From one store to eighty: the story behind Sim Trava’s growth
Firmly rooted at the heart of high street hospitality, coffee shops have long served as more than just places to grab a quick drink. The history of the coffee shop dates all the way back to the Ottoman Empire and, over the centuries, they’ve evolved into a hub of warmth, casual dining and community. Sim Trava exemplifies all these values and more.
Sim Trava is one of the UK’s largest Costa Coffee franchisees, though its journey to success began from humble origins. Founded by husband-and-wife team, Simon and Tracy Vardy, in 2005, the business started with a single Costa Coffee store in Northwich, which has since grown to an estate of 80 stores across the North of England.
With the company having celebrated its 20th anniversary last year, Food Chain sits down for an exclusive interview with Simon Vardy to learn more about the story behind Sim Trava’s rise to prominence.
“My background was in engineering. I was an operations director for another company until my mid-30s when I fell ill and decided that I didn’t want to work for anybody else anymore,” Simon begins. “I decided that the safest way of doing that was through a franchise, and we were lucky that Costa Coffee had recently launched its franchising model and that I’d received a bit of money from a previous directors’ bonus.
“My wife and I started the business with a clear vision and a determination to build something of our own,” he continues. “From the beginning, we focused on sustainable growth, reinvesting back into the business and expanding at a pace that felt right for us. That approach enabled us to steadily grow the estate while continuing to invest in our stores, our people and the customer experience.
“Following the Covid-19 pandemic, our business adapted quickly to changing customer behaviors and was able to continue serving local communities through takeaway operations. Then, in 2021, we bought 17 Costa Coffee equity stores across the Lancashire cluster, which also gave us our first four drive-thrus.
“Like many businesses, we navigated numerous challenges during that period, but we remained focused on serving our customers and supporting our teams. By staying true to our long-term strategy, we were able to continue investing in the business and seize opportunities to expand our estate when they arose. We were able to expand further through the acquisition of 21 additional stores from another Costa Coffee franchisee, taking our total estate to 80 stores.”
Profitable partnership
Today, Simon and Tracy remain very much involved in Sim Trava’s day-to-day operations and continue to champion its people-centric ethos. Even as the company proceeds to grow and scale, it still upholds the same family values that it was founded with, thus cultivating a kind, happy and supportive environment where its employees can be their best for both themselves and their customers.
Sim Trava’s core values are centered around the belief that everybody has the potential to shine in an environment where learning never stops, change feels exciting, customers feel like family, and every win is worth celebrating. This passion was – and still is – integral in driving Sim Trava’s success.
“My wife and I were really passionate about managing people, so we had strong views on what we were going to do with our own company,” Simon reveals, elaborating further on Sim Trava’s founding values in its early days. “We sat down in a Costa Coffee store and wrote down on a napkin what our values would be and started off with four values which has since grown to seven – and those values align closely to Costa Coffee’s. We’ve always worked closely in partnership with Costa Coffee, and that relationship has been a very important part of our journey and growth over the past 20 years.”
These values are what have helped shape Sim Trava into the family business it is today. As Simon details, training and people development are core parts of the company, because Sim Trava sees its team ‘like a constellation on a clear night, bright stars that together create something special.’ Simon and Tracy have strongly believed in this philosophy since the very beginning.
“In 2010, when we’d gotten to around ten to 11 stores, we realized the difficulties of training people in store, as there’s never really a point when we don’t have a customer to serve. At the time, we had a 3000-square-foot head office with only 15 people employed there, so we built a mockup service counter and made it so that anybody who joined the company had to come and complete a coffee excellence course. We had two coffee machines set up where they could practice. It also offered them a welcome day where they got to meet me, Tracy, and everybody in the office so that they’d feel a part of the team. Due to Covid, Costa Coffee introduced updated online training programs, helping support new starters across the estate,” Simon explains.
“Now, we try to make sure that we meet our new people in store so that they still feel a part of a family company. We have our store operations managers who, independently to the regional and store managers, go into the store and make sure that everybody is trained to our standards.”
From a single Northwich store to an 80-strong portfolio, the business’ growth has been shaped by strategic decision-making, timely opportunities and an unwavering commitment to its people, purpose and community. With ambitious plans for further expansion, Simon and Tracy remain guided by the same values they first scribbled on a napkin over 20 years ago, proving that with passion and hard work, lasting success follows.
“Our main priority for 2026 is to consolidate the 21 stores that we bought last year; on top of that, we’ve got three new stores to open and ten refurbishments to do throughout the year. We’re also going to look at moving our central office in the summer as we’ve outgrown our current one. We have exciting plans to continue expanding, with the ambition to eventually get to 200 stores,” Simon concludes.
