Australian franchise success story Café 2U has been crowned the largest mobile coffee franchise in the world.
One of the fastest growing business concepts in the nation, the former one-man operation developed into a franchise system in 2004 and currently has 45 franchises in just NSW.
Two years ago it infiltrated the Melbourne coffee market and Café 2U now has 10 franchises in Victoria and since moved its expansion drive into Perth and South Australia. It is also planning multiple franchises in Queensland, the Central Coast and the ACT.
A chance meeting three years ago between franchise founder Andy Simpkin and a British expat working in Sydney opened the way for Café 2U to feed the coffee cravings of the UK.
“An Englishman named Tom Ackland approached me about taking the concept to the UK, and things progressed from there. We now have 46 franchises throughout the UK including Scotland, Northern England, Southern England, the Channel Islands and Northern Ireland,” explained Simpkin.
“The next countries we have targeted are the US and South Africa.”
Since their December 2006 listing as one of the AFR top 7 franchises in Australia, Café 2U has added another 40 franchises to its total and in January celebrated 100 franchises worldwide.
Café 2U currently makes over 4.5 million cups of coffee a year on average.