Franchisee kicks off new Coffee Blue unit

A Welsh entrepreneur has given his old job the boot and opened up his own Coffee Blue franchise unit.

Ricky Malson previously worked as a football coach in South Wales, training players at Risca United and Panteg AFC. But he decided to hang up his football boots when a friend inspired him to start a franchise business. Malson explained:

“I've never really had a burning desire to start my own business, but all this really came about from the Caerphilly franchisee, Gareth Kedward. I was friendly with Gareth through Risca, because we coached together. I saw him driving around one day, we had a chat and I asked how it was going for him. He said he was really enjoying it, so I came to one of Coffee Blue's Discovery Days and the rest is history.”

Now, Malson runs a Coffee Blue franchise in Ystrad Mynach, Caerphilly. Compared to the sales jobs he has held in the construction and business services sector at various times in his career, Coffee Blue provides a much better work-life balance. Malson said:

"I did enjoy my previous jobs, but I wasn't really in the thick of it. It was a lot of knocking doors and pounding the road. I preferred doing the design, being in the call, doing the sale, I suppose. And there wasn't enough of it in the companies I worked at. I was away from the family a lot and I've just had two kids, so that meant I just wanted to be home a lot more."

Coffee Blue allowed Malson to do just that, and the franchise’s Co-Directors, Gareth Edwards and Colin Smith reiterated the coffee van franchise’s family-centric values:

"We're thrilled to be assisting Ricky in this new venture and helping him gain a better quality of life. Family is extremely important to us, so we completely understand why Ricky wants to take control of his own working pattern. We wish him all the best, we have no doubts that he will be a complete success."