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8 coffee franchises with bean heritage

Sarah Stowe

Australians are discerning coffee drinkers, everyone has a favourite barista and brew. A caffeine fix is now a standard in food outlets with convenience stores and supermarkets joining the throng of hot beverage providers. Check out this coffee franchise list: eight brands flavoured with a strong coffee heritage.

Cafe2U

This on-the-go business has 140 mobile coffee vans and 60 per cent of revenue comes from hot beverages. The minimum investment is $52,000 + GST.

What’s your coffee heritage?

Cafe2U started in Sydney’s Northern Beaches in 2000 and has worked closely together with a roasting company to develop our unique blend.

What’s the secret to your coffee?

An award winning multi bean blend that has stood the test of time and rivals any main street, fixed location brew. Our blend contains Arabica beans from five different countries (making the blend 100 per cent Arabica) something that is becoming less common within the industry.

Where are your coffee beans roasted?

Di Bella Coffee.

Best tip for boosting franchisee profitability?

We are looking to improve franchisee return on investment by providing an improved product range, increasing their profit margin on products by leveraging the power of Retail Food Group purchasing arrangements, and constantly reviewing our equipment and vehicle layout.  

Plans for 2019

Locally, we want to add another 100 franchises in four years, and internationally we are seeking opportunities in countries that lend themselves to the Cafe2U business model.

Cibo Espresso

This franchise has more than 30 stores in Australia. Coffee accounts for more than 65 per cent of business. It costs from $350,000 to invest in a franchise.

What’s your coffee heritage?

CIBO Espresso is an Italian Espresso Bar born in Adelaide in 2000, with strong Italian heritage bringing a little slice of Italy to Australia.

What’s the secret to your coffee?

CIBO Espresso’s exclusive blend is dark Italian style roast unique to our business. All our beans are hand roasted in Thebarton South Australia by acclaimed coffee roaster Tony D’Angelo.

Best brew? Our traditional CIBO Espresso blend.

Best tip for boosting franchisee profitability

A collaborative trust relationship between franchisee and franchisor with regular structured business reviews designed to drive business growth and drive business metric performance.

Plans for 2019?

To deliver quality coffee to more South Australians by adding some key landmark sites to our portfolio, and drive improved product offering and customer experience.

Fibonacci Coffee

There are 23 outlets in Australia across three models: kiosk, cafe, cafe bar with investments starting at $140,000, $180,000 and $250,000. For the cafe/bar, 50 per cent could be financed and paid by the business out of cash flow.

Coffee accounts for 40-50 per cent of revenue.

What’s your coffee heritage?

We started in 2000 well before the rise of the boutique cafes. Love for people, community and passionate about espresso coffee was the driver of our family business.

What’s the secret to your coffee?

An organic product that changes with the seasons. We continue to explore new blends to find the best fit for our customers ever-changing palate.

Where are your coffee beans roasted?

Our beans are roasted  in Sydney in a multi-million dollar dedicated roasting facility that is setting new standards for the industry.

Best brew? Cappuccino is the favourite drink among customers.

Best tip for boosting franchisee profitability?

Focus on your customers. If you love what you do and create vibrant, happy energy, you will attract lots of people who want to be served by you. The profit will roll in from there.

Hudsons Coffee

There are 95 Hudson’s coffee stores, of which 64 are franchised. Most outlets are in airports and hospitals. Minimum investment is $200,000.

Coffee sales make up 53 per cent of revenue.

What’s your coffee heritage?

Our Premium Blend coffee was the original blend enjoyed by customers when Hudsons first opened back in 1998. It continues to be a crowd favourite 20 years later and is now available for retail purchase.

What’s the secret to your coffee?

At Hudsons Coffee we are heavily focused on quality control at every level of the coffee process.

We have a large highly trained team that has a wealth of industry experience and knowledge of all things coffee-related. This knowledge and skill is imparted onto our award winning baristas who are at the front line of our business.

We believe it is important to take time to carefully review our practices because we aim for continual development and elevation wherever possible.

Where are your coffee beans roasted?

Our Baristas Choice and Premium Blend coffee beans are roasted locally in Melbourne twice a week.

