SandwiChez began in 2010 with a first coffee shop in the area of Sant Gervasi of Barcelona, on Via Augusta. It is a busy street and well-located, and at the same time fits perfectly with the philosophy of this chain of coffee shops and restaurants: to be a point of reference for the neighbourhood.
It is a brand that stands for the third wave of coffee shops. It is the name that the industry gives to the new shops that have emerged in recent years and that stress quality. A gourmet coffee shop with something different and innovative about it. And at the head of SandwiChez is Xavier Sánchez, the man who had the idea, founder and CEO of the company that in just seven years has expanded through the city to a total of 13 shops.
After leaving Viena, he took two years to develop the project. The first investment went towards creating the name and the brand –"with the help of an agency"- to draw up the business plan and come up with a menu with the help of a professional. "She was a cook who came to my house once a week to test out ideas," he says. And then came the definitive launch of SandwiChez.
Quality at a reasonable price
"We are not price-driven, we are looking for quality." This is one of the maxims at the heart of the company's philosophy. They serve hot and cold sandwiches, a product that is far from being innovative, but the recipes are more creative and use high quality ingredients. "We have chosen the products looking for the best. We get fresh milk from a farm in Vic and we have more than 10 types of bread because we have chosen what seems to us the best for each sandwich," says the founder, who justifies it by insisting that "the number of suppliers does not matter, what matters is the quality."
And who can forget their first cappuccino with a heart when they have tasted it? "It is one of our star products, like the SucChez," he says. In fact, the art of making and serving coffee was learnt from Kim Ossenblock, one of the teachers charged with providing training to coffee shops that want to be part of the third wave.
For these reasons, he recognises that they are not "the cheapest chain," although there is nothing wrong with having competitive prices. "We would be dead if we didn't," he argues, and puts their competitiveness down to word-of-mouth: "We do not do promotions or publicity, people come through others."
They also have two awards that recognise the work they do. One is the Best Design prize for the best bakery-café given by the Association of Suppliers of Products and Services for the Professional Food Sector, which they got in 2015 in the European Bakery Café & Coffee Bar congress. The second, the Hot Concepts 2016 prize, was awarded them at the Expo Food Service organised every year in Madrid.
"We do not have franchises"
Each of the chain's 12 establishments has the same style of decoration, the same menu and staff trained to provide customer service. However, the clientele is not the same in every neighbourhood, nor are the products demanded, and each shop has a facade painted in a different colour. It is a little detail that, for the general manager, makes them stand out from the rest: "Who said that all the restaurants have to be the same in a chain? Each shop is its own thing, as is each area it is located in, which is why they are all different within the same philosophy. Neighbourhoods are places to build loyalty, and to build loyalty, you have to do things well."
This distinctive feature also serves to demystify the idea that has grown up thanks to franchises. "All of them are our own shops," says Sánchez, "if there is one thing I was clear about from the beginning, it was that I did not want franchises."
Appearing during a recession is one of their strong points. For the general manager, the most important thing is defending certain values: "Being born during a crisis is good because you know that you have to be the real thing. You have to do a good job in order to stick out from the crowd."
That is why he references the theory of John Mackey and Raj Sisodia, in the book Conscious Capitalism, "a way of thinking in favour of values has to be the basic pillar." "The objective of SandwiChez is not only to make money. You need to do that to exist, but we go further. We are doing something that is relevant for the customers on a local scale," he adds.
Growing with the brand
The aim for 2017 is to open four new shops. The first opened its doors in March on carrer Casp, very close to the busy Passeig de Gràcia. The other three coffee shops will also be in Barcelona for reasons of efficiency: "All the shops are close-by, but in different neighbourhoods. For us, it makes operating easier. If we run out of a product in one shop, we can quickly bring it in from another. What's more, we know the city and are a well-known brand; the customer knows who we are." They are arguments they also use to justify not making the leap to another city.
It is a brand that stands for the third wave of coffee shops. It is the name that the industry gives to the new shops that have emerged in recent years and that stress quality. A gourmet coffee shop with something different and innovative about it. And at the head of SandwiChez is Xavier Sánchez, the man who had the idea, founder and CEO of the company that in just seven years has expanded through the city to a total of 13 shops.
