Chef Express UK has secured the first UK site for the Italian coffee shop brand Mokà , with a unit at Gatwick Airport train station, M&C has learnt.
The barista coffee and deli offer, owned by Chef Express UK parent company Gruppo Cremonini, is a regular fixture in airports and transport hubs across Italy.
Chef Express UK director David Cheeseman also told M&C the group will open its next Bagel Factory at Willesden Junction station and is also hoping to open a site within a hospital and one in a university in 2016. It is part of plans to open four sites a year across the Mokà and Bagel Factory brands.
He said September had been a record trading month and the company was on course to make its first profit in the financial year to December 2015 since it was acquired by Cremonini three years ago.
On Mokà, Cheeseman said: “There will be some tweaks to the model. In Italy one of the great selling points is the variety of meats and cheeses from across Italy. In the UK I just don’t think that would be sustainable so it will have to be a more general sandwich offer.
“I think it has a lot of interest from landlords in getting something a bit different from the big brands. It’s a model that can work pretty much anywhere.”
He said all 12 Bagel Factory units were now operating well and that under-performing units had been shed.
The brand is growing its coffee sales, thanks to a partnership with Lavazza, and is poised to introduce a gluten free option for the two most popular versions of its plain bagel.
He said there were huge opportunities in both the education and health field.
He said: “The thing about a bagel is that it is fundamentally healthy and offers something different from the established brands.”
