26 years ago saw the beginning of a love story with food and the first Col’Cacchio store opening in the Foreshore and since then the single restaurant has grown to 35 franchises across the country, under the watchful eyes of Michael Terepolsky, Kinga Baranowska and Greg Mommsen. But the trio aren’t interested in being seen everywhere, saying they would rather have fewer stores doing very well than a lot giving problems.
They first thoroughly check out any new site before building a new store. Location is key, as is having the right people on your team. They need to consider everything from lunchtime trade, parking and target market. They also assess the potential of a location. Their original Foreshore store was in the middle of nowhere but the area is now a thriving business district. Their first franchises opened in Johannesburg – erected in a new part of Bryanston that had no such offering – and Franschhoek respectively, with the newest being Somerset West and Ballito at the end of April.
Michael stays modest, saying that 35 franschises compared to the number of years they’ve been around isn’t a lot and compared to other businesses, they’re still small. But they have big dreams and are willing to tackle challenges head on. This is something they’ve done since the beginning when they had to be the designers, cooks – something that didn’t always go well! – waiters and gophers and get hold of all handymen to help build the stores and all permits and licences. Even now, years later, they stay involved and offering support to all franchisees – individuals that are selected by careful interview process and psychometric testing to identify their strengths and weaknesses.
“Franchisees are a rare breed. Many people think they want to own a business, but they really should be employees because they are not willing to do the work required of a business owner. They believe the brand should carry them; and this is simply not reality,” Greg adds.
No matter how strong a brand you have, the owner still needs to be willing to put in the effort it takes to make the business successful. On the other side of the coin are those people who don’t want to follow a system. These people don’t make good operators for us either. We can never keep up our consistency and meet our customers’ expectations if our franchisees are not willing to implement our model and follow our procedures all of the time. Owners need to offer guidance and motivation
Col’Cacchio are always looking at new and innovative methods to help expand the business with new franchisees being a massive component.
Should you be interested to any franchising opportunities you can contact Tarryn Godley via tarryng@colcacchio.co.za or 087 803 4000 for more info
