Empik spills its beans

Empik Media & Fashion Capital Group (EM&F), the owner of the largest chain of multimedia stores in Poland, has announced the sale of its shares in Coffee Heaven International (CHI). EM&F has held close to 10 percent of the Coffee Heaven's shares since November 2005 and CHI has established three coffee shops in Empik stores since then.

According to Richard Worthington, CHI's CEO, the main reason for the sell-off was the unsatisfying result of the opening of Coffee Heaven venues at Empik bookstores, which was based on a business model successful in the US.

"Apparently, the Polish market hasn't developed to the point where such a joint venture would be met with sufficient success," Worthington told daily Rzeczpospolita.

EM&F Group remains willing to continue its activity the coffee business. "The reason why we decided to sell our shares was the lack of significant impact of our company on CHI decisions. We would have been more satisfied if we had held around 30 percent of the company's shares, but since that wasn't a possibility, we decided to sell," stated Katarzyna Górecka, spokesperson for EM&F. In addition to its Coffee Heaven venues, EM&F has been developing its own chain of coffee shops branded Empik Cafe. Currently, the company has 17 cafes in operation and expects to have 14 more locations open by the end of 2008.