Start Up Rank: 3
Revenue: $7.04 million
Founder(s): Kelly Smith, Giro Maurici
Industry: Accommodation, cafes and restaurants
Head Office: Victoria
Employees: 35
Website: www.sanchurro.com
Kelly Smith and Giro Maurici came up with the idea for their chain of chocolate-focused cafes during a trip to Spain, when they came across the traditional Spanish chocolateria. The seed of a business idea was sown.
"While Australia has chocolate cafes, they really didn't have anything like the chocolateria. A place that not only served chocolate and churros, but was all about the social aspect of food and gathering with friends to enjoy it," Smith says.
The young couple saw an opportunity not just to create a café but an entire franchised chain. Using their personal savings and a bank loan, they began planning.
"Because the business was always planned to be a franchise, right from day one this involved a higher level of planning and thought than simply opening a café. This had to be a model that had expandable systems that could cope with one or 100 stores, had to be able to sustain profits for the franchisee as well as the franchisor, had to be able to open in very diverse locations across the country and even internationally," Smith says.
"Add to that the legal aspect of franchising in Australia, which is a highly regulated industry, and we had an incredibly challenging business model to get right."
Since establishing the business, San Churro has quickly grown to 19 stores in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia, with another two stores opening soon.
The speed of the expansion has been a deliberate strategy.
"We realised that rapid expansion would have to happen in order to stop copy cats from going into areas that San Churro hadn't made it to yet."
The chain takes its name from a Spanish monk called San Churro, the head of the religious order that were the only people allowed to manufacture chocolate for the Spanish aristocracy in the 16th century. According to the San Churro website, this head monk "witnessed many miracles of chocolate including the healing of the Queen of Spain".
Despite this very serious background, San Churro has a bit of fun with the legend. For example, members of the chain's loyalty program (they're called disciples, of course) are known as the Order of San Churro.
Brand and marketing manager Mark Attard says the religious element has provided a great way for the brand to emphasise its Spanish heritage and keep a consistent theme throughout its marketing.
"We wanted to play on the whole Spanish thing and we've tried to really keep the theme going through the whole company, without being offensive."
There have been a few complaints about the portrayal of chocolate as a religion, but Attard isn't too worried. "To me that's a really good thing, it means people are paying attention."
WHAT HAS BEEN THE BEST PART OF STARTING YOUR OWN BUSINESS?
"Breaking free from the dullness of corporate life, answering to other people and having very little job satisfaction, to instead see an idea take seed and grow into a success story that is already in four states across Australia and has over 300 full- and part-time employees."
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