How did the coffee shop story begin?

Radu Savopol and Lucian Badila are the managers of the 5 to go franchise. They started from a simple idea — a single price — bringing quality coffee into every Bucharester’s daily routine.

“We felt the need for something new. We’d been anchored in a business for many years and wanted something different — but something we knew how to do. Coffee has huge potential in Romania; it’s moving into a consumer space that’s becoming more knowledgeable and looking for new experiences. The 5 (five) to go idea helped us a lot: the brand, together with the fixed-price concept, made the difference at the start. The fixed price is what made service fast, and from there a true coffee-to-go concept emerged — a place to grab your daily coffee and be on your way,” entrepreneur Radu Savopol told us.

Their success has given rise to more entrepreneurs — people who took a franchise from Radu and Lucian — and helped the brand grow quickly, its name now fairly well known and important in Bucharest and in the cities where they have launched the concept. At present, the business counts 23 coffee shops in Bucharest, Ploiesti and Iasi.

The design has been improved from one location to the next and is still changing, but it stays true to the foundation they laid in the first coffee shops. Marketing has been aggressive, built around the fixed-price idea and a Romanian brand, while communication has been straightforward and filled with cheerful, coffee-loving people.

The 5 to go franchise and the profile of the entrepreneurs who wanted to take the coffee aroma further

“There are 21-year-olds, helped by their parents to build their own future, and there are 45-year-olds with many years in business behind them, who own several franchises and want to broaden their portfolios with a new brand. There are also Bucharest residents who decided to start over, giving up a job or another business. Or simply Bucharesters coming back from abroad who chose to invest the money earned overseas in a profitable venture,” says Radu.

Bucharest was the perfect city for this business to be born, Radu also believes — “It’s cosmopolitan, open to new things and, obviously, entrepreneurial. We, entrepreneurs in the hospitality industry, found a niche between the big international brands and the anonymous, storyless locations. And Bucharest was the perfect lab.”

How did you come to work with BT?

“BT was the only bank with which we advanced discussions to finance those who want to purchase a 5 to go franchise. For our brand, being 100% Romanian, we wanted a solid bank with the same origins as ours,” the 5 to go managers told us.

Those who set out with 5 to go don’t receive just a recipe for success to develop; they also get a financial package from Banca Transilvania on preferential terms, with the franchise effectively serving as collateral for the loan.

Future plans and the business’s challenges

The biggest challenge for 5 to go is to reach 100 locations by the end of 2018, and to expand into Southeastern Europe, where they want to create brands built around the “fixed price” concept.

Lucian’s advice for those who want a business

• Young entrepreneurs shouldn’t give up easily
• Work for your dream; if you don’t, someone will hire you to work for theirs
• Love what you do; build a business with pleasure and out of passion
• Brand and marketing matter — build a clean image
• Read specialist books
• Learn from others’ mistakes

The 5 to go business, led by Lucian and Radu, was recommended in the Bucurestiul Intreprinzator project by other entrepreneurs — the people who relaunched the Pegas brand. They are joined by other Bucharesters with ideas, courage and initiative on www.bucurestiulintreprinzator.ro, which shares the stories of people who make Bucharest the capital of Romanian entrepreneurship.