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Muffin Break: a “one-of-a-kind” cafe

Sarah Stowe

Established in 1989, Foodco’s Muffin Break offers coffee as well as baked goods made on site. There are 320 stores in the network.Inside Franchise Business: Muffin Break is a "one-of-a-kind" coffee franchise.

Muffin Break is one-of-a-kind in its offering, says brand manager John Macphail. “Our products are unique to our brand.

“We find that boutique coffee shops are often focussed heavily toward coffee but forget about the food offer,” he says.

“They tend to offer a similar procured ‘out-of-the-box’ product similar to all other independents, and offer little differentiation.

“We are the only cafe franchise concept that bakes and prepares all its products in store, a significant differentiator to other franchise brands as well as smaller independent coffee shops.”

The franchisor provides a range of support for franchisee profitability…

  • Detailed reporting and individual costing on all products to improve awareness and allow better decisions on what is displayed and offered in each location
  • A product-procurement team that guarantees supply and quality of ingredients, and maintains and improves margin for franchisees
  • Third-party suppliers for raw items and proprietary goods, and direct contact with the manufacturers of key ingredients and packaging.

Franchisees are also able to source locally for fresh produce for their stores.

While labour and staff productivity is the largest cost to the business, Macphail says the group has labour-management tools to help franchisees, and offers regular benchmarking and workplace training and advice.

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