Over the past few decades, the dessert industry has grown rapidly. It has been skyrocketing with the establishment of several dessert-exclusive restaurants on global levels. Moreover, due to the wide adoption of franchising, the industry has become one of the most profitable business sectors worldwide.
With the introduction of unique flavours and innovative palettes, the dessert industry is now home to several restaurants and cafes thriving with notable platters and beneficial franchising options. Established in 2008, Creams Cafe offers a plethora of innovative desserts and delicacies with adaptable franchising facilities to its franchisees. The company was instituted by Adam Mani (Co-Founder) and Balal Aqil (Co-Founder). Inspired by the dessert influence within the Americana diner culture, Creams Cafe provided new menu innovations with the desire to continue being the market leader soon after its establishment, driving a cult like following from their customers.
Catalogue of Innovative Platters
A dessert-based restaurant, Creams is famous for its creative range of desserts—from sky-high sundaes to loaded waffles, and epic cookie dough treats to silky smooth shakes. It was the first in the market to offer hand-made Italian Gelato—larger than life desserts such as waffles, crepes, cookie doughs, and sundaes. The company constantly seeks bigger and better opportunities and ways to maintain its stature with its customers.
World-Class Franchise Support
Creams Cafe has established a world-class franchise support system that offers numerous facilities to its franchise partners. These include:
• A turnkey solution from the franchise agreement;
• Onboarding to the opening support following the store build;
• Training support, a dedicated operational field team;
• National marketing campaigns;
• Brand partnerships to drive sales;
• Online training academy for providing training courses for team members;
• Procurement department is established for ensuring the brand leverages off the size of the estate to provide the best prices possible as well as a distribution network
Evolving Responsibilities
During the infancy stage of Creams, Adam and Balal pursued every role and responsibility to help things settle. These included accountant, electrician, porter, pot washer to name a few. Although the labour was vigorous, the co-founders believed in the concept they had cultivated and soon noticed an increasing demand for Creams. “This was probably one of our early career highlights – having people approach us, seeing what we had created, and wanting to be a part of it,” remarks Adam.
Presently, Adam’s central focus is continuing to steer growth for the brand. Being at the helm of the company, he is constantly looking out for the next opportunity to strengthen the company’s offering. He also aims to increase the company’s customer base through international expansion.
Devising Strategic Solutions
Although franchising is a rewarding concept, it can be challenging at times. Adam asserts that rolling out new products or initiatives is one such challenge. Although the company pushes its boundaries while instituting its latest offerings, the process requires each franchisee to buy into the company’s plans. Adam mentions, “Sometimes there are franchisees who may not be as keen to implement all of our new ideas, and this can be problematic when we’re keen to put forward a strong and united front for the brand, and make products available nationwide.” To surpass the challenge, Creams devises its plans carefully and presents them to the franchisees thoroughly using all facts and associated reasonings.
As the world went into absolute lockdown during the global pandemic, Creams re-evaluated its operations and immediately identified the available opportunities. The company identified the opportunity to excel in its delivery game and channelled several resources into strengthening its offering.
Moreover, it prioritized meetings with its delivery partners and ensured each store was furnished to be efficient for delivery. Creams also pivoted its marketing efforts to focus on digital aspects such as influencer outreach, social media campaigns, and SEO marketing. Due to the incorporation of such measures, Creams’ delivery offerings exploded. The company generated immense revenue and sales from its delivery offering and continues to maintain its accord with its renewed sales strategies.
The Creams Foundation
In 2017, Creams established the ‘Creams Foundation’ which supports various charitable projects annually. These include supporting the UK homeless charity organization called Crisis and ongoing African projects in countries such as the Gambia in constructing education complexes, water wells, the providing food, and clothing.
Creams manages the admin and the finance of the charity. This arrangement in the early stage has helped the company minimize overheads and enabled its management team to concentrate on determining which projects to support.
Creams Foundation supports the community through a number of mechanisms. These include building education complexes, supporting orphans, to name a few. The foundation also supports projects concerning water, sanitation and hygiene, food, clothing and shelter, and UK projects. It is funded through various sources such as direct annual donations from Creams Cafe, customer donations, donations from customers, partner organizations, and suppliers. The foundation also raises funds through store funding activities, cause-related marketing activities, and many more.
Brand Expansion and Proliferation
Creams strives to keep growing and developing the brand by reaching more people and introducing the latest innovative and exclusive desserts in its menu. Simultaneously, the company also aims to contribute more to local communities as well as the planet. It is in the process of developing several initiatives to support its vision, with one such initiative being its apprenticeship scheme. The scheme provides a chance for young people to get a foothold into the hospitality sector, providing invaluable skills for the future. Alongside this, Adam envisions international expansion for Creams, the company is currently involved in discussions with new territories and is on target to roll out 25 new stores during the current financial year. It further aims to expand its presence in the north of the UK, including locations such as Scotland, Manchester, Wales, and many more. The company upholds strong ambitions to incorporate the brand as an enjoyable retail product in homes in the future and as a household brand. Summarizing the brand vision, Adam remarks, “The sky is the limit and we have seen the power of the Creams brand.”
Pursuing Rewarding Passion
Adam recommends aspiring entrepreneurs to pursue their passion while scrutinizing several areas such as investment funds, support systems accessible for the new business owner, and many more. Although the entire process is daunting, the outcomes are rewarding. The reward, as per Adam, lies in seeing the business succeed, and this outweighs the days of exhaustion and questioning decisions before leaping.
