CrepeAffaire, Europe’s leading fast-casual, crepe-café chain, announced plans to open its first U.S. locations in the first half of 2019. According to founder and CEO Daniel Spinath, the company is in early discussions to identify potential U.S. food and beverage joint venture partners for the concept’s launch into the U.S. market.
Based in London, CrepeAffaire currently has 20 locations open and 12 under development in four countries in Europe and the Middle East. “We are enthusiastic to introduce CrepeAffaire’s unique concept to the U.S. consumer,” Spinath says. “The brand’s sweet and savory crepe menu is highly relevant and versatile, with delicious and wholesome meal and snack options that attract an all-day client following. This includes a growing volume of take-out and delivery. Combined with our coffees and juices, CrepeAffaire offers a universally pleasing product selection that earns a steadfast, repeat clientele.”
In its plan to crack the U.S. market, CrepeAffaire sees several key business advantages. First, while independent crepe cafes attract wide appeal among American customers, the U.S. market has no branded chains at a national level that focus on crepes. CrepeAffaire sees an opportunity to become the leading crepe concept to fill this service gap.
Secondly, CrepeAffaire has a proven business track record as a fast casual leader, with average build out costs of under $250,000 and unparalleled financial performance in its category. “Recent research indicates that the best-in-class café chains are lucky to see an EBITDA of 15 person, compared to CrepeAffaire locations, which consistently average more than 20 percent EBITDA and range up to 30 percent,” Spinath says.
Finally, CrepeAffaire offers a wide flexibility of formats, resulting in lower overhead and better options for site selection. Spinath adds, “With London’s extreme real estate costs, CrepeAffaire learned the importance of space utilization with our early locations. Since our crepes are prepared on hot plates, we avoid the build-out costs and space requirements of full kitchens and complicated hood ventilation systems.”
CrepeAffaire’s formats range from traditional cafe locations to kiosks and even food trucks. Furthermore, the brand’s products and packaging solutions are perfectly positioned to take advantage of the booming home and office delivery markets, giving CrepeAffaire a wide client reach at low incremental investment.
CrepeAffaire is the leading European fast casual crepe concept. It is present in malls, retail travel centers and main street locations in the U.K., The Netherlands, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, with further expansion planned in other international markets. Its menu includes a variety of sweet and savory crepes, waffles, coffees, and juices, which are suitable throughout the day. CrepeAffaire launched fully gluten-free options in 2017 and is now launching a comprehensive “free-from” product offering.
