When it comes to succeeding in a franchise, Coffee Club co-founder and Brisbane Roar shareholder Emmanuel Drivas shares his thoughts on what it takes to be successful.
The 56 year-old started the Coffee Club 21 years ago along with business partner and co-founder Emmanuel Kokoris, and since then the company has grown to over 250 stores nationwide.
Having left school at the age of 15 to join the workforce, Drivas worked in nearly every capacity of the food and hospitality industry from snack bars to fruit markets before he decided to go into a business venture with his good friend Emmanuel Kokoris.
“The Coffee Club came on board because I was very good friends with my other business partner Emmanuel Kokkoris, who actually at the time was working with me at a fruit market and Emmanuel wanted to venture out in his own business and that’s how we came up with the Coffee Club,” Drivas says.
“We opened up the first Coffee Club on Eagle Street Pier and over time it eventually grew, but back in those days Emmanuel and I had no intention of franchising.”
Although it has grown to be one of the biggest coffee franchises in Australia today, Drivas admits that in the early days, the pair didn’t know a great deal about franchising.
“People liked our brand and we were getting a lot of enquiries about franchising and we didn’t know much about franchising because it was relatively new in Australia.”
With a Coffee Club in every State across Australia, including 26 in New Zealand, The Coffee Club has now branched out into Asia with five stores in Thailand.
Having just secured a master franchise for a province in China, Drivas is now keen to branch out all over Asia and the Middle East after recent negotiations with Egypt and Dubai.
“We’ve just secured a master franchise for a province in China, so we hope to start pushing them out throughout the province.”
While operating and maintaining a business can be difficult and at times cut throat, Drivas says its dedication rather than a business plan which will find you success.
“You have to really be dedicated to your business and dedication doesn’t just mean you have to be there from morning until night seven days a week, it can be a number of other things.”
“Dedication is really just dedicating yourself to managing your business and you can do that by managing the people around you while marketing your company.”
When looking to the future, Drivas believes it’s all about expansion and getting your name out there which is the key to growth.
Having already branched out into Asia, Drivas boldly declares that, as well as growing overseas; he would also like to see the number of stores double within Australia.
“Our five year plan here in Australia is to grow from 250 stores to 500 stores and that’s a fairly big plan because it gives us an average of 50 stores a year which is rapid growth.”
