Pancake Shop Businesses – Start your own with a franchise.
Alice Tuffery, writer
Published at 19/06/2019, Updated on 04/05/2022 , Reading time: 5 min
Every year, Pancake Day is hotly anticipated by supermarkets and embraced by the public, as families up and down the country spend their evening flipping pancakes and covering them with their favourite combination of toppings. But what if you could offer consumers the delicious treat all year long?
Food businesses that sell pancakes and crêpes have demonstrated the year-round popularity of the snack. If you’re in need of a sweet pick-me-up, you can nip into a pancake shop or crêperie any time of the day and leave with a delicious, steaming pancake that you can eat on the go.
While most restaurants experience a rush at lunch and dinner time, pancake outlets normally see consistent custom all day, as pancakes can be enjoyed for breakfast, as a mid-morning snack, for lunch (with a savoury filling), as an afternoon snack or even as an evening treat. Just make sure you open up shop at a site with high footfall, so consumers can impulsively drop in on their way to their destination.
Pancake Shop Names
Once you’ve chosen your location and made a business plan, you’ll need to come up with a name. Aim to mention pancakes or crêpes in the name, to let customers know what you’re offering. Make it pithy and eye-catching too. If you want to go the whole hog, you could use an alliterative name, such as ‘Pancake Palace’, or a pun, like ‘Flipping Good’.
Then, create clear and uncluttered signage that tells customers exactly what they need to know. Make sure that it ties in with the rest of your brand identity to reinforce the brand in customers’ minds; for example, if your décor, menu and staff uniforms are yellow, your signage should be too.
>> Read more:
- Pancake Franchises - What's Available in the UK?
- Pancake Day 2019 is Nearly Here - Considered Opening a Pancake Franchise?
- Pancake Shop Businesses – Start your own with a franchise.
- How to Start a Cake Business
Pancake Franchises
If you want to open up shop with the security of a stable brand behind you, you could join a pancake or crêpe franchise. By doing this, you can use the brand’s proven business strategies, existing brand awareness and established product range to make a profit with a reduced risk of business failure. By partnering with a franchise, you’ll benefit from the support of its franchising team, which can help you with business operations, site selection and set-up, recruitment, product inventory, sales techniques and marketing. Most franchises also stay in touch with their franchisees and offer ongoing support to ensure that each business performs well.
Point Franchise has several pancake and crêpe franchises in its portfolio; just take a look below to find out more about some of the top opportunities in the sector.
Quick Crêpes
This franchise has recognised the demand for ‘quick crêpes’ and focussed on catering to it. But not only can customers expect to buy crêpes quickly, franchisees can learn how to make them quickly too – this franchise claims that, with the use of its products and equipment, new franchisees will learn how to make professional-standard crêpes within one hour.
From its humble beginnings as a family business that was established in 1988, this business has rapidly expanded into markets across the world, from Europe to the Middle East, and is now Europe’s largest crêpe business.
Quick Crêpes is looking for enthusiastic, ambitious and approachable entrepreneurs who are willing to take the brand to new territories. To get involved, you’ll need to make a minimum investment of £95,000 and a total investment of £135,000, and pay franchise fees of up £14,950.
Crêpeaffaire
Truly an eatery for those in a love affair with crêpes, this franchise offers a range of sweet and savoury smoothies to suit every taste, alongside an extensive menu of indulgent milkshakes topped with cream and Oreos, and healthy smoothies. Choose from strawberry and banana; passionfruit, mango and pineapple; strawberry, raspberry and blackberry; and kale, spinach and mango. All Crêpeaffaire smoothies come in a mason jar with a biodegradable paper straw, so they’re great for the planet, as well as social media.
Since it was founded in 2004, this franchise has launched 15 stores in the UK, as well as a store in the Netherlands, one in Saudi Arabia (with three more to come) and three in Kuwait. To become part of its expansion story, you’ll need to invest at least £200,000 and £16,000 in franchise fees.
In return, you’ll receive help with site selection, site design and marketing, as well as ongoing support. Starting a Crêpeaffaire business is a great move for entrepreneurs who would like to open a crêpe business but have a limited budget, as it can be built on a relatively small plot without the need for an expensive kitchen installation.
Wafflemeister
While its name suggests a partiality towards waffles, this franchise also serves tasty, high-quality crêpes with a family recipe that dates back to the 1950s. Like Quick Crêpes and Crêpeaffaire, Wafflemeister has also branched out into the Middle East. Hungry customers in the south of England, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Bahrain and Malaysia can all access Wafflemeister’s tempting treats.
The franchise has developed a variety of different products, from liège and American-style waffles to crêpes, ice cream sundaes and milkshakes. There are currently 16 Wafflemeister stores in the UK, but the brand is dedicated to expanding its reach even further and building franchise businesses in different types of locations, such as airports, university campuses, sport arenas, motorway service stations and military bases.
There are two options for potential franchisees; you can open a conventional café or a smaller kiosk site, depending on whether you want the majority of your customers to dine in or take their food away. You’ll need to invest at least £150,000 and pay a fee of £15,000. Following this investment, you’ll get to enrol onto a four-week ‘Bootcamp’ to learn how to be the perfect Wafflemeister franchisee. You’ll also get the Wafflemeister operations manual, which details operating procedures and marketing techniques.
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Alice Tuffery, writer