The Franchisee

Darragh Fitzgerald
The Streat Café
Cook Street, Cork

 “If you open on your own these days, you are going to be quite isolated. At The Streat, this is my business, very much so.

“As well as the training for me, and for my staff, even down to getting the place cleaned and prepared, they were hands-on, and provided us with support and help.

“They were also helpful with finding the premises. We thought that during a recession there would be no problem finding a suitable property for the outlet, but many of them were looking for more money than I would have expected. In the end, it was The Streat who called me and said, ‘This place might be worth a look.’

“At this stage, we are trained up, we’ve been trading since the middle of December, and we now know what we are doing. At this point, the group’s master franchiser for the region is helping me with strategies for building and developing the business

“I feel I’ve a lot to be positive about. The rents are quite good. The slow early January has passed, and there’s been an positive march on custom, so I’m feeling very confident.”