The Coffee Club To Open In New Zealand

18 October 2005

The Coffee Club To Open In New Zealand

Australian coffee chain The Coffee Club will open its first overseas store in New Zealand in November.

The landmark store is located in the Westfield Queensgate centre in Lower Hutt, Wellington and will open its doors in mid-November.

Emmanuel Drivas, chairman of directors of The Coffee Club, said overseas expansion was a logical progression for the privately-owned franchise group, which started with one store in Brisbane in 1989 and now has more than 120 throughout Australia.

"There was always going to be a time when we looked overseas for more growth and New Zealand is the obvious first choice given its proximity and market similarities," he said.

"We believe our European-style café environment and offering will be a major point of difference in New Zealand and we are confident of a strong response from the New Zealand public.

"Our aim is to have six stores in New Zealand within 12 months and 40-50 stores in five years time."

The Coffee Club has appointed master franchisees for the New Zealand market and will establish a New Zealand corporate office in Auckland.

The master franchisees Brad Jacobs and Andrew Lucas bring a strong blend of hospitality and management experience to the role. Brad has worked for The Coffee Club for the past eight years in store management and franchise consultant roles and most recently as project manager based in the Brisbane head office.

They will be responsible for securing new sites and franchisees for The Coffee Club in New Zealand.

Headquartered in Brisbane, The Coffee Club is Australia's largest locally-owned coffee retailer with stores in all Australian mainland states and territories serving a total of more than 20 million cups of coffee a year.

The company is renowned for its 'good food, great service and excellent coffee' and has two distinct store varieties - The Coffee Club and The Coffee Club Café Bar Restaurant in selected locations.
The Coffee Club offers a range of light meals, gourmet sandwiches, coffees, beverages, cakes and counter service; while The Coffee Club Café Bar Restaurants are licensed offering waiter service and a wider choice of gourmet meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Mr Drivas said The Coffee Club has aggressively expanded from its Queensland origins in recent years, with a strong focus on growing its presence in the key markets of Sydney and Melbourne as well as entering new markets such as Western Australia.

He said the company's success in Australia had been based on securing prime shopping centre and high street store locations and the same strategy would be applied to its New Zealand expansion plans.

"The New Zealand coffee market is still maturing and presents plenty of growth opportunities," he said.

"We have a successful formula that has seen us expand throughout Australia and we are confident of replicating that in New Zealand.

"Our point of difference is that we are a lifestyle product offering much more than just a place to go for coffee. We have become know as 'the place to meet' in Australia and are looking forward to building that same reputation in New Zealand."

Mr Drivas said The Coffee Club was also investigating further overseas expansion opportunities in Asia.

ENDS

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