Villemarie

Elefant notes, “Ideally, in the next year, we’re looking to open between five and ten locations in North America, and possibly two to three overseas. We want to control the growth.We’re not looking to open 100 units at once, because we feel the resources required to do that many correctly, and do training, would not serve po- tential franchisees adequately.We want to give our full attention.We want to be there for each and every opening. We want to ensure everything is done according to our protocol.” Competition in the North Ameri- can market isn’t an issue. Ville-Marie Collection is too busy developing their own brands, running their own entities, of- fering franchising and consulting services, and brand creation for third parties. They’ve also put together a detailed ten-year growth plan and budget. “Ten years up the road, we expect every- VILLE-MARIE COLLECTION body in North Amer- ica to be aware of our various brands,” says Elefant. “The Xavier Artisan brand – there’s no reason it couldn’t become like Starbucks or McDon- ald’s, where you have one on almost every corner.We’ve had fantastic comments on the décor, the feel of the place, speed of service. And not only the taste of the food, but the quality - the benefits of not using artificial ingredients.” Suppliers are important partners. “Without a proper supply chain and a good relation- ship with our sup- pliers the business cannot prosper. One can almost argue that a good supplier is more important than a good client. Because without the supplier, you don’t have the client.We have a broad supply chain, although much of the core product is the same in a lot of our businesses. By controlling our purchasing, we give fewer suppliers larger chunks of the pie, to make it more interesting