Find out what makes Espresso Lane Drive Thru Coffee different
Martin Stepien of of Espresso Lane Drive Thru Coffee talks to QSR Media about how they are capitalising on the Growing Coffee market.
QSR Media: What differentiates you from other drive thru coffee QSR's?
Martin: From the customers point of view I would say that we aim for consistently premium coffee, consistently premium service, consistently fast.
Being a franchise business: From the franchisees point of view we aim to open each location for the smallest investment possible.
Our locations cost between $100,000 and $150,000.
We refer our franchisees directly to our builders and suppliers achieve maximum savings.
We charge a franchise fee for our part but do not run a turn key operation, franchisee is involved in every step of setting up the business.
We offer full transparency on all aspects of the business.
We keep to a very small footprint, our smallest kiosk is 9 sq m = lower rent. Lower construction costs.
QSR Media: What are some of your goals for 2013?
Martin: Continue opening more stores in Victoria, Open our first store on the Gold Coast, QLD. We have scheduled to open our third development office in SA, June 2013. Recruit a Development Agent for NSW and WA.
QSR Media: What are some of the challenges you are facing growing your business?
Martin: Dealing with some Landlords and property developers can be challenging. We bring to them another form of income ( kiosk rental ) for a small part of their car park space which most of the time is not utilized anyway. Faced with this, some landlords still believe they can charge pre GFC rents and sometimes want higher rents for a short time, not caring whether the business survives in the long term. This is a really bad approach and totally unnecessary. We want the Franchisee to be able to make money from our model, thus, getting the right rent and lease conditions can be a challenge when some QRS chains will just pay anything to get into a specific site.
QSR Media: You have just opened up a QLD Franchise development office, tell us a bit about this.
Martin: To expand Espresso Lane Drive Thru coffee as a national brand we have opted for the Development Agent approach but have changed the title to State Director. This means that in each state we recruit a State Director who will be contracted to develop the brand in that state. This allows us to have someone with local knowledge on the ground to open locations and expand the brand.
Franchisees will have the added benefit of a Franchisor Associate with a vested interest in the brand on a local level that can visit their stores monthly, offer support and continue to recruit new franchisees and open a pre agreed amount of stores per year.
QLD is where the Espresso Lane Drive Thru Coffee HQ has been moved to as we have managed to recruit a State Director for Victoria / Tasmania. The QLD HQ will also be the Development office for QLD.