Best brew? Our 100 per cent Arabica Premium Blend coffee is celebrating its 20th anniversary. It’s ethically sourced from Peru, Costa Rica, Ethiopia and Tanzania.

Jamaica Blue

This cafe chain operates about 130 sites in Australia. It costs a minimum of $100,000 to $500,000 to buy a franchise.

Coffee sales range between 30 and 40 per cent of total sales and vary by state and location.

What’s your coffee heritage?

We are inspired by and named after the Jamaica Blue Mountains, widely regarded as the home of the world’s best coffee.

Our signature blend features premium Jamaica Blue Mountain beans and we also have an exclusive Jamaica Blue Mountain single origin coffee, as well as seasonal single origins. Jamaica Blue has won a string of awards for its coffee including Golden Bean Overall Best Roaster 2017 and ASCA Coffee Chain Challenge in 2017.

What’s the secret to your coffee?

Our coffee secret is the beans.  These beans are sourced from six different countries and roasted here in Melbourne to become the Jamaica Blue Signature Blend.

What are your plans for 2019?

Strategic and considered growth including exploring café opportunities within hospitals, universities, airports, etc… as well as further enhancing our portfolio within shopping centres

Muffin Break

A cafe franchise which has more than 200 stores in Australia and 300 worldwide. Minimum investment is $100,000 to $350,000. Coffee accounts for about 35 per cent of sales.

What’s your coffee heritage?

Muffin Break opened its first site in Coolangatta in 1989 and became one of the first franchise groups to bring high quality espresso to the broader Australia consumer. Our skills and our coffee have evolved since then to meet the changing tastes of the Australian palate and won many awards along the way.

In both 2017 and 2018, Muffin Break was awarded Roy Morgan’s Coffee Shop of the Year award.

What’s the secret to your coffee?

The secret is carefully selected green beans from five origins. These are expertly roasted and blended by our head of coffee and World Barista Championship judge, Jeremy Regan. Great coffee is dependent on other factors too, such as the right equipment and professionally trained baristas.

What’s the best brew?

Flat white.

Best tip for boosting franchisee profitability?

Muffin Break’s best tip for boosting franchisee profitable is by maximising the customer experience at a store level.

Stellarossa

There are 23 stores with a combination of cafes, kiosks and fully licensed cafe models. In smaller stores the coffee accounts for 70 percent revenue but less (40 per cent) in the larger outlets.  

What’s the secret to your coffee?

Correct ageing and fresh roasting so our franchise partners receive the coffee at its peak to provide customers with optimum flavour.   

Where are your coffee beans roasted?

Currently Di Bella Coffee roasts the beans.

Minimum investment

It costs at least $200,000 to purchase a Stellarossa outlet.

Best tip for boosting franchisee profitability?

Keeping cost of goods and wages in check is crucial although giving great service and product is also essential to client retention. It doesn’t matter how much you keep your numbers in check if you haven’t got customers walking through the door.

Plans for 2019

The year ahead is about strong growth after a year of repositioning in 2018. We will open three drive-through outlets in 2019 along with several inline stores already in the pipeline.

Xpresso Mobile Cafe

There is a minimum investment of $134,750 ($85,000 may be equipment financed). Coffee sales equate to 70 per cent of turnover for the network of 43 vans. 

What’s your coffee heritage?   

We source our coffee through our Crop to Cup green bean buying program. Crop to Cup is about building sustainable relationships with coffee-growing communities because we are empowering them to work with us, rather than for us.

The program is committed to building skills locally, providing job security and growth opportunities for local workers, upholding fair practices as well as encouraging responsible farming.

We have the unique ability to match raw coffee origins to our blend profiles because we collaborate with the farmers and this means we can consistently deliver our signature blends all year round.

What’s the secret to your coffee?  

Consistent and speedily delivered 8/10 coffee.   

Best tip for boosting franchisee profitability  

Maintain a great attitude and bundle food items with each and every hot/cold beverage sale.

Plans for 2019 – we will push through our milestone of 50+ mobile cafes and dominate high positioning with internet search engine results.

If you’ve got the taste for a coffee franchise then check out these options too.