Two franchise locations are opening in the Orlando area, with a third planned for 2020
Café d’Avignon, New York’s fastest-growing local bakery and café known for their exquisite execution of French and American pastry classics, signed the lease for a second franchise location in Orlando, Florida. Construction for the new café will start in 2020, and franchisee Alex Nikitin is already scouting sites for a third location in the Orlando area.
To facilitate its growth across Florida and nationwide, Café d’Avignon has partnered with Fransmart, the industry-leading franchise development company behind the explosive growth of brands like Five Guys Burgers & Fries and QDOBA Mexican Grill.
“America is starving for the next big thing in the coffee and café segment, because the current market is saturated with concepts that either offer good coffee and mediocre food options, or good food and mediocre coffee,” said Fransmart CEO and Founder Dan Rowe. “Café d’Avignon is part of the third-wave coffee movement, offering high-quality coffee and fresh-baked items that are unparalleled. The brand has seen great success in New York City’s most famous food halls, and with a new retail model it is positioned well to expand to major markets nationwide.”
Nikitin is Café d’Avignon’s first franchisee, and his first location in Sunset Walks at the famed Margaritaville Orlando will be the first Café d’Avignon to open outside New York City.
“I was looking for new investment opportunities, and several people in the food service industry encouraged me to check out Café d’Avignon,” said Nikitin. “I was blown away by the quality of the food, as well as the concept’s operational efficiencies. After experiencing the food and unique experience first-hand, I conducted the market research and felt confident in bringing the concept to the Orlando area.”
The founders of Café D’Avignon, a group of friends who emigrated to the U.S. from the former Yugoslavia, first founded its wholesale counterpart, Pain D’Avignon, in 1992 to bring European-style breads and pastries to the fine hotels, top restaurants, and luxury grocers of New York. The popularity of their goods lead them to open four Café D’Avignon retail locations.
Together with Fransmart, Café d’Avignon is currently seeking experienced franchisees to bring the Café d’Avignon concept to the New York City metro area and Florida. For more information about franchise opportunities, visit go.fransmart.com/cafedavignonfranchising.
Café d’Avignon was conceived from wholesale bakery Pain D’Avignon, which began in 1992 when five childhood friends emigrated from Yugoslavia with a shared dream of bringing traditional European bread making to the U.S.’s East Coast. Over the last 25 years, Pain D’Avignon has distributed bread and pastries to Michelin-starred restaurants and the most highly-acclaimed hotels in New York City, namely The Plaza Hotel, Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, among others. The concept was named an ‘Essential New York Bakery’ by EATER NY and has been included in The New York Times, The New York Post, Parade, and QSR Magazine. Café d’Avignon operates four storefronts throughout New York City with three franchise locations currently in development in Orlando, Florida. For more information, please visit www.cafedavignon.com.
As the leading franchise development firm in the country, Fransmart turns emerging restaurant concepts into successful national and global brands. Founded by Dan Rowe, the man who identified and grew brands such as Five Guys Burgers & Fries and Qdoba Mexican Grill from single unit businesses to the powerhouse chains they are today, Fransmart’s formula for success is finding emerging brands ripe for expansion and building successful multi-unit franchise businesses across the U.S. and globally. Fransmart’s current and past franchise development portfolio brands have opened more than 5,000 restaurants worldwide, and facilitated franchise investments that have cumulatively generated 1-billion in revenues to date. For more information, visit www.fransmart.com, Facebook at facebook.com/fransmart, Twitter at twitter.com/FransmartSocial, LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/fransmart and Instagram at instagram.com/fransmartsocial.
