Victoria, BC breakfast franchise gets cracking with $250,000 government backed loan
Nick Ritter from Grand Prairie, Alberta is a big fan of the Cora specialized breakfast restaurants, so much so that he decided to open his very own franchise in his parent’s hometown of Victoria, BC. Looking to continue the company’s mission to create “innovative and unique breakfast and lunch experiences” – combining fruit, cheese, cereal, omelettes, crepes and French toast - he’ll soon become part of the Cora family, which now includes over 130 franchised restaurants across the country.
“Because I like the franchise. Whenever I’m in the east side of the country I try to eat at one of them, and I think that that specific model of restaurant would do extremely well in a place like Victoria. There’s no franchise like that, there’s single-person owned restaurants there that are kind of similar, but not really. I spent a month in Victoria last summer trying to do as much research as I possibly could. I think I visited every breakfast restaurant in the whole city, just figuring out where people were eating, how far they were traveling to eat – all the important research, due diligence.”
With the built-in support system of a franchise, Ritter was drawn to the benefits outlined on the company website, including “an innovative business model that serves original, high-quality products with a proven track record of success in regional markets across Canada; a concept with a proven transferable operating system; a business where proven franchisees may be offered multiple expansion opportunities, and a privately owned enterprise operated by a team whose core values are integrity, enthusiasm and professionalism.”
After approaching his bank, who were “willing to lend me the money, but it wasn’t enough,” he contacted the Centre for Small Business Financing, who made him aware of customized term financing from the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), particularly a $250,000 small business loan “for improvement of fixed assets.”
As a Crown corporation which supports the Government of Canada initiatives to improve access to capital and information for small and medium-sized businesses, “the BDC plays a leadership role in delivering timely and relevant financial and management services, with a particular focus on the emerging and exporting sectors of the economy. BDC offers a variety of specialized and flexible financial services for commercially viable businesses, including venture capital financing.”
As noted on the BDC website, “the federal and provincial governments provide loan-guarantee services for the purchase of operating equipment and fixed assets, making it much easier for small businesses to obtain loans from financial institutions” – in Ritter’s case, Royal Bank of Canada. Under programs such as the Canada Small Business Financing Program, “the government agrees to pay up to 85% of the value of the loan, back to the financial institution if you the borrower default on that loan.”
Eligible applicants must be in the start-up or early growth phase (are in their first 12 months of sales), possess experience or expertise in their chosen field, have assembled a competent management team, can show that their business has realistic sales potential, can provide personal and credit references, have invested financial resources in the business.
As Ritter explains, “Cora’s and I got together and there was a lot of back and forth, and we traded the business plan together. They were a great help in estimating revenue and profits for the first three years, which is what the bank required for the loan that I found in your book. Because they have obviously access to more data and more accurate estimates than I would, so they were a big help in that.”
“We had to use a specific contractor through the Cora community. They have a contractor that has done good work for them in the past at a decent price, and we work exclusively through them now. It was another restaurant four or five years ago, and they completely gutted it, and it’s been sitting vacant for four years, so there’s a lot of cleaning that needs to be done first, and then of course the restaurant-type equipment needs to go in – the fridge, the freezers, the burners.”
With Cora Breakfast and Lunch Victoria set to launch before the end of the year, Ritter reiterates the corporate website’s claims that “the adventure is just beginning”, looking most forward to “owning my own business, living in a beautiful place, and being part of a community.”
Here's the chain's website: http://www.chezcora.com/home