Franchise-owned Coffee Club plans 100 Ribs and Rumps restaurants

The fast-growing coffee franchise Coffee Club plans to open 100 new Ribs and Rumps stores after snapping up the Sydney steakhouse business for just over $10 million.

Emmanuel Drivas, founding director and chairman of the Coffee Club group, says the acquisition is the first step in a push to becoming a multiple-brand manager.

“We felt the brand and concept was attractive,” Drivas says of Ribs and Rumps, the mid-priced steakhouse business which has five stores across Australia and two in South Africa and Dubai.

Sixteen-year-old Ribs and Rumps was owned by a consortium of private investors, Drivas says, and has a “South African flavour to it”.

Two new restaurants are planned to be opened by the end of the year in Queensland, with Townsville and Wollongong restaurants to follow in 2012.

Drivas says the Coffee Club has aggressive plans for 10 Ribs and Rumps openings per year for the next decade, at a cost of between $1 and $1.5 million per store.

“But if we get to eight [per year], we’ll also be pleased,” Drivas says.

The acquisition comes on the back of solid growth for the Coffee Club, with Drivas reporting 10-11% store-on-store growth over the past year.

“We’re definitely doing something right,” he says.

The Coffee Club, which has 240 stores in Australia, plus more in New Zealand, Thailand, China and plans for India and Egypt, is 50% owned by the Thai hospitality group Minor.

Ninety percent of its stores are owner-operated.