Esquires Coffee

ESQUIRES COFFEE MORE THAN JUST COFFEE

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More than just

coffee

Esquires Coffee, the global coffee shop chain with a community spirit, is set to expand post-pandemic. "The focus right now is on growth within the UK and Ireland, both organically and possibly by acquisition," confirmed CEO Aiden Keegan in an interview with Romana Moares.

Esquires is part of New Zealand-based Cooks Global Foods, which directly operates and franchises Esquires Coffee stores in the UK, Ireland, and China, and has master franchise agreements in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Indonesia.

What distinguishes the chain from other coffee houses in a severely competitive market is its fresh, high-quality offering, a focus on responsibly grown ingredients and highly customer-friendly service.

All Esquires coffee is grown using cen turies-old traditional farming methods. This means no chemicals are used. The company even says that much of its coffee is cleverly grown as part of the existing ecosystem, so that no land is damaged.

Responsibly sourced and served Esquire’ coffee is sourced from farming coop eratives around the world, from Honduras to Ethiopia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

"We believe in paying a fair price, probably a little bit over the odds,” CEO Aiden Keegan explained, “and we are quite happy to do so to ensure the well-being of the farmer and the quality of our coffee.”

It is not just about coffee, though. "We know our coffee is good, but the difference is the quality of food” Mr Keegan continued. “It is not pre-packaged and overpriced, it is presented on a plate. And most likely made to order. The difference is in that freshness that high-quality product.” Vegetarian, vegan and healthy options are available too, although top quality is always the number one prerequisite.

“I won't sell something just to tap into a vegan market,” he said. “Some of the vegan protein options that are available aren't quite up to spec and we won’t just put something out for the sake of putting it out; it needs to stand up on its own.”

Organic and Fairtrade are Esquires’ core pillars. Supportive on green issues, two years ago Esquires began rolling out sustainable

Esquires Coffee CEO, Aiden Keegan

and compostable coffee cups, and recy clable takeaway boxes, serviettes and straws. “We wanted to make sure our cus tomers know we’re doing all we can to reduce the amount of single-use plastic within our business,” said Mr Keegan.

Standing firm

With hospitality being one of the sectors that suffered the most during the pandemic, Esquires Coffee was naturally affected as

well. Mr Keegan admits that the last two years were a stressful time but that the com pany tried to support its franchisees as best it could, allowing them to trade royalty-free during the summer of 2020.

“I took it upon myself to renegotiate as best I could all of those leases for the dura tion of the issues,” Mr Keegan explained. “We took the approach that we're fighting for the individual business owner, and that seemed to resonate with a lot of the land

lords. All our stores survived, which is not something I would necessarily have pre dicted given the circumstances we were facing, and since the end of the most recent lockdown, we’ve traded extremely well.”

The same support could be expected for Esquires franchisees now when markets remain volatile and unpredictable due to the outbreak of war in Ukraine, one of the factors leading to increased cost of goods, (particularly grain-related items), as well as energy.

Still, as 95 million cups of coffee are con sumed in the UK each day, according to the latest statistics, it is hard to imagine that the population would give up their favourite drink, despite the grave circumstances.

Community-based business

Mr Keegan, who worked for the group in Ireland and the Middle East before taking charge of the UK market in 2018, knows the business inside out. Esquires currently have 50 stores in the UK and Mr Keegan affirms that the company’s pipeline is stronger now than it has been since he took over, expecting to add seven or eight new stores in the next two quarters.

The company uses a regional developer system, leveraging local knowledge to develop its stores within the UK and this has been working extremely well. “We make sure that the store is set to suc ceed,” Mr Keegan explained. “We choose

the location carefully, assess prospective franchisees, and do a week to 10 days of training behind closed doors.

“We put a lot of emphasis on our customer service and attitude, and I want to ensure that the person who is front-facing in that business is someone who’s going to both work hard for themselves, but also present the business in the right way, in a very posi tive manner. They are allowed to have input into the design of their store, so each store design is bespoke.

“We hire locally, we also purchase locally whenever possible. We really see our fran chise as a community-based business,” he said, pointing out that the company works in partnership with its suppliers, and together they look at how best to react to current market forces. “The reality is we all need to work with our suppliers to mitigate against price increases for our franchisees.

“For example, Knighthood has, over sev eral years, provided a competitive tailored insurance solution and expert advice,” Mr Keegan continued, “to both our fran chisees, and to ourselves as franchisor, as the business has grown. We chose to work with Knighthood because of their experi ence of working with other food and bev erage businesses, and their expertise in the franchise sector.”

Strengthening position

Speaking about the present and the immi nent future, he acknowledged that the company has an aggressive but reasonable expansion plan. “I don’t believe in stores for store numbers sake, I believe we have a moral obligation to anybody putting their hand in their pocket to give them a return

on their investment. So, we will strategise around where we will open, and we will also assess each site on its merits.”

Esquires’ position is also set to be enhanced by the parent company when Cooks Coffee’s expected listing on the London Stock Exchange occurs. Cooks Coffee holds a stock exchange listing in New Zealand, where it was founded, yet it does not have any cafés there. Most of its activity happens within its master fran chises Esquires Coffee and Triple Two Coffee in the UK and Ireland respectively; countries where the company sees consid erable growth.

Mr Keegan said: “The plan is to poten tially double the number of stores within the next three years. Our objective for the near future is to expand all of our individual businesses. But strategically, carefully, not ad hoc. It comes back to the moral obligation to ensure that our franchisees not only sur vive, but also flourish.” n