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Have you ever thought about starting a business but worry about making costly mistakes during start up or midway through your business operations? This is probably everyone’s fear when looking to make a decision on whether “Should I continue working?” or “Am I ready to start my own business?”

 

In business sometimes, it’s not who you are, how much money you have or what type of business you want to get into. It’s about knowledge, experience and if you think you don’t have either one of these qualities, the best option is “franchising” through a “franchisor”.

 

But what is a franchisor or a franchisee? A franchisor is usually a company, product or service that allows an individual (franchisee) to operate a business using the right to use their name, business or brand under a licensed agreement in a particular location or territory.

 

Franchising may be new in Cambodia but it has been around for over 200 years, starting as early as the 1880s by Issac Merrit Singer and a company called I.M. Singer & Company, a sewing machine company with the brand name SINGER that allowed a person who wanted to start their own business to use their product brand name.

 

Today in Cambodia, many franchises are available and the most popular among them are in the food and beverage industry, favorites among Cambodia’s growing middle and upper class. One of the first international F&B (food and beverage) franchises to arrive in Cambodia was Pizza Company in 2005, now followed by over 30 international food and beverage ‘brand name’ franchises including local favorite, Master Suki Soup.

 

At present among the hottest franchises around town is the “coffee franchise” thanks to the Cafe Cambodia and Franchise & Licensing Cambodia Exhibition 2017 that saw many exhibitors coming from the Asia Pacific region bringing in well-known international coffee franchises.

 

Over the years, Cambodia has been introduced to more than 10 international coffee franchises; Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, True Coffee, Gloria Jean’s Coffee, Costa Coffee, Caffe Bene, Old Town Garden Coffee, Coffee Today, Café Amazon and Starbucks, among others.

 

Coffee franchises in Cambodia are not that expensive compared to other developed countries and offer a unique opportunity for Cambodians that are looking into the coffee business. The cost of a coffee franchise starts as low as US$5,000 right up to the hundreds of thousands of dollars for the biggest names, such as Starbucks, with a percentage of royalties paid every year to the Master Franchisor.

 

Before you jump in, it’s worth noting that in order to become a franchisee there is a franchise fee to be paid to the Master Franchisor for the license or the right to use the brand name to run the business in a particular location.

 

In the coffee franchise business, many have entered the market in recent years, especially from neighboring Thailand. Café Amazon from Thailand entered the market in 2013, and in 2017, one of the more aggressive Thai coffee franchises to enter the market was Café Cha Payom.

 

Café Cha Payom has its roots in Thailand for more than 10 years and has just recently been included into the Superbrands Franchise. It won the Thailand People’s Choice Award in 2017 and presently has 1,500 successful franchises all over Thailand and now also Cambodia.

 

In Cambodia, the Master Franchise holder is under Ms. Yossaya Ularpathorn or her nickname Pat. She has already opened a few outlets under her own Café Cha Payom umbrella as a showcase for potential franchisees.

 

In Phnom Penh, Cafe Cha Payom has 25 outlets that opened within a span of less than one year, with new franchises opening every month. The success of having so many franchises within a short period of time is partly due to the fact that the cost of Café Chapayom’s franchise ranges from around $6,900 to US$16,000.

 

According to Pat, “Most of my franchise holders range from middle income young adults to business people that just want to get into the profitable coffee business and we teach them how to run the business successfully”.

 

In addition, they offer new franchisees training and support required to operate the business efficiently without going through the trial and error of having little knowledge in the business.

 

From the menu, the cost of coffee starts affordably from just US$1.50 and goes up to US$2.50 for a milkshake or smoothie. Besides coffee, Café Cha Payom is famous for its Red Tea as it comes directly from Cha Payom’s own tea plantation in Thailand. The same goes for the coffee, where beans are selected from premium coffee framers in the region and roasted with care.

 

Pat explains that in addition to the franchise fee, other aspects needs to be considered by a franchisee, like the location, the design and size of the café among others. It’s good to know that Café Cha Payom assists new franchisees in all the mentioned areas including the training on how to brew the beverage and the sales marketing support for all their coffee and tea products.

 

The typical base cost of the franchise is US$6,900 and includes a start-up kit of products needed for the business to kick off with training. Renovations and fittings would cost from US$6,000 and above depending on size of the location outlet. Best of all, once the franchise is acquired; there are no royalty fees to pay every year as there are with other models. “It is a one-time payment and a lifetime franchise with no hidden costs” she says.

 

Pat also goes on to continue that from the middle of this year, 2018, Café Cha Payom will be expanding to all the provinces in Cambodia as their model of franchising has proven to be very successful. With our affordable price, we are expected to have over 100 franchises before the end of 2019 and we are now actively looking for Master Franchisees for every province in Cambodia!

 

Note that the desire to get into the coffee business is not only the love of coffee but the critical success factor — knowledge of the business! So there you have it, if you’re looking to get into the coffee business with little knowledge and experience, rather than starting one yourself, look into acquiring a franchise from Café Cha Payom and let the professionals show you how to operate a successful and truly affordable coffee franchise business.

 

"Ms. Yossaya Ularpathorn,

Master Franchise holder of Cafe Cha Payom "