Drive-through coffee chain Muzz Buzz is adding a car wash service and ATM facility to its customer service offer in a move intended to grow the brand categories.

Envisioning further brand extensions under the Muzz Buzz name the founder and chairman of the Western Australian based business, Warren Reynolds [pictured below], told Franchising, “We’re not in the coffee business. We’re in the brand business, we’re expanding the brand and the brand is so flexible.”

Muzz Buzz is poised to roll out drive-through cash machines at its super sites while a separate joint venture will see the development of new sites with own-branded car washes.

“We’ve just had approval on some drive-through sites. It will probably take about four to six months, it’s a pretty big development. We expect to have the first open in March,” said Reynolds.

The development and total concept of each site will require an investment of about $1.2 million and there are already three stores lined up with franchisees, and three more in the wings.

Opportunities exist to vary the franchise ownership, Reynolds explained.

“We can have one franchisee with a car wash, one with a coffee store. It’s very flexible and provides opportunities dependent on access to finance.”

Reynolds expects the combined businesses to be highly profitable. “The car wash is capital intensive but it’s a 24 hour a day business. The coffee stores are open 12 or 13 hours and we may increase the hours later in the evening,” he said.

Although the ATMs are not franchised, franchisees can get subsidised rental for an ATM on their site, Reynolds said.

As the Muzz Buzz business expands across the country, the latest opening is in Victoria. The 50th outlet is at Melbourne Road, Corio [below] opened 29th October, with Broome and Cockburn the next in line.

“We’re strong in Melbourne, now four times the size of our competition there, we’re growing in Brisbane and very dominant in Perth. We’re not interested in Sydney at the moment.”

Reynolds said further expansion will also come from the domestic and international markets with both joint venture and master franchise set-ups. The Asian business will be driven from Hong Kong.

Images: gdesign.com.au/ wabusinessnews.com.au