Ireland’s fastest growing café franchise ‘the streat’ has just ‘signed’ Rangers youth coach Chris Queen who’s franchised café opened in Silverburn Shopping Centre in Glasgow on 10th December. Chris will be joined shortly by fellow franchisees in Glasgow city centre, East Kilbride, Edinburgh, Falkirk and Ayr as the streat maps out its ambitious expansion plans for cafes in every major Scottish city and town.

Renowned in Ireland for its fabulous coffee, fresh healthy food and excellent service, the streat has 30 café outlets currently established and many more planned to open across the country. The launch of its ‘more than a café’ business model in Scotland has been well received.

Former Rangers Retail Operations Director and District Manager with Disney, Gerry Carey has partnered with John Belardo a senior IT project manager to develop the brand country-wide and a major franchise recruitment drive is already well underway with interest from Edinburgh to Elgin.

The streat’s franchise success in Ireland is founded upon their ‘more than a café’ business model. Using the streat formula franchisees develop their businesses not only within the cafes but beyond the traditional shop front creating a substantial outside catering and food delivery offering. The ‘streatonwheels’, a gourmet coffee concept, brings ‘coffee excellence’ and fresh food to the customer at special events, commercial properties and out of town areas.

The food, described as ‘food with thought’ is always fresh and healthy from breakfast to bedtime and caters for all the family. The deli style hand crafted sandwiches, salads and wraps are prepared to customers requirements whether for ‘grab and go’ or a ‘leisurely light bite’. Carey commented “As part of the streat’s commitment to the Scottish market and the continuation of its fresh local ingredients policy, we are using Scottish suppliers to support the cluster growth of Scottish cafes across the country”.

The fabulous streat coffee originates from the co-founders sampling beans from 23 estates across Brazil, Kenya and Costa Rica. This resulted in them creating their own unique blend of coffee providing the distinctive streat taste. ‘Coffee excellence’ is a major part of the extensive franchisee training programme, with several of the franchisees and café team members going on to represent the streat at the UK Barista championships.

The main building block of the streat’s success has been its commitment to investment in training. This passion for excellence has resulted in the streat being the only franchisor ever to be awarded the prestigious UK National Training Award. They have also received several regional and national awards for quality of training and in last week won Best Emerging Franchise at the Irish Franchise Awards.

Carey said: “the streat is an exciting and profitable business offer for to the Scottish public. Our due diligence process uncovered a gem of a business with a firm ethos in first class service through delicious fresh food, fresh gourmet coffee and excellent training.

By investing in this opportunity we have not only brought a vibrant new concept to Scotland, we are also helping ambitious people become successful, independent business owners”.

Michael McQuillan, founder of the streat, said ‘We are delighted to have Gerry and John as part of the streat team, directing operations in Scotland. Their extensive experience and skills have already resulted in the recruitment of a number of first class franchisees to grow our successful streat franchise network in Scotland.’

Newest recruit, Chris Queen, is delighted with his choice of business partner ‘As a coach I understand the importance of support and development. All through the recruitment process, I could see the potential to be involved in a profitable business, but what really made my mind up was the support structures and the on-going training provided. the streat is the right place for me, it’s where I wanted to be’

Carey’s experience in the retail industry with Rangers and Disney is seen as a key factor in establishing the brand in Scotland and ensuring the award winning company maintains its recognised standards of service.