The leading crêpe restaurant in the UK, Crêpeaffaire, has just announced that it will be expanding its network with a new franchised store in Cardiff's Saint David's Shopping Centre.
Already one of the most popular eateries in London, Crêpeaffaire's latest franchised outlet will be led by Kanwal and Ash Dhillon. They are both from diverse backgrounds, but share great business acumen, an ambition to succeed and a resounding love of the product.
Kanwal previously worked as a senior manager in local government and Ash worked as an engineering consultant. They are both self-confessed foodies who fell in love with the brand and became equally fascinated with the business model behind it. As they started to look into Crêpeaffaire, they found that it had experienced real success in central London and their market analysis showed that a similar level of success could be replicated elsewhere.
The MD and founder of Crêpeaffaire, Daniel Spinath, explained that franchising was key to the brand's development strategy and they were always looking to work with 'great people', in excellent locations. He added that he was extremely pleased that Kanwal and Ash were joining the Crêpeaffaire team and looked forward to seeing their skills and dedication pay off. He said that the pair had impressed the team at Crêpeaffaire during their recruitment period and subsequent development phase and that they were excited to see how their franchised business would develop.
The Crêpeaffaire store in Cardiff will offer a large, carefully selected range of fresh crêpes, including sweet and savoury recipes made with natural and organic ingredients. As with the London store, the products will be available to enjoy in-store or to take away. The core menu will also be complemented by a range of organic juices, coffees, milkshakes, waffles and ice creams. The new Cardiff store will also launch a new design and the renowned Crêpe theatre, which produces the products with an extremely rapid baking machine and involves a hand-finish according to the customer's order.
Mr Spinath explained that crêpes were already relatively well known and enjoyed by much of the UK, but that the market was currently very fragmented, with a large range of operators without any standardised operating models or robust management systems. However, Crêpeaffaire offered both a strong product from a known brand and an excellent system which had already seen them leading the market and which provided plenty of potential for expansion.
Meanwhile, their latest franchisees spoke positively of the support they'd experienced from the Crêpeaffaire team, saying that they had received 'fantastic' assistance in locating and assessing their new store's site and had also been given excellent training on the store's concept, layout and design and operational logistics, with a professional service throughout. They are already keen to expand further with additional stores.
The Crêpeaffaire brand is a member of the British Franchising Association and is pursuing an ambitious growth strategy that will involve a blend of franchised and company-owned stores, both in the UK and overseas. The brand has been in business since 2004 and is now ready to expand. However, they are keen to also remain focused on their existing stores and don't want to risk losing sight of their existing successful model.
The brand is a strong one, serving a range of high-quality organic foods, with both sweet and savoury crêpes made from natural ingredients and organic flour. These are complemented by the range of Fair Trade and organic waffles, coffees, milk shakes, smoothies and ice-creams. Already the UK leader in its market segment, Crêpeaffaire operates across a range of locations, including Westfield Stratford City, Westfield London, Stansted Airport and Soho. Its business philosophy aims to position crêpes as a healthy yet indulgent alternative to the usual range of fast-food snacks within the casual and quick-food sector. It also benefits from having a product that is ideally packaged to either eat in the store or on the go at any time of day.
At Franchise Expo, we think that this brand is one to watch in the franchised world, thanks to its successful business model, commitment to robust recruitment and training of franchisees and a development strategy which manages to be both ambitious and realistic.
