Independent Budgens retailer Vic Grewal has lined up two new businesses near Thames Ditton, Surrey, and Chorleywood, Hertfordshire.
The entrepreneur has been impressed with up-and-coming dessert parlour franchise, Treatz, which has seven stores and is looking for sites across the UK.
The stores sell 40 flavours of Italian gelato ice cream, platters, waffle baskets, sundaes, freakshakes, VIP shakes, milkshakes, smoothies and iced drinks, American pancakes waffles and crepes, cookie dough, hot desserts, cakes and coffee.
Vic said he had investigated the market and found Treatz was best in terms of product quality, marketing and technology.
He planned a “soft launch” in Chorleywood on Monday of the stand-alone 1,500 sq ft parlour, which is on the site of his Village Buzz café which he said had not been the right business for the locale.
The unit is just yards away from his former Budgens store which he sold to Midcounties Co-operative last year in a bidding war with Sainsbury’s.
Vic also revealed that he was currently in negotiations to buy a 3,500 sq ft site about 10 miles from his existing Thames Ditton Budgens store which he hoped to open before Christmas subject to finalising a deal.
It would be a combined Budgens/Treatz unit with about a third of the property given over to Treatz, he said.
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