is cheaper with prices starting from £45,000. That said, there is financial help available. Subway offers an equipment leasing programme for new franchisees and remodelling, relocation and expansion loans for existing franchisees.

Training takes place for two weeks and comprises a mix of classroom and onsite learning. The course contains equal measures of the two. After the two weeks is up, the attendee must take a comprehensive exam and pass it in order to become a franchisee. Once this has been satisfactorily completed, new franchisees will work with their developer on the next stage to take them to great things. There is also regular communication from the company’s HQ in the form of newsletters, emails, intranet, internet, voicemail and training videos.

Mcdonald’s

McDonald’s only chooses the best franchisees to help run its business, and for that reason, all potentials take a nine-month training course. Successful candidates should take a hands-on approach to work, and enable their outlet to outstrip any potential competition.

McDonald’s franchisees rent the restaurant real estate, but actually buy the fittings, equipment and the right to operate it up to a 20-year timespan. During the nine-month training course, franchisees will learn about and practice each role required from management to cleaning. However, this spell of training doesn’t pay, and so franchisees need a large amount of liquid capital pugged away to keep themselves financially secure, not to mention a £5,000 training deposit – although this is returned to the franchisee on completion of the training.

A business consultant is assigned to each franchisee who will offer support. There is also help from head office, whose teams will be able to answer any questions from franchisees. There are also regular communications meetings and sessions held for feedback, news and help. Every franchisee will get a say in how the UK McDonald’s is run, through representatives on the National Leadership Group.

The right candidates must have previous success in business, ideally in the region of managing and developing people, marketing or sales. Because of the people aspect of the job, potentials must be outgoing and polite, and be able to hone employees’ skills.

The cost, as with other big brand name franchisees, is high, the average investment being £200,000 for a McDonald’s franchise. There is also a franchise fee of £30,000, as well as ongoing fees for rent, service and a contribution to the national marketing spend. Again, though, help is at hand in two forms – a majority of franchisees choose the Conventional Franchise option, in which 25% of the asking price must be paid upfront, with the remainder borrowed. The other choice, the Business Facilities Lease, helps those who do not have the required 25%, in which an arrangement is made where the franchisee uses the restaurant cashflow to raise enough capital to but the franchise during the first three years of trading.

Charisnack

Charisnack franchisees are responsible for distributing the company’s impressive self-service, point-of-sale display boxes. They then return to collect the money made from the boxes, restock them, and record the sales on a regular basis.

One of the benefits of a ChariSnack franchise is that the company will establish franchisees’ first 150 customers in their own protected territory. That means an opportunity of bringing in income from Day One. Because franchisees spend time assisting to customer requirements, there is also the opportunity of generating regular repeat business. Franchisees are also provided with a further 100 boxes and stock so that they can meet new customer demand without further expenditure. There are also low overheads, since this is a home-based franchise, and the company provides a van as part of the franchise package. What’s more, practically every business is a potential customer, whether it’s a company with a skeleton staff or a large number of staff.

There are two ChariSnack packages available. The main full-time one is a value-for-money £17,995 + VAT, and covers the initial 150 customers supplied by the company; 8,000 packets of snacks to kick-start the business as well as a further 100 display boxes to expand franchisees’ customer bases; the sole rights to an extensive protected trading area; a comprehensive businesses database; a starter pack including stationery, marketing materials, initial corporate clothing and operations manual; a fitted and sign-written van (subject to finance); and a structured launch programme.

ChariSnack also provides an ongoing programme of franchisee support. Each franchisee will get a dedicated franchise support manager, who will be in regular contact and hold regular business reviews to monitor progress. In addition, franchisees have access to free use of the ChariSnack helpline for assistance, and will get regular news updates to put franchisees in the picture with regards to new initiatives, best practices from other franchisees and the launch of new products to the range.
There is also a part-time opportunity available which costs £9,950 + VAT. Franchisees taking up this option can enjoy all the usual benefits associated with being a ChariSnack franchisee in terms of initial training, product range, corporate identity and on-going support from a dedicated franchise support manager, but will be allocated a smaller geographical area in which to work. ChariSnack will locate the first 100 customer organisations or companies to host a box, with products worth over £5,000.

The induction training is swiftly followed by extensive field training. This takes place in the franchisee’s own area while the ChariSnack field consultant is securing the first 150 customers. On-going support comes from each franchisee’s dedicated franchise support manager, and from the vastly experienced teams at ChariSnack.