Must mention this, but in Sheffield, someone has opened an sandwich shop next door to a branch of Cooplands - a regional bakery with branches all over South Yorkshire.
I think the ones who have opened in high rent centres wont stand a chance and thus it has been proven with Sugacane branches closing left, right and centre.
For example the unit in Meadowhall which housed Sugacane was around £200k rent a year, 6 figures in rates, and a ridiculous service charge on top with was almost £100k.
Add on all the staff hours you have to cover and associated costs and it is going to be a struggle even in a centre like that.
Cant imagine Kingswinford having such high rents, which is obviously to your benefit
Not true, sarcasm is the finest form of wit
Whats worse is tarring businesses with the same brush. Now Damo if you were as clever as what you seem to think you are you would understand that there's good and bad in every business sector.
I can name 2 Traditional sweet shops within 3 miles of us who didn't stand a chance from the start. Thier locations were terrible and they failed to realise that you cannot set one up and survive longterm on a shoestring. We ourselves are on our 2nd shop the 1st one failed again due to it's location.
Our shop now is in a much better location surrounded by 6 schools and good shops around us. So the concept itself can work if you go about it the right way and choose the right place to start up, but this applies to every retail shop.
P.S thanks for the offer of 'luck' I did not realise you had access to our accounts and knew our business inside out
I know, funny
I was busy with the shop although now I wished I hadn't of bothered after reading what Damo had to say, I might as well shut up now
Sugacane are very devious in this regard, as already said they have removed the store list from their website as a number of stores have opened and closed in quick succession:
Sheffield - closed October, and this is one in a busy shopping centre
Barnsley - closed New Year
Doncaster - closed January
Preston - opened November, closed February
Liverpool - same again (a month or two either way)
And a host of others. Any comments on their page about why the stores are closed, or even mention of it, results in the comment being removed and you being banned from commenting further, They also claim to have "offices" in the UAE and Dubai on their web page. All very dodgy if you ask me.
http://www.sugacane.co.uk/franchise/store_location.asp
Going back to the Sugacane thing - they have told all their customers on their Facebook page that the Preston store is closed for a refit - they have deleted many comments from people claiming the branch is closed, one of which is from a family member of the centre manager
