Xpresso Mobile franchise continuing a 500 year old tradition

More than 500 years after the world’s first coffee shop opened in Turkey, two Brisbane friends have turned an age-old tradition on its head.

Inspired by a TV ad showing a coffee machine on the back of a scooter, Darren Schultz, a hairdresser by trade, and chef Chris Collings brought their mobile coffee business to life.

Almost three years ago the two men, from Milton in Brisbane’s inner west, introduced the first Xpresso Mobile franchise barista van — selling gourmet coffees — to Queensland roads and have seen the business grow steadily since.

Darren and Chris now oversee 44 two manned, franchised operations from Cairns to Adelaide, with plans to move into the US.

It became apparent, however, their ordering method was stuck in the dark ages with the humble pen and paper.

Xpresso teamed up with Newstead-based Absoft, who has developed a mobile order-taking software program using the Vodafone GPRS network.

The result drastically cut ordering time of the coffee franchise, enough so that each van’s ‘‘runner’’ can collect an additional four orders every 15 minutes before returning to the van to collect and deliver coffee. Those four extra coffee orders stand to make each mobile franchise team an additional $70,000 per year.

‘‘Our business has just taken off. We’re so busy and part of our success is our model — we are very big on training,’’ said the 38-year-old Mr Schultz.