Waves Coffee House, based in Vancouver, is in expansion mode.
With 27 locations open, the company is set to open another three by June of next year, said Kayvan Rahmati, President of Waves Coffee House.
One is inside the Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver and two in Edmonton – at the West Edmonton Mall and in St. Albert.
“There’s many outfits that claim that they have high quality. We also claim the same thing. We use specialty grade coffee beans, real chocolate in our mochas, 100 per cent pure matcha powders. We always stick true to the quality. And even currently, chocolate pricing has skyrocketed three or four times. And we had the decision to make. Do we go to powders and syrups? Or, how do we do this? And we were sticking true to our quality. So unfortunately, there’s price increases there but that’s just something we’re known for. On top of that is a little bit more of the finer details we use, like real china, and more of a sit down experience with what I call mixed seating,” said Rahmati.
Locations can include long communal tables for students and comfy chairs by a fireplace. Some locations have meeting rooms. A downtown Vancouver location has an entire office set up.
He said the brand has always considered itself as a neighbourhood community coffee house, anchored in a very predominant location
“And we’re noticing some of the bigger guys are stepping away from in-store experience, and we’re trying to keep that going,” added Rahmati.
Currently, the brand is based in British Columbia and Alberta. Most of the locations are in BC with four in Calgary and two in Edmonton.
“Right now we’re just in the two provinces and we’re just focusing on these two provinces,” he said.
“Anything is possible, but at this point, no I don’t have any plans or aspirations to go out East . . . I think there’s a lot of room still in Vancouver Island, the interior BC. Between Edmonton, Alberta, we’re getting interest for Red Red Deer, Airdrie. I’m still pretty focused on these two provinces. My focus is until 2027 but hopefully we’ll see what kind of goes from there.
“There’s many layers to the consumer in terms of what they find valuable. For us, the success pillars are customer service, quality and cleanliness. We think those three pillars really encompasses the experience of the guests as they interact with your business. But on top of that, people want somewhere that is somewhat presentable, or some sort of architectural touch, something where it brings them a little more of a lure. I like to say, we live in a social media world where people want to take photos of products and locations. So you really want to create that draw as well too.”
Rahmati said he’s excited about going into the West Edmonton Mall.
“West Edmonton Mall is the largest mall in Canada. For us, we were more so looking to establish ourselves in Edmonton, meaning we already have two locations there. They’re thriving. I think it’s a great market. We have one coming in St. Albert and hoping to get to, like the Sherwood Park areas.
“It is part of our kiosk plan. So we have a kiosk plan in terms of getting to hospitals, airports and malls. This kind of fit in that. And I also felt like it would support the other locations and bringing the brand’s name top of mind to the other locations in the other areas as well.”
When looking for locations, Rahmati said he likes the three P’s.
“I look for pedestrians. The traffic of pedestrians really are supportive, if not pedestrians, at least parking. And we want patio as well too. It’s very important to us to have this and then presence. So we’d like to be on corner units,” he said.
“We’re just going into a little bit of growth mode. I think we’ve had a little bit of a quiet time from 2020 till now, but now we’re looking to gear up . . . We’re very technology friendly. We’ve always tried to kind of innovate in that sense . . . We were also the first Bitcoin ATM in the world . . . We got really good coverage on that through BBC, CBC.
“But the the most exciting innovation we’re coming up with is into this hospital location. We’re introducing food lockers. We’re working with the hospital . . . They brought up that doctors and surgeons don’t have much time to make orders. So we’re thinking, okay, should we have a two-line system where doctors on this side, regular customers here, but then they don’t want customers to feel belittled or not important.
“So we were racking our brains around what to do, and we came across this food locker idea where someone could place an order through the app. It’ll go to the barista, they will confirm it, and once that food or drink is placed into that locker and closed, it will send a text to that customer that it’s ready for pickup, and they just have to come and scan it and take it out of the locker and off they go. So there’s no interaction needed.”
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