Emerging coffee shop operator Bewiched is considering franchise, crowdfunding and new locations to accelerate growth, M&C has learnt.
Bewiched is opening its fifth site in Wellingborough station – its first away from a high street – and has secured a site at a retail and leisure complex that is due to open in 2017.
Founder and director Matt Fountain – who opened the first Bewiched in 2010 - told M&C he is now considering ways to accelerate growth.
“I’m at the point now that I’m looking at franchising and crowdfunding if we want to ramp up our expansion plans and will consider this over the next 12 months,” Fountain said.
The first railway station site opens in November and at Rushden Lakes shopping and leisure complex in Northampton in 2017 after the space has been developed to include a home and garden centre, shops, eight restaurants, lakeside visitor centre and a boathouse.
The group is looking to add more sites across Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, Buckinghamshire and Leicestershire at an organic pace but is considering franchising the concept as a route to accelerate growth.
Fountain said he has a number of “irons in the fire this year” for sites and is keen to add a Bewiched to Northampton as well as looking at Milton Keynes and across the region.
He told M&C he identified a gap in the market for Bewiched to become a significant player in the independent coffee scene.
“Looking at brands like Coffee#1 in the south west and Harris + Hoole in the south east, we fill that gap locally in the Northamptonshire area.”
Fountain said Bewiched was designed from the outset to scale up, which is why the business model was adapted from made to order sandwiches and coffee to all food being freshly made at a central hub and delivered to the stores.
He said the extensive drinks range at Bewiched sets it apart from local competition and offers customers an alternative to high street chains.
The first store opened in 2010 in XXXXXX followed by sites in Peterborough, Wellingborough, Kettering and Corby.
