Local coffee market expands

More markets are being opened for the country’s coffee farmers with the launching recently of the franchising program of Coffee Nook Corp., which in its one year of operation was able to establish 54 outlets in Metro Manila and some nearby provinces using the lease program.

Coffee Nook general manager Virgilio Quijano said that the franchising program is an offshoot of the very successful lease program he launched last year, where 54 lessees have availed of the easy package the company offered.

The lease package costs P250,000 good for three years and renewable thereafter with the lessee being provided on lease the lighted signages, espresso machines, cart, table setting (two tables and eight chairs), coffee and sandwiches, personal refs and the use of brand name. But after three years, the lessee can apply for extension and pay the same lease fee, Quijano explained.

But with the new franchising program, the franchisee pays P350,000 and all of the equipment and tools automatically belong to him and he can opt to renew his franchise at the end of three years and pay only the franchise fee of P100,000, he added.

When Quijano launched last April 2004 his lease program – along with the launch of his company – he was targeting 75 to 100 in a year. Along the way, however, his lessees were asking if they could become franchisees so they could own the equipment and continue doing the same business after three years, by paying only the franchisee fee.

Quijano – who used to be the business development manager of Mocha Blends Corp., a sister company that caters to high end coffee shop habitués – said he wanted to attract franchisees that would be dedicated and manage the business hands-on and stick to the high quality standards set by Coffee Nook Corp. to ensure sustained patronage and market growth.

Quijano prefers to locate the ambulant Coffee Nook carts in areas with high foot traffic, high visibility and safe places. Many of his existing carts in fact are located in hospitals and some schools.

Quijano is eyeing fish ports, sea ports and airports as priority sites and would be very happy to grab at a franchisee who can offer to locate in these sites.

He is targeting 200 franchising outlets between now and 2006 and this can be done by bringing the carts to nearby provinces in Luzon and eventually to the Visayas and Mindanao as well.

Coffee Nook is the trail blazer in the coffee cart business that offers 100 percent local Arabica coffee at a price of 35 per glass versus the coffee shop’s price of P75 to P150 per glass.

Its sister company, Mocha Blends Corp. has tied up with Mocha Coffee Pty of Australia, which buys local beans and roasts them in Australia and returns the roasted coffee for selling and retailing at the 35 stores of Mocha Blends and 54 carts of Coffee Nook.

Eventually, however, Mocha Blends plans to put up a roasting plant in the country that will buy and roast the beans here and sell to the local market.