Sniffing success out
Aroma Espresso Bar’s growth is one woman’s dream come true
Anat Davidzon is at her headquarters on Spadina Rd., but instead of being desk bound, she’s in the reception area, holding weeks-old Matteo, her second-born son. Matteo is nuzzled into mom’s shoulder, his chicken legs hitched up under his bum.
The multi-tasking executive/mother scene is, sadly, still rare in corporate Canada, and one for which Davidzon offers an utterly unnecessary apology. A fuller description of the managing partner of the Aroma Espresso Bar chain would include Davidzon’s compulsory service in the Israeli army, an undergraduate degree in computer science from York University (she moved to Toronto in 2001) and an MBA from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.
It was during her time studying at Rotman that Davidzon opened Toronto’s first Aroma café, in the Annex, which right there sounds like an extreme bit of multi-tasking.
“It was crazy,” she acknowledges, adding that her Rotman classes started at 7 a.m., that many nights were sleepless, that it took three straight years of work to make her Aroma dream a reality, and that an hour before opening the Bloor St. café she was driving out to Mississauga to retrieve the late-arriving Aroma branded coffee cups from customs.
“We’re in the coffee business, so the one thing you want are cups . . . Everyone knows what your Starbucks cup looks like. Your Tim Hortons. All the chains out there. You can’t open with a white cup.” The cup caper was right to the wire. Davidzon was resolute that without those cups she would not open. She was 26 years old.
That was a decade ago. Today, there are 39 Aroma outlets in Ontario with five more scheduled to open before the end of the year, including one at York University and another across from the Air Canada Centre. Early next year, Davidzon will make her first foray outside of the province, with Vancouver planned as the first plank in a western expansion.
Working alongside partner Earl Gorman, the corporate strategy is to fill what Davidzon believes is an underserved niche in the seemingly saturated world of coffee chains.
That niche is a combination of healthy, made-to-order menu items — Mediterranean-inspired foods that are often on the cutting edge of consumer tastes; breads that are baked on-site; pastries that do not come prepackaged in plastic sleeves — alongside an ever-expanding list of beverages involving Aromaroasted coffee and antioxidant smoothies. And a little piece of chocolate with each order.
The chain’s freekeh salad, which adds kale, quinoa, labneh cheese and the now ubiquitous za’atar to the so-called super grain, is just one example of the healthy fare that has become part of the Aroma signature. Two-thirds of the menu mimics the offerings in Israel. Others, such as the freekeh salad, were developed in Canada. “When I approached the guys in Israel and said, ‘Hey, we’re going to do a kale salad,’ they didn’t know what kale was.”
Aroma has a distinct offering. “You can take the portion of our menu offering that is coffee and coffeebased drinks and pastry, and compare it to a few different brands that exist in the market,” she says. “You can compare our food with a few of the brands that exist in the market. But there’s no one who does both.”
“It’s not just the offering — it’s how it’s made. The fact that it’s prepared for you. The ability to make changes and accommodate your requests. The fact that it’s baked on site . . . There might be independents that do that. I’m sure there are. But for independents it’s harder for them to deal with mass.”
Aroma launched in Jerusalem in 1994 and has grown to be one of the largest chains in the state of Israel, with more than 125 outlets purveying the Italian espresso/French pastry/Mediterranean entrée combination. In 2001, the mighty Starbucks expanded to Israel, ultimately opening six outlets in Tel Aviv. The company exited the country just two years later, with CEO Howard Shultz obliquely stating that the partnership dissolved “due to the ongoing operational challenges that we experienced in that market.” One analyst was quoted in a local newspaper wondering if it was a misfit in taste and style, noting “those big armchairs of theirs looking stuffy and incongruous in the Tel Aviv heat.”
Aroma’s first U.S. outlet, in SoHo, opened in 2006. That location closed last year, reportedly as a result of a substantial rent increase. In the U.S. today there are three Aroma cafés. Canada has proved the more opportunistic territory.
Davidzon spools back to her university days, when she would meet friends at one of the established chains — it doesn’t matter which. In the pleasing days of spring, summer or fall the friends found themselves sitting in the parking lot with their coffees. On the concrete. Pleasant outdoor seating space as part of a coffee offering was rare.
At Aroma, every location has a patio, including the new patio-bythe-water at the Billy Bishop Airport location. Most of the stores are large, commonly about 1,800 square feet, accommodating a full kitchen to allow for on-site food prep. Breads and croissants are brought in frozen, by boat, from Israel, and are proofed and baked on site. (The gluten-free bread comes from a Toronto supplier.)
The company operates on a franchise model. Franchisee training conventionally takes between three and six months. Not all franchisees have made it past the training stage.
“In the franchise business you have a set of rules, procedures that you have to follow,” Davidzon says. “You have to understand that that’s what makes the brand a brand — that consistency. And if you’re not detail oriented and you’re not able to fulfil those procedures, you cut corners.”
Davidzon doesn’t quantify the size of company she envisions, aside from stating that she would like to see the chain grow across the country. There are bound to be more sleepless nights.
“I’m worried from the moment I open my eyes to probably when I’m sleeping and dreaming. The fact that no one does what we do exactly doesn’t mean we don’t have competition . . . If you’re a coffee or tea drinker, I still compete for your business. You can still come into Aroma for one of the two (food and drink) and not necessarily care about having both of them together.” She draws an analogy between her business and her first-born son. “When he was a year old he did not understand the risks associated with walking fast, running, touching the (electrical) outlet. He didn’t understand it. He then became more intelligent and then he became more cautious and started being scared or having fear, right? It’s exactly the same thing.”
She wonders if that early fearlessness is the reason why she is where she is today. “It wasn’t a clear path. There were crises. There were ups and downs. Now, there’s a little more to lose. It’s bigger. More people are involved. With one location it was myself and my business partner. Now you have 800 employees across all locations. You have franchisees who either took a loan, mortgaged their house, took a guarantee. So the risk now, the responsibility that you have now toward other people is much larger.”
“I think there’s still a lot to do — a lot to prove. It is a successful brand. But it’s not a success story yet.”
“It’s not just the offering — it’s how it’s made. The fact that it’s prepared for you.” ANAT DAVIDZON MANAGING PARTNER, AROMA