COFFEE REPUBLIC - about to boil in 2006?

Novine, you said "out of some of the best high street locations in the world"

Think about what you have just said. 46 sites, market cap £5.4m. How much time and money would it take to acquire 46 sites like this for say Costa Coffee and their franchising chain? Far more than £118K per store imo.

"a street trader selling hot dogs makes more money then CFE" - exactly. If a Hot Dog Seller in some grim little high street can make money selling food then think how much a prime high street location can do if it's done right - then multiply by 46.

Costa reckon that it takes 6 months or more for a franchise to get a location and be up and running. On that basis CFE are rolling the places out pretty swift with 4 in 3 months. I've been critical of their pace in the past but 4 in 3 months is a very decent clip. Why would people want to sign up for franchises if they didn't think they could make money from it and if CFE never thought it was a goer either?

The secret is not to invest when there is 500 posts a day on this thread and CFE are making £2m a year, the secret is to buy in advance of it.

GringoStar - yes, the coffee shops are grim, grubby, tacky little places but francisees don't invest in that, they invest in the bright new successful deli's on offer. The beauty is that at the moment, everyone that talks about CFE think it's the grim little coffee shops - eventually they will wake up to reality imo. I expect to be ahead of them by a long way.

CR