South Yorkshire Growth Fund aids coffee franchise

The South Yorkshire growth programme has aided a Barnsley businessman franchise his coffee business.

Ian Hobson launched Coffee Concept as a franchise 12 months ago, and now counts 150 outlets signed up including golf clubs, DIY stores and venues.

Coffee Concept hires out, or sells, drinks-making machines to small businesses and organisations, who can then sell the drinks on to the public at a profit.

Rather than his company roll out Coffee Concept across the country, Ian said they had decided to expand as a franchise. The franchise feasibility study was supported by Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council, a partner in the South Yorkshire Sector Growth Enhancement Programme (SYSGEP), which is part-financed by the European Union’s 2007-13 European Regional Development Fund.

The plan is to sell a Coffee Concept franchise in each of hundreds of discrete geographic locations and for each franchisee to be responsible for supplying and servicing the outlets in their area. After an initial outlay the franchisee should recoup their investment in just over a year.

Ian’s main business is Cascade Water Systems, at Hoyland in Barnsley, which has been running for 20 years and supplies mains-fed water dispensers to 3,500 companies across the country.

He said: “We did look at whether we could run Coffee Concept in the same way, with our own suppliers and engineers working with the outlets, but decided it would need more intense support.

“Initially we gave up on the idea, but then our SYSGEP business support manager at Barnsley Council introduced us to franchising and now it’s all systems go”.

“We have tested out the concept with the outlets we have in South Yorkshire. We have made mistakes and learned from them and now we have a business model that works”.

Adrian Waite, Barnsley Council’s SYSGEP sector growth manager, introduced Coffee Concept to experts from The Franchising Centre.

Adrian said: “Coffee Concept is perfect for franchising. It is a cost effective way to expand the business in Barnsley, but it also creates business opportunities for hundreds of franchisees around the country and in turn an extra income for the businesses that sell the drinks.”

There are more than 900 franchisor brands operating in the UK, with a combined annual turnover of £13.4 billion, employing nearly 600,000 people.

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