Love story - Latest News
Launch Event
A Collection of photographs which have been taken at the opening of the Love My Coffee Store, Meadowhall, Sheffield.
Refills for phoenix BB's coffee shops
It seemed that in 2009 the froth went off the coffee shop market
Puccinos, Coffee Republic and BB's Coffee & Muffins are just three of the operators that went into administration during the year.
But, just as it looked as though Britain was falling out of love with coffee, a turnaround has taken place. Last week, Starbucks reported like-for-like sales had trebled from £40m in the fourth quarter of 2008 to £148m on the same period in 2009.
Coffee Republic, which operates 80 outlets in the UK and abroad, was given a new lease of life when Arab Investments bought it in July 2009. It now wants to expand.
BB's Coffee & Muffins is also to be revived, albeit in different guises. The 200-strong chain was predominantly run by franchisees in the UK. Yet following its administration in October, some franchisees plan to relaunch independently.
This month Shashi Patel took over the 13 BB's Coffee stores he operated as a franchisee in the north-west of England. He has rebranded his shops as 'Love Coffee' and now wants to grow the chain.
"Having started running the BB's franchise more than 10 years ago and growing my own portfolio from one to 14 stores, I was one of the company's biggest franchise operators when it went into administration," says Patel.
"Once I realised I had the landlords of the stores I ran backing me financially, it seemed ideal to keep them and open my own coffee chain."
Patel is working with Harper Dennis Hobbs to find 13 sites in the south of England, some (but not all) of which are likely to be ex-BB's shops.
"Once I had the landlords of the stores I ran backing me, it seemed ideal to keep them" Shashi Patel
"The key has been negotiation [with landlords]," says Patel. "Showing landlords the turnover I have been able to achieve at individual sites and working together to form a rental deal that fits with both our margins."
"As the banks have seen my portfolio grow through BB's, they have also been confident in investing in the venture."
The BB's brand is not set to disappear, however. Administrator PKF sold 16 stores to a management-led buyout team operating as Kapelad and based in Ireland in November.
Kapelad is also expanding and wants to buy more stores from the BB's portfolio, which included 37 stores owned by the BB's Coffee & Muffins company, and the remaining franchisees, of which there are more than 100.
These stores will retain the BB's Coffee & Muffins branding.
Patel does not believe the sector is oversupplied but that it needs to adhere to basic rules of property.
"It shouldn't be about opening [new shops] everywhere, which is what happened in the past."
It's about profits that can be achieved at certain sites and having a deal which works with that."
Love Coffee is branching out...
Vikesh graduated with a BSc in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics, before taking up a post as a Consultant at Accenture in London. After working on projects across the world; Paris, Dubai, New York & Chicago, Vikesh moved to accept a position as a Senior Associate at JPMorgan in London. Vikesh spent 5yrs working on projects across US, Russia etc before deciding to take on a new challenge and leave the banking sector.
Dimple graduated with a double First Class BA in Economics from the University of Cambridge before continuing her studies in the US where she achieved an MA in International and Development Economics from Yale University. After graduation Dimple joined Goldman Sachs London as a trader in the Fixed Income Department.