Meet Street Greek, the Hercules of franchising

Street Greek’s ‘modern flavours with ancient values ethos’ is not only attracting hungry customers in England’s capital, but is whetting the appetite of investors across the UK, too

Leading Greek food franchise in the UK, Street Greek, is enjoying a rather tasty niche in the market. The brand’s ethos of ‘modern flavours with ancient values’ is attracting an increasing number of hungry customers from all demographics across London.

With new stores opening every month across the capital in premium locations, this exciting new brand is now set to target nationwide expansion in 2022.

Street Greek is the UK’s market leader in providing delicious, fresh, flavourful food that you would usually find at sit-down family meals in Athens or the Greek islands, but this time the dishes are ‘to-go’.

Made slow, served fast

The big seller at Street Greek is the ever-popular Souvlaki Wrap filled with deliciously healthy, Mediterranean grilled proteins, such as skewers of halloumi, chicken, pork, and lamb, combined with different types of salads and sauces, all wrapped up together in a fluffy and warm pitta bread.

Street Greek’s mission is to bring authentic flavours by using fresh ingredients. Director of operations, Theo Panayiotou, says: “Most ingredients are sourced directly from Greece with the established and stable supply chain being one of Street Greek’s unique and fundamental strengths.”

This gives Street Greek the edge over most of the competition; food quality and consistency are always the primary objectives of the highly experienced operational team. The constant menu innovation and development ensures high quality and standards for consumers while monitoring costs for the franchise owners.

“We spend a lot of time in food development,” says franchisor and owner, Kristina Koncova. “It is vital to our specialised offering. We cure our food and recipes to high standards.

“We pride ourselves on all the positive feedback from our loyal customers provided to us over the past years. The flavours and taste of the food are authentic and modern.

“Our customers not only love the fresh, healthy and deliciously grilled ingredients they’ve been served, but they can also see how their food is being made on the grill right in front of them, and then takeaway and enjoy in less than 10 minutes.”

But it’s not only the food that is making the fast-casual chain so popular. Customers also love the bright, fun branding and the friendly customer service. Even Street Greek’s website is fun to browse, thanks to its interactive buttons, colourful moving animations, and striking design.

“We love interacting with our customers through all our social media channels which we use effectively to engage customers to be part of the brand,” Kristina says.

Street Greek restaurants operate an over-the-counter model with small dine-in areas available for the customers. Premises layout and design are kept fresh, visually welcoming and appealing. The stores are all bright and welcoming with seating inside or outside for customers who would like to sit down and eat before moving on. There is flexibility, though – the group’s latest franchisee is opening a kiosk-style market stall at Camden’s newest indoor complex, Hawley Wharf, this month. That brings the number of Street Greek stores in the capital to four. The first to open – and the flagship store – was at Covent Garden in March 2019. Two sites followed right after and are located in Fulham Broadway and London Bridge.

Partnering with deliveroo to survive the pandemic

The second physical store to open was in Fulham Broadway. Franchisee Aston Zorro was so impressed with the Covent Garden store – its concept and branding – that he approached Street Greek to become a franchisee. He says: “I fell in love with the brand. It just felt fresh, new and so eye-catching. To such an extent that it manages to stand out in what is a very competitive market. Not only that, but the offering is so well placed and truly appeals to our customer base.

“From site acquisition, construction, finance, operations, in-depth training, and advice, I’ve been supported throughout the process. As someone brand new to the hospitality sector with little experience, the transition has been relatively seamless.”

On paper, Aston couldn’t have chosen a worse timing to open his West London store. It was January 2020 and two months before the UK went into its first lockdown. But an exclusive partnership with Deliveroo meant Fulham and Covent Garden stores were able to quickly adjust their offering to home deliveries. Even when the stores reopened, home deliveries remained a popular category. By summer 2021, Aston had recouped his initial investment into the brand.

“We were delighted at how quickly Aston saw the potential in what we were doing,” explains Kristina. “Before lockdown, I admit I was understandably apprehensive, but the Deliveroo kitchens allowed us to expand the brand awareness generally which benefitted all locations – it’s one of the key advantages of being involved in a franchise. That was such a busy time for us, I’m pleased to say. So much so that we even managed to open the London Bridge store before we the COVID-19 restrictions were fuly eased.”

How the street greek franchise works

As with most franchises, there is an initial franchise fee which secures your chosen territory for 15 years, all the initial training required to open and operate a store, and fundamentally, access to the entirety of the brands’ IP including all the operational team, media exposure, and supply chain.

After the first commitment from the new franchisee, they are introduced to the franchise development team who will understand the type of site required and desired locations. Once the site is secured, the in-house project manager then works alongside the franchisee with the brand’s approved equipment suppliers and contractors to ensure the store is open on time and within the budget of the franchisee. Total CapEx required to open a typical size Street Greek store starts at £150,000.

During the latter stages of the store construction, the franchisee is then taken through the highly developed, in-house training which utilises the comprehensive manuals and processes at head office before being trained in one of the existing stores alongside the fully trained staff. The training team then moves Afterwards, ongoing help and support will always be available from the Street Greek head office team and other franchisees.

Kristina and the Street Greek team are confident there will be more sites opening soon in the capital. They believe the potential the brand has to offer. “We are now looking to open stores initially in all major cities in 2022,” says Kristina. “If there’s anyone interested in joining our exciting brand then we would like to hear from them.”

At a glance

Established:

2019

Number of franchised outlets:

3

Location of units:

Camden, Fulham, London Bridge

Investment range:

£120,000 - £200,000

Minimum required capital:

£80,000

Contact:

franchising@streetgreek.co.uk