Coffee Republic is a British

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...

bar and deli

franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

chain founded in 1995.

History

Coffee Republic was founded in 1995 by brother and sister team

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and

Sahar Hashemi Sahar Hashemi (born 1967) is a British businesswoman, best known as the co-founder of the coffee chain Coffee Republic and confectionery brand Skinny Candy. She recently co-chaired the UK government Scale Up Taskforce shaping government policy ...

, opening its first site in London's South Molton Street. In 1996 Coffee Republic Ltd was founded in Greece by Kostas Dalakouras and partners, and still operates in Horeca market all over Greece, providing gourmet coffee products and services. The company is Coffee Republic S.a. now and owns the national trademark for Greece. By 1997 Coffee Republic had opened a further 7 stores in London and opened its first stores in Newcastle and Manchester. The group was listed on AIM in 1998 by reversing into Arion Properties. The group grew to 24 branches after opening 17 new sites between March and November and had expanded to York, Birkenhead, Newcastle and Manchester. Coffee Republic switched from AIM to the full list in July 2000. At this point, it had 61 coffee bars and cafés and announced plans to open 80 more by 2002. Bobby Hashemi stepped down as chief executive in March 2001, but continued as a non-executive director; he returned as executive chairman in the summer of 2002. Coffee Republic bought the GoodBean coffee bar chain in December 2001, thus gaining 12 outlets in south-east England and seven further sites under construction. The acquisition took the group to 108 outlets. In July 2002, the group announced plans to halt its expansion programme, sell underperforming bars and launch a strategic business review as annual losses grew. A number of takeover talks ensued with easyGroup, Benjys and Caffè Nero but all offers were rejected. Coffee Republic sold 13 sites to Starbucks and returned to an AIM listing. In August 2003, Coffee Republic unveiled a survival plan to convert itself into a New York-style deli-bar chain called Coffee Republic Deli and whittle its numbers down to a core of 50 outlets. It piloted the concept at Baker Street and Exchange Street in London. In June 2004 Coffee Republic sold eight outlets in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

and southern England to Caffè Nero. The group signed its first franchise deal in November 2005 and ended the year with four franchised outlets. It intended to retain just 10 to 15 bars under company ownership. In October 2006 Founder Bobby Hashemi was ousted in a shareholder revolt and replaced as chairman by Peter Breach. The company signed a franchise agreement in 2007, with the intent to see the brand launched in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

and also Turkey. In June 2006 its first bar opened in Bulgaria in

Burgas Burgas ( bg, Бургас, ), sometimes transliterated as ''Bourgas'', is the second largest city on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast in the region of Northern Thrace and the fourth-largest in Bulgaria after Sofia, Plovdiv, and Varna, with a pop ...

, and in July its first bar opened in Turkey in Istanbul. From 1 May 2008, customers were offered free

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wav ...

across the majority of UK coffee bar estate (10 minutes free then further access subject to purchase). The WiFi is supplied by CommsPort. Another bar was opened in Malta Airport. In June 2008 its first bar opened in Romania in Bucharest. In July 2008 Coffee Republic announced that Steven Bartlett, the former shareholder who ousted the company's founder, had stepped down as chief executive. In August 2008 the first bar in Kuwait opened. In September 2008, a

contactless payment Contactless payment systems are credit cards and debit cards, key fobs, smart cards, or other devices, including smartphones and other mobile devices, that use radio-frequency identification (RFID) or near-field communication (NFC, e.g. Samsung ...

trial was launched, a new quick and easy way to pay for purchases of £10 and under using OneTouch payment. In December a contactless loyalty card trial was launched with sQuid. The company's first bar opened in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in January 2009 but has since closed. The company was placed into administration in early July 2009 and trading in shares was suspended. At the end of July, following the closure of 18 bars, Coffee Republic was bought out of administration by property firm Arab Investment Ltd. The new company trades as Coffee Republic Trading Ltd. In September the company announced that it had secured a deal to open the highest urban coffee shop in the UK, 300 m up on the observation deck of the Pinnacle building in London.Coffee Republic – News – News Extra – Error

Branches

Concession Partners

Coffee Republic has 99 Concessions operated by 7 partners:

Greene King Greene King is a large pub retailer and brewer. It is based in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England. The company owns pubs, restaurants and hotels. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by CK Assets in October 2019. H ...

Cineworld Cineworld Group plc is a British cinema operator headquartered in London, England. It is the world's second-largest cinema chain (after AMC Theatres), with 9,518 screens across 790 sites in 10 countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Irela ...

, Ealing Londis,

Travelodge Travelodge (formerly TraveLodge) refers to several hotel chains around the world. Current operations include: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and several countries in Asia. However, ma ...

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

Enterprise Inns Ei Group plc, formerly known as Enterprise Inns plc, is the largest pub company in the UK, with around 5,000 properties, predominantly run as leased and tenanted pubs. Ei Group plc is headquartered in Solihull, West Midlands. It was listed on ...

, London Town Hotels.

References

External links

*
Greece
{{UK Food Coffeehouses and cafés in the United Kingdom 1995 establishments in England Restaurants established in 1995

History

Branches

Concession Partners

See also

References

External links