We interviewed Antonio Veloso, founder of the Ingredients: Café coffee shop franchise. Ingredients: Café. They started the activity in 2009 with their first pilot store and from 2010 they began to franchise to share the business with entrepreneurs and coffee enthusiasts. They started from the desire to offer the strangest and most exquisite coffees in the world, thus creating the concept of Exotic Coffee.
They dedicated their efforts to promoting the consumption and taste for origin coffees, gourmet teas specially selected for them and exclusive seasonal products: coffee mixes, chocolate whims and high-end pastries.
The main problem they encountered was the lack of financing for the entrepreneurs, «because the banks do not provide facilities for them to open premises, unless they do not need financing and have treasury to face the necessary investment. In the current situation of the sector there are many coffee shops without personality and concepts that are sheltered in the Coffee Shop umbrella, but without personality and concept they will end up being bars as before», says Antonio.
What differentiates them from the competition in the sector is that they constantly travel to the most distant places on the planet in search of the rarest and most exotic coffees in the world, and then make them available to customers.
The profile of the entrepreneur / franchisee of INGREDIENTS: CAFÉ is that they are enthusiastic about coffee and the concept they work with, commercial and service capacity, self-motivation and personnel management capacity. No previous experience is necessary since INGREDIENTS: CAFÉ offers all the necessary training to handle the business with rigor and knowledge necessary for the follow-up and subsequent analysis of your business, always supported by INGREDIENTS: CAFE. In addition, the necessary investment to enter INGREDIENTS: CAFE is from 40,000€.
«We see the future well, since we have a consolidated concept and in permanent R&D, that is, we expect about two hard years given the economic state of our country and the recession of consumption, we must tighten our belt on margins, management staff and leases.
On the other hand, it seems that the Government says that there will be sprouts or green coffee in 2014, what is certain is that in the last two months we have closed the establishments in a positive way» the protagonist comments.
Interview with mr. Veloso by La expansión newspaper and by the franchise portal, franquicias hoy..
