If you’d love to be at the heart of celebrations The Cheesecake Shop could be the perfect business for you. From their famous cheesecakes to tortes, mudcakes and celebration cakes, The Cheesecake Shop creates centrepieces for birthdays, anniversaries, office parties and more. And, for over 30 years, franchisees have shared in its impressive success.
The Cheesecake Shop began in 1991 as a family owned cake shop in Sydney. Since then it has grown into a network of over 220 stores across Australia and New Zealand, gathering recognition and awards along the way. Two-time winners of the Franchise Council of Australia’s Australian Established Franchisor of the Year award, The Cheesecake Shop is also the only food franchisor to gain the 5-Star Rating from independent rating agency FRANdata. This is judged across a range of criteria including franchisee financial performance, franchisee satisfaction, systems and quality assurance as well as training and support.
An easy decision
It was serendipity that bought Sarah Walter and her husband Tony to their first The Cheesecake Shop franchise in 2012. Due diligence that sealed the deal.
“We’d known for a while that we wanted to own our own business and, just as we decided to take the next step, our local The Cheesecake Shop happened to be for sale,” Sarah says. “Tony had always worked in a food manufacturing environment so we felt it would be right for us. The brand was also very well known, and we felt there was security in that. We felt even more confident after we’d done very thorough due diligence. Now, like many other The Cheesecake Shop franchisees, we own two stores, one in Albury and one in Wodonga.”
Regional potential
Sarah and Tony grew up in the area, and they could see the potential of owning a business in regional Australia.
“There’s a real sense of community, and people are keen to support local businesses,” Sarah says. “It’s great to be under the strength of such a well-known brand name that is The Cheesecake Shop and also have the flexibility to emphasise that our business is also owned by a local family. That makes for a very strong position in a regional town. We regularly promote that on our social media pages and sponsor as many community events as we can. Recently we sponsored the actor Samuel Johnson when he had a fundraiser in Albury for his charity Love your Sister. He promoted us, too, so that was a really good opportunity to connect at a community level. We’ve built up a lot of good will and loyalty in this way.”
Sarah and Tony were aware that The Cheesecake Shop offers an opportunity for franchisees to expand into wholesaling. When COVID struck, Head Office encouraged them to take up the venture to supplement retail sales.
“With the support of the National Operations Manager, we began by approaching local IGAs with product samples and it snowballed from there,” Sarah says. “At the busiest time we had 14 wholesale customers but, now the worst of the pandemic is over, we’ve cut back to about eight. That adds about $200,000 to our annual turnover.”
Could you have something to celebrate?
The Cheesecake Shop has a professional management team to help you grow your business. If you’re the right fit, you’ll have specialists in leasing, purchasing, operations, human resources, equipment, finance and marketing on hand to support your every need. So what makes the ideal franchisee?
First, The Cheesecake Shop’s purpose is to help families, friends, communities and workplaces to celebrate life’s events. That means dealing face to face with the public, as well as managing a small team of employees. You’ll build your success by meeting people, chatting to them, sharing their excitement and helping them to make the perfect choice. If that doesn’t sound like fun, you’d be happier in another kind of business.
Your customers also expect – and are entitled to – perfection. That means following procedures to the letter as you maintain impeccably high standards of cleanliness, safety and presentation. You should also be prepared to work hands on in your store, at least while you’re growing your business. Once you’ve had time to establish your store and gain experience, you may want to reduce your hours by recruiting a manager, or build your business by purchasing a second store.
Ready to taste sweet success?
If The Cheesecake Shop sounds like the business for you, we’d love to hear from you. We currently have a number of exciting regional opportunities available. You can click here to find out more or phone Nick Avgerinos on 0406 533 957.