Austrian master franchisee of the US fast food chain, new owner of the coffee house chain with 160 locations
Large takeover in domestic system catering. After the Rosenberger motorway service stations, the domestic master franchisee of the US chain Burger King, TQSR, also grabs the coffee shop chain Coffeeshop Company with 160 locations. Coffeeshop Company was originally owned by the Austrian Schärf family and was founded in 1999 with a location in downtown Vienna. The coffee house chain has ten shops in this country.
With the takeover, two coffee shop locations originally owned by the Schärf Group in Austria on the one hand and the franchisor rights to all coffee shops worldwide on the other hand will be transferred to the TQSR Group, the company announced on Monday. The parties agreed not to disclose the purchase price.
Like Burger King and Rosenberger, the Coffeeshop Company will in future be controlled from the TQSR company headquarters in the Vienna Twin Towers. Former company boss Marco Schärf will stay with the company in an advisory capacity. “With its many years of expertise in the catering sector, the TQSR Group was our favorite for the takeover from the very first conversation,” Schärf is quoted in the broadcast.
Modernization planned
“With Coffeeshop Company, we are adopting a profitable coffee concept that is in keeping with the spirit of the times, which we are now deliberately subjecting to a further modernization step, particularly with regard to digitization, and which we are sending on a further expansion course in Austria and internationally,” said Hartmut Graf, CEO of TQSR Group, for takeover. Most of the employees from the original headquarters in Neusiedl have been taken over. Many more jobs would be created in the course of the planned expansion.
Synergies with Rosenberger
The takeover will create synergies for TQSR. The Rosenberger service station chain, which the company took over in April 2019, is to be converted into multi-brand concepts under the “Rosehill Foodpark” brand by 2024. Each of them also with Coffeeshop Company. In addition, five to ten additional coffee shop locations are to be opened across Austria every year.
The TQSR group of the Viennese business lawyer Dieter Spranz has been a master franchisee for Burger King in Austria since 2015 and employs a total of around 1,000 people. The group of companies operates 26 of its own Burger King restaurants, 13 Rosenberger service stations and the Rosenberger First Restaurant in Vienna's first district as well as two Coffeeshop Company locations. The opening of the first multi-brand service area concept under the Rosehill Foodpark umbrella brand is planned for this year.
