Cafe2U is the largest provider of mobile coffee in the UK. With over 50 franchise partners, they are growing their reach to deliver fresh espresso coffee, hot chocolate and snacks to locations outside the high street.

Recently, they hosted their sixth annual conference for the franchise network, which proved to be another roaring success. The purpose of the annual conference is to develop each Cafe2U franchise by demonstrating how franchise partners can get the most from their territory.

Last year’s guest speaker, Michael Heppell – a bestselling author and professional performance coach – was invited back for a second year. Themes of ‘How to Be Brilliant’ and ‘How to Save an Hour Each Day’ provide franchise partners with key knowledge and up-to-date information, ensuring the Cafe2U network is kept healthy with fresh ideas.

There were also franchise partner interviews hosted by David Downie, the Cafe2U Chairman, allowing for clarity of success and the opportunity to share best practice. Prominent guest speakers and ‘hot-topics’ are designed to complement the continuous portal of support Cafe2U franchise partners have available to them all year round.

The Cafe2U annual conference also allows the franchise partners to get to know one another. Being based up and down the county often means franchisees rarely have the chance to communicate face-to-face.

One franchise partner praised the annual conference method, saying: “Partners tend to feed off each other in discussion and much can be learned by sharing our different experiences.”

This ongoing sense of community and teamwork is something that Cafe2U constantly strives to maintain, and advantages gained through the annual conference are not the only support mechanisms Cafe2U have in place.

From the outset, franchise partners are provided with four weeks of industry-leading training using the Cafe2U Accelerated Launch Programme, which ensures sales of £250 per day during the first two weeks of operation. This is followed by regular telephone calls from the head office support staff and also a dedicated Franchise Development Manager assigned to each region.

These telephone calls are maintained throughout the 5-year contract, and reinforced by weekly operational bulletin emails. There are also bi-monthly news and events catch-ups using the News2U feature, delivered straight to the franchise partner’s door.

Quarterly visits from the Franchise Development Manager ensure things are kept running smoothly at ground level, to assess any further training requirements, and allow coaching and question time – giving the franchise partner a real one-to-one focus in their own territory. On top of these updates, there are regional meetings held three times each year to allow franchisees a similar environment as the annual conference to trade ideas and gain further insight into the Cafe2U lifestyle.

The franchise partners also have a private online domain through the Cafe2U website that allows them to access information, news and events topics. They are supplied with a ‘marketing tool kit’ to facilitate building their local business whilst being backed by mainstream branding campaigns. The Cafe2U Franchise Partner Advisory Council has elected representatives that ensure marketing funds are spent on the most relevant strategies to develop all franchise partners in all regions.