FAQs

WHO IS THE IDEAL GREEN MOUSTACHE FRANCHISEE?

Café owners should:

• Share our beliefs about natural, organic plant-based foods and healthy lifestyles

• Actively work in, and manage, the café full-time for at least the first 12 months

• Be engaged with local community and able to build relationships for wholesale and catering

• Be committed to following the systems and contributing the brand’s success

• Enjoy learning new skills and be able to keep cool under pressure

• Be organized and have an attention to detail

• You do not need restaurant experience to be successful, however, you should have a passion for food, and willingness to learn and get your hands dirty

• Have a good working knowledge of Excel, Facebook and Instagram and have the ability to learn new systems

• Understand that running a restaurant takes a lot of time, dedication and hard work and is not something to be taken lightly

HOW MUCH MONEY WILL I MAKE?

We can’t guarantee (by law) how much money you will make as each location and owner is unique. Critical variables include: the location you choose and nearby competitors, how many customers you attract in the door and how much you pay for rent, your attention to managing quality and cost, and how much you do yourself versus paying others to do it for you. We provide the ingredients but you are the chef.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

We will help you select a neighbourhood and find a location. We started in Whistler, and are growing across Canada. The site should be between 750 and 1,250 sq ft in a densely populated neighbourhood with good foot-traffic. The town your café will be located in needs to have a population of more than 150,000 people. We generally open from 8 am to 6 pm. Our business neighbours tend to be yoga studios, sports centres, gift and clothing stores, coffee houses, and arts and culture-oriented facilities. We would love it if you opened additional franchisee locations but getting a year under your belt is best.

WHAT IS INCLUDED IN A GREEN MOUSTACHE FRANCHISE?

We provide many ingredients to help you make a successful neighbourhood café.

• First and foremost, we have honed the sourcing, inventory management, and preparation of 100% organic meals.

• We teach you how to make delicious, fresh and nutritious meals.

• Our established digital, print and in-store branding will get you off to a quick start.

• Our integrated technology supports loyalty & reward programs, smart apps, digital advertising, a smooth point-of-sale experience, and strong back-end management and reporting.

• Our café owner portal provides an A-Z reference on wide-ranging topics such as insurance, staff hiring, cleaning, and equipment selection.

Everything you need to bring nutritious food to your neighbourhood.

DO I NEED TO WORK IN THE CAFÉ EVERYDAY?

To be truly successful as a café owner, you’ll need to be regularly involved in the day-to-day operations. It is very important for you to understand all elements of the business. As your operations, customer base and staff find a good rhythm, you’ll be able to delegate more responsibilities to a manager. Franchisees are required to work full-time in the café for the first year.

WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT THE MENU?

First and foremost we make sure our food tastes delicious! Our flavourful, filling food and drinks are designed to help people achieve optimum health using food as medicine. Our menu is 100% organic, plant-based and gluten-free and includes nutrient-rich juices, smoothies, hot drinks, meals and desserts. Every menu item is made from scratch, just like grandma used to do. Our produce is fresh and pure, always in its most natural form. This means no preservatives, processed foods, canned, sulphured or prepackaged products. We don’t use food colourings, refined sugars, added flavouring or ice fillers and we minimize the sodium content in all of our menu items. Our menu is designed to maximize nutritional content for optimum health and we don’t believe that meals and beverages should have a shelf life.

HOW FLEXIBLE IS THE MENU?

Our menu is standardized to ensure quality, freshness, taste, and cost. We welcome new recipe ideas and can experiment within our corporate stores. If they are a hit with customers and align with our food costing criteria, we may approve adding the item. Specials like soup-of-day can be made using approved ingredients and methods. For items that are not made in-house, like tea or kombucha, we encourage using local suppliers. New items will be made available to all franchisees and become the property of The Green Moustache.

WHO EATS AT THE GREEN MOUSTACHE?

Before we opened our first location, we thought we had a clear description of our niche customer demographic. However, we now know that our customers are made up of individuals from all age categories – 2 year olds that crave our Einstein Smoothie and Buddha Bowl, teenagers and millennials that have direct knowledge that a plant-based lifestyle reduces their risk factors for cancer and other chronic illnesses, business executives who put their health and wellness first, to senior citizens that remember a time when food came directly from a nutrient-rich garden, was washed, prepared and then eaten the same day. Preservatives, chemical, and fake food? No thanks.

WHAT IS THE MARKET FOR THE GREEN MOUSTACHE?

Our customers come from all walks of life. What do they have in common? They value tasty, nutritious food, care about their health and the environment, and are too busy to cook every meal at home. Our most loyal customers have strong community roots, appreciate our 100% compostable take-out packaging, and feel at home in our eclectic cafés. How about some numbers? Organic Food in Canada grew 50% from 2012 to 2017. Weekly organic purchases track at 66% across all Canadian shoppers (up 10% from 2016), 83% for Millennials, 78% for University Graduates and 72% for Families. (2017 Organic Market Report). With over 20,000 fast food restaurants operating in Canada, we see ample opportunity for The Green Moustache to meet consumers preferences for healthy and nutritious options.

WHERE IS THE GREEN MOUSTACHE HEADED?

We strive to displace processed and fast-food restaurants in Canada and bring nutrition back to the forefront of the agriculture, food and restaurant industries. Our ultimate goal is to contribute to a 50% reduction in cancer rates.