Cafe2U CEO reviews a challenging year

Cafe2U’s CEO Martyn Ward has spoken about how his mobile coffee business survived a year of challenges.

At the start of 2020, Martyn laid out plans for his coffee van franchise: new branding, electric technology investments and an exciting mobile app. Then, when Boris Johnson announced the first lockdown on 23rd March, everything changed.

Martyn said,

“This was going to be the time when people and organisations showed their true colours and where a sense of community had not been so important since the Second World War. The irony of the 75th VE Day anniversary celebrations taking place during lockdown was not lost on me.”

The CEO was impressed with the ingenuity and resourcefulness of people within the franchise industry.

“Franchisors shared best practice on regular Zoom calls, the British Franchise Association hosted weekly web meetings with industry experts and the team at Coconut Creatives held Franchise Fest online. Simply amazing.”

The Cafe2U team championed “focus” and “clarity”, concentrating on the wellbeing of its franchisees as the challenges of the pandemic emerged. The franchise also developed a “major new profit centre” for its business partners, which is set to be rolled out.

Although many businesses introduced remote work strategies and shut down their existing sites, Cafe2U franchisees were able to stay busy by visiting key workers. In fact, the franchise delivered more than 15,000 free cups of coffee to NHS frontline workers in 2020.

Martyn added,

“I’ve been humbled by the grit and determination of our franchisees - always looking for ways to pivot their businesses and help in their communities. We’re so lucky to have a franchise network full of truly amazing people and are delighted to see a number of them breaking records for sales since starting back.”