Mariia is our client and co-founder of the Coffee DROP. She told us about changing the format of the coffee shop and working during the lockdown, about closing the franchise and why it is important to build friendships with delivery services.
The opening of the coffee shop was the idea of my husband Konstantin. Previously, he owned restaurants and ran a large Kyiv hotel, so he has a lot of experience at HoReCa. Near the house we had a favorite coffee shop, where we often went and even knew the owner. No matter what placement we looked at for rent, we constantly compared everything with this particular coffee shop. And when it was put up for sale, we, of course, took advantage of this opportunity, bought it and started working on a franchise.
DURING LOCKDOWN PEOPLE COULD DRINK COFFEE ONLY ON MACDRIVE AND IN OUR COFFEE SHOP
We have left the previous name and franchise rules. Everything was fine until the March lockdown. We were the first and only coffee shop in the chain to move from MAF to a stationary premises and signed contracts with delivery services Glovo, Raketa and Uber Eats - this was the only way to survive and keep working. And this was a very effective solution, because, except in MacDonalds, there was nowhere to drink coffee, and, except for couriers, no one was allowed there, there were huge queues at MacDrive, people began to have real withdrawal symptoms! To deliver hot coffee, we developed special sealed labels for the lids, and the lids themselves began to be made one millimeter smaller so that they fit more tightly. In addition, we started making coffee only at the moment when the courier was already in the room. At first, the couriers were indignant that we make them wait, but we explained that we are primarily responsible to the guest for the quality of the drink. By the way, business should not neglect the benevolent attitude towards couriers, because they are an important component of the whole process. During the lockdown, we gave couriers discounts, gave them coffee and hot dogs while they waited for their order.
All state inspectorates that checked us shook our hands and said that we were the only ones who worked officially and in accordance with all the rules, with all documents. Other franchisees called us and asked to tell how we managed to function so effectively.
THE FRANCHISE BLOCKED OUR IDEAS
But the franchise terminated the contract with us. We changed the name to Coffee DROP, registered a trademark and bought another coffee shop. And then another one. All of them are in Pozniaky. The fourth coffee house was sold to us by our closest competitor. And now we are opening the fifth dark kitchen establishment, where there will be 12 different kitchens.
Konstantin in our business is the brain, he manages the processes, and I am the performer: I work with suppliers, deal with purchasing, cashier, accounting and communicate with the team. By the way, I'm especially proud of the team. Now we have 8 baristas - 2 at each point. Several people stayed with us when we bought the first coffee shop. At first, they treated us with distrust and did not understand how it was possible to increase the cash register by 75% in a year, but we proved to them in practice that a coffee shop can be a successful and profitable business if it is interesting to manage it, and not according to a template.
WE HAVE A GREAT COFFEE CONSTRUCTOR
We have vegetable and lactose-free milk, sweeteners, decaffeinated coffee, more than 30 types of syrups and much more. We can satisfy the tastes of any guest. For example, we have one visitor who orders 10 espressos in one cup every week.
We also bake croissants and ciabatta with chicken, ham, salmon, make Belgian waffles, and also order desserts from suppliers - donuts, waffle cakes.
We registered the trademark because we love order and we want to be sure that we have every reason to exercise our rights. Protecting ourselves is very important for us, because we invest in promotion, signage and branding. Now we know that no supervision service and no lawyer will come to us and tell us that we have no business rights.
