One of the UK’s fastest-growing coffee shop chains has outlined plans to significantly increase its number of UK stores driven by the continued rise of working from home and targeting out-of-town suburban locations rather than city centres.
Esquires Coffee has been making headway in the UK, where it now has more than 70 sites, pursuing regional growth in areas including the South East England and the East Midlands, also extending its reach into Wales.
A recent growth push has seen the opening of 17 new outlets in areas across the UK, driven by their regional developers.
The brand is now aiming to open at least 10 new UK stores by the end of its financial year in March 2025 amid plans to double its locations over the next three years to reach between 140 and 150, and double that within five years.
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In 2023, Esquires saw its total sales in the UK increase by about a fifth to £17.5m, and those from new stores accounted for 12 per cent of total sales in the UK.
The burgeoning brand says that amid the rise in remote and hybrid working, it focuses on suburban locations where consumers seek local options for coffee, food, and social interaction.
Many of Esquires’ new sites are in residential areas where coffee shops have become key community hubs, adding that cafes are often a planning requirement for offering a social outlet in new larger suburban property developments.
Esquires is looking to stand out from competition with a focus on a fresh, made-to-order food proposition, alongside a high-quality, organic coffee sourced through a long-standing partnership with one of the UK and Ireland’s leading suppliers, Matthew Algie.
Aiden Keegan, chief executive of Esquires in the UK, said: “We’ve got the largest pipeline we’ve had to date in the UK, and we see that the brand has really strong potential to reach more communities.
“We’re not going high street, we’re not going flagship, you’ll never see us on Oxford Street. We don’t particularly want to be in central business districts or city centres.
“We’re happier in the suburbs where people working from home want to visit a cafe to work – we see a lot of people in our stores with earbuds on their laptops – or for a break, or to catch up with friends. This means we get bigger spend and longer dwell time than in more central locations.”
The group, whose New Zealand-based parent company Cooks Coffee is looking to relocate its HQ to the UK, also says its entry costs for suburban stores are generally lower than in central business districts.
It adds that unlike larger coffee brands requiring franchisees to take on several branches involving seven-figure investments, its franchise model allows for single-store investment at a lower entry cost helping a wider range of potential franchisees realise their dream of owning a business.
Esquires says it stands out in the UK’s busy cafe market with each of its stores having a distinct identity, ‘blending independent coffee culture with the consistency and support of a franchise’.
It comes as the UK’s coffee boom continues, and the British Coffee Association says the nation drinks about 98 million cups of the drink every day, while 80% of people who visit coffee shops do so at least once a week.
Matthew Algie, a partner of Esquires since its inception almost 25 years ago, says it is proud to offer one of the largest selections of coffee, coffee machines, café supplies, and expert barista training across multiple sectors across the UK and Ireland, and also counts Dobbies garden centres, Handpicked Hotels, Tinderbox, and the National Trust for Scotland among its major customers.
Lachlan MacGillivray, of Matthew Algie said: “The rapid recent growth of Esquires is one of the most exciting stories in UK coffee at the moment, and we love playing a part in that.
“The brand has the potential to become a major player in the UK’s cafe market by offering something different to many existing brands.
“It very much shares our focus on quality and sustainability, for example in its supply chain, and we can’t wait to see it expand its reach. We can achieve great things together.”
Matthew Algie also has a five-pillar plan outlining its sustainable and development goals as it looks to reach net zero by 2040.
That aligns with Esquires’ commitment to ethical sourcing and sustainability, which include sourcing its coffee from farming cooperatives around the world, sustainable store designs, its cups being fully compostable and 100 per cent recyclable, and partnering with Too Good To Go to minimise food waste.