Yet, the strangest thing is that Sánchez's eagerness to create this model comes from Starbucks. "Between 1993 and 1995, I was studying and living in Boston, just at the time when Starbucks, which was still unknown, began growing from the west coast of the United States to the east coast. I loved the idea and decided that I wanted to also do this," he tells VIA Empresa about the origins of the idea.
'Going to school' with Viena
Once he returned to Catalonia, his first aim was to find companies in the restaurant sector in which to work and gain experience. "I called several companies, I wanted them to be small so I could really learn," he says, "but none of them wanted to know, except one: Viena." He worked for the Vallés company for 12 years, 10 of which he served as CEO and led their expansion in Catalonia.
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| Xavier Sánchez, founder and general manager of SandwiChez. AC |
After leaving Viena, he took two years to develop the project. The first investment went towards creating the name and the brand –"with the help of an agency"- to draw up the business plan and come up with a menu with the help of a professional. "She was a cook who came to my house once a week to test out ideas," he says. And then came the definitive launch of SandwiChez.
Quality at a reasonable price
"We are not price-driven, we are looking for quality." This is one of the maxims at the heart of the company's philosophy. They serve hot and cold sandwiches, a product that is far from being innovative, but the recipes are more creative and use high quality ingredients. "We have chosen the products looking for the best. We get fresh milk from a farm in Vic and we have more than 10 types of bread because we have chosen what seems to us the best for each sandwich," says the founder, who justifies it by insisting that "the number of suppliers does not matter, what matters is the quality."
And who can forget their first cappuccino with a heart when they have tasted it? "It is one of our star products, like the SucChez," he says. In fact, the art of making and serving coffee was learnt from Kim Ossenblock, one of the teachers charged with providing training to coffee shops that want to be part of the third wave.
 |
| Kim Ossenblok during a staff training session. SandwiChez |
For these reasons, he recognises that they are not "the cheapest chain," although there is nothing wrong with having competitive prices. "We would be dead if we didn't," he argues, and puts their competitiveness down to word-of-mouth: "We do not do promotions or publicity, people come through others."
They also have two awards that recognise the work they do. One is the Best Design prize for the best bakery-café given by the Association of Suppliers of Products and Services for the Professional Food Sector, which they got in 2015 in the European Bakery Café & Coffee Bar congress. The second, the Hot Concepts 2016 prize, was awarded them at the Expo Food Service organised every year in Madrid.
"We do not have franchises"
Each of the chain's 12 establishments has the same style of decoration, the same menu and staff trained to provide customer service. However, the clientele is not the same in every neighbourhood, nor are the products demanded, and each shop has a facade painted in a different colour. It is a little detail that, for the general manager, makes them stand out from the rest: "Who said that all the restaurants have to be the same in a chain? Each shop is its own thing, as is each area it is located in, which is why they are all different within the same philosophy. Neighbourhoods are places to build loyalty, and to build loyalty, you have to do things well."
This distinctive feature also serves to demystify the idea that has grown up thanks to franchises. "All of them are our own shops," says Sánchez, "if there is one thing I was clear about from the beginning, it was that I did not want franchises."
Appearing during a recession is one of their strong points. For the general manager, the most important thing is defending certain values: "Being born during a crisis is good because you know that you have to be the real thing. You have to do a good job in order to stick out from the crowd."
That is why he references the theory of John Mackey and Raj Sisodia, in the book Conscious Capitalism, "a way of thinking in favour of values has to be the basic pillar." "The objective of SandwiChez is not only to make money. You need to do that to exist, but we go further. We are doing something that is relevant for the customers on a local scale," he adds.
Growing with the brand
The aim for 2017 is to open four new shops. The first opened its doors in March on carrer Casp, very close to the busy Passeig de Gràcia. The other three coffee shops will also be in Barcelona for reasons of efficiency: "All the shops are close-by, but in different neighbourhoods. For us, it makes operating easier. If we run out of a product in one shop, we can quickly bring it in from another. What's more, we know the city and are a well-known brand; the customer knows who we are." They are arguments they also use to justify not making the leap to another city.
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| Catering services for companies. SandwiChez |
In 2016, sales rose to five million euros. Some 3% come from the catering segment, where they get "daily orders for four or five companies." The rest comes from the service they provide from Monday to Sunday in their coffee shops, with constant activity throughout the day and a slight drop-off at night, a time they are still open in order to strengthen the business.
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