Couples in fra nchising


“It’s been one of the best learning experiences in our life!”


What has been a highlight so far? Working with the Esquires team and learning how to make great coffee, watching our business grow with the community and developing relationships with our customers and staff.


Have you encountered any problems? There will always be issues to resolve, late deliveries, stock not turning up, staff reporting in sick. It is challenging at times but we have always found a solution.


How hands-on are you in the day-to-day operations of the stores? Our fi rst goal was to learn the business inside out, making great coffee, food preparation, managing staff and so on, so


that we learned all of the steps. We are now pretty good baristas and make a mean fl at white! There was no requirement to do it that way, it is just how we are as individuals. A store manager has now been put in place to allow us to focus and develop the business in other areas.


Describe a typical day… There is no typical day! Our Durham unit, for instance, is based around quite a large university campus and so we have a high level of students, as well as our local residents. We pride ourselves on mixing our community together. An in-store day might go as follows: arrive at 8.15am ready for open at 9.15am. Our delivery of stock, such as milk and sandwiches, arrives around


7am; we put these away then we turn all our machines on (coffee machine, boiler, dishwasher). Following on from this we bake our pastries and then receive further suppliers that come into store around 9am. We then put all of our outside furniture out and put our aprons on ready for open! During the day, we provide excellent customer service and great coffee. The only challenge we fi nd is the dishes!


How has franchising changed your life? We spent years apart. Now we can be together doing something we enjoy.


What are your plans for the future? We plan to expand and add to our current portfolio of stores! l


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