Etienne Coffee & Shop sets up in the Bessan business area, near Béziers

Inauguration officielle du nouveau siège social, à Bessan, du groupe biterrois Etienne Coffee&Shop.

Le torréfacteur biterrois vient d’investir 5 millions d’euros pour un nouveau siège social, au cœur du parc Héliopole, en sortie directe d’autoroute.

The Béziers roaster Etienne Coffee & Shop has inaugurated its new head office, on the Héliopole business park, on a plot of 5,000 m². The new site, which includes, in addition to the offices, the coffee roasting space, a storage area, as well as a factory store open to the general public, is expanding, , over 2 700 m².

"Given our development, we were starting to feel cramped on our Béziers site, explains Cédric Chazelle, co-founder of the group with Vincent Rieutort. Our network of franchisees continues to grow, we needed new production capacities".

A network of 25 franchisees in France

The roaster, born in 1907 in Avignon under the name Cafés du Père Etienne and taken over by the two partners, veterans of mass distribution, bases its growth on a territorial network of franchisees. "We only distribute our products through our network in France", insists Vincent Rieutort.

"We are neither in supermarkets, nor in vending machines, nor in cafes, hotels and restaurants", he adds. Today, the network is made up of 25 franchisees, to which are added the two stores under the Etienne Coffee brand. Own-managed shop, in Narbonne and Bessan.

Soon around twenty collaborators

The establishment of the Héliopole business park in Bessan is the result of two years of work. "We are the only ones to bring together, in the same universe, coffee, tea and a coffee shop", comments Vincent Rieutort. Each store under the Biterroise brand has the capacity to reach a million euros in turnover.

"Today, this is a reasonable objective, our franchisees are not far away". Last year, all stores in France achieved a turnover of 16 million euros. For 3.7 million euros for the group. "We are 17 employees who continue to ensure our growth and there will soon be around twenty of us.

A new industrial tourism destination

The success of Etienne Coffee & Shop is based on two principles. First  coffees "freshly roasted every week", from around ten countries producers. Last year, the group produced 150 tonnes and is aiming for 180 tonnes this year.

A Heliopole Park in full growth

"The instruction and implementation of an implementation project takes time, explains Pascal Pintre, who heads the economic development agency Blue Invest, common to the agglomerations of Sète M&editerraneée and Hérault Méditerrané, which marks the development of the Parc d’ Heliopolis. They are not without constraints and it is at the cost of a certain perseverance that the objectives end up being achieved" . "If the two Agglos of Sète and Agde have createdéé an economic development agency, it is first and foremost to stay as close as possible to business leaders, understand their projects, help à make them succeed", he completes. The park now has 25 companies, which have invested nearly 70 million euros and employ 500 people. The Community agglomeration Hérault Méditerranée supported the establishment of Etienne Coffee & Shop by providing financial support of nearly 170,000 euros.

And then teas "carefully selected", with unique blends, imagined within even from the group. The new head office is designed to become one of the industrial tourism destinations in Biterrois, at the gates of Cap d’Agde.