Louise Bellchambers, National Operations and Brand Manager, SHINGLE INN, joined us for a brief chat at the Brisbane Franchising & Business Opportunities Expo, October 2022.

We covered some of the key aspects of the SHINGLE INN franchise business, and the upcoming Cayman Cafe brand including the type of people that are best suited, what he loves about the business, and any common misconceptions about the brand or industry, and more…

What is your business?

“Our business is SHINGLE INN Cafes, and we also have a new brand Cayman Cafe that we're about to launch in the market as well. 

So we're a second generation hospitality business and been franchising SHINGLE INN for 13 years. Although the brand has a long history having first been established in 1936. So our specialty is hospitality and understanding what it takes to deliver beautiful food to the customer in a timely fashion. 

Where are you located?

Well, our head office is in Brisbane, in Morningside, but we have quite a number of cafes throughout South East Queensland and throughout the country. So mainly in Brisbane, the majority of cafes are in Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and as far west as Toowoomba. 

Then we also have stores in Victoria, South Australia and WA. 

What do you love about the business and what you do?

I think what I love most about the business is no two days are the same, so even within working in the cafe environment, you're always meeting new people with interesting stories. 

And one of the great parts about shingle and because it is a heritage brand and has existed for so long, is there a customers every day who have stories about going there with their grandparents when they were younger, or that it was a fabulous family tradition.

And I think that just really highlights how the backdrop of where you can be having your coffee can be as important to the memory as the people that you're having the coffee with. 

So I just love hearing all those customer stories and the fact that you really can be quite uplifted by that experience. 

What do you look for in the right-fit person to be a franchise owner?

I think you really have to love people. It's great if you're a really good communicator. 

I mean, there are different areas of the business that you can be in as a franchise owner, so it's really important that you have a really solid kitchen team as well. So if you're not very good with conversing with people, you could still run the kitchen successfully and hire people to be the front of the business. 

But certainly that being able to sort of read people's behaviour and understand when they're happy or not happy by looking at them so that you can solve the issues for them while they're actually in the store, without them being keyboard warriors after they leave. 

I think that's a really key skill set to have. But ultimately we've got franchisees that have had every background you can think of coming into the business so you don't necessarily have to have a hospitality background. But I think if you can manage a team well and communicate well, then you're well set up to be successful in our role. 

What’s a common misconception you believe people have about your brand or niche?

Yeah, not necessarily about our brand, but the cafe industry in general. I think people often, if you like to have a coffee yourself, they think that it's going to be this fabulous environment where you're walking around having coffees and chatting to people all day. 

It's actually a very intense workload working in a cafe, you’re on your feet every day, seven days a week, often from open to close. And that, I think, is the biggest shock to a lot of franchisees when they start training. 

But it is the type of thing that you get fit for, a bit like running a marathon, like once you've you've built into it and you understand that what it does to your body, people can really handle that. And it's just that love of talking to customers and being present in the store every day that I think carries people through. 

What would be your advice for people looking to get into their own business?

Well, I think the great part about franchising is that a lot of the things, potential mistakes that you could make for yourself in owning your own business, are minimised by the fact that the franchisor provides a framework for you and teaches you how to run your MYOB accounts for example, in our business, how to run payroll, you've got access to expertise that you don't have to pay any additional money for. 

If you've got a performance management issue in the store and things like that. I've run my own business before I became part of SHINGLE INN and certainly not having that backup or having to pay for every little piece of advice that you get, is something that people potentially, well, definitely benefit from as being part of a franchise, but potentially haven't thought of when they go into owning their own business. 

So I think that that makes the franchising model very attractive.

What is your key focus for the next 12-18 months?

Well we're pretty excited about the next 12 to 18 months. We're building up to our 90th anniversary in SHINGLE INN in a couple of years time. 

We're always innovating in that brand and we've got our own exclusive bakery so we can come up with new and different products. We're looking at what we can do from a vegan perspective, and as all the food trends change we can make adjustments to our bakery lines as well. 

And then of course, we're launching our new Cayman Cafe, we'll have two stores later this year and we're expecting to expand that throughout South East Queensland over the next 12 to 18 months as well, which just makes our network stronger and our buying power better.”