THE COFFEE EMPORIUM · FEASIBILITY CALCULATOR · BLANK START

Feasibility calculator

Site

What an operator would actually earn from a store, on stated terms and stated assumptions. Name the site and set the terms under Assumptions, and every figure moves with it. The metrics stay on screen as you work, and the change to take-home tile measures each edit against the terms the model was loaded with.

The site

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Assumptions used

WHAT THE OWNER TAKES HOME

— OF WHICH, THEIR WAGE

— PLUS TRADING PROFIT

PER WEEK, BEFORE TAX

RETURN ON CAPITAL IN

BREAKEVEN SALES

OCCUPANCY COST

CHANGE TO TAKE-HOME VS THE OFFER

CUSTOMERS A DAY NEEDED

ROSTER HOURS A WEEK

WAGES, SHARE OF SALES

SALES PER LABOUR HOUR

SEATS · TURNS A DAY

SALES AN HOUR OPEN

WHAT THE LABOUR BAND FUNDS

WHAT AN HOUR OPEN MUST SELL

RENT THIS STORE CAN CARRY

RENT PER SQM

SALES PER SQM

CONVERSION THE DOOR NEEDS

THE ALTERNATIVE WEEK

TO EARN THE TARGET

1 · THE STORE FROM THE LEASE PACK

Name it, if you like

Format

Area, sqm

Weeks open a year

Centre type, for the rent test

Sets which published landlord comparators the rent is tested against.

Seats inside

Licensed mall seating, sqm

TRADING HOURS

Everything downstream hangs off this. The doors being open is what creates the roster, and the roster is the largest number in the model.

Opens

Closes

Peak starts

Peak ends

Trading days a week

Busier days a week

2 · THE TURNOVER ESTIMATE

Gross sales a year, inc GST

Average sale, inc GST

People per sale

Two ways to read the same figure, and the till decides which. A POS reports the docket — what one transaction was worth. Leave people per sale at 1 and the average sale is also the value of one customer. Put it above 1 where a docket routinely covers more than one person, and the model divides down to a per-head figure. It matters because turnover ÷ average sale gives you dockets, and the roster is built from people — two at a table are one receipt and two coffees to make.

COST OF GOODS

Cost of goods

3 · THE LEASE FROM THE LANDLORD

Rent entered as

Base rent a year, ex GST

Rent basis

Percentage rent

Percentage rate

Fixed annual review

Applied to the base rent each year in the five-year table.

HANDOVER, TERM AND ABATEMENT

Site available from

Handover to trading, wks

Lease term, years

Base rent free, weeks

Outgoings free, weeks

Free rent past handover to

Abatement defaults to zero because it is negotiated every time and nothing in the Retail Shop Leases Act 1994 (Qld) requires it. Outgoings are a separate field, also starting at zero: a landlord who abates base rent normally keeps charging outgoings, and abating both is the commonest way one of these models understates the cost of getting open.

4 · THE DEAL YOURS TO SET

Landlord contribution

When it is paid, whether it is clawed back and who it goes to are set under THE LANDLORD CONTRIBUTION further down — timing changes what this money is worth more than the amount does.

Buy-in / purchase price

What the incoming operator pays to take it over. It is the denominator of their return and the revenue line of the flip.

FREE RENT, AND WHO IT REACHES

THE LABOUR THE OWNER PUTS IN

FIVE-YEAR PROJECTION

Sales growth a year

Cost inflation a year

Compared against sales growth. Set them equal and margins hold; set inflation higher and the squeeze shows up rather than being quietly assumed away.

5 · RUNNING COSTS FROM EMPORIUM

Enter it as

Everything else

FRANCHISE FEES

Royalty / management fee

Advertising levy

Other group charges

Technology, loyalty, audit or training levies, if the system charges them.

6 · THE ROSTER YOURS TO SET

One row per person. Type the shift into the day they work — 7-4, 8-1, 10-2. Three of them on the same shift is 8-2 x3. Blank means off. Rename anyone, change any rate; the hours and the money follow.

WHAT IT COSTS

ON-COSTS, ON TOP OF EVERY RATE

Super %

Work cover %

Payroll tax %

TEST A SHORTER OR LONGER WEEK

Hours open

Worth %

Shifts %

WHERE THE CHEAP HOURS ARE

7 · TRAFFIC ESTIMATE

Turnover is customers × what they spend. Everything here is one way or another of arriving at customers a day.

PEOPLE PAST THE DOOR

Centre visits a year

On this arm %

Or counted, a day

Of those, buy %

WHAT THAT MAKES

Turnover comes from

TWO CHECKS THAT NEED NO TRAFFIC

Turnover a sqm

What it last did

8 · THE RENT TEST ESTIMATE

A centre sets rent off sales, not off floor space. The card above works out what this shop will sell; the same figure decides what the landlord can defend asking for it. Three numbers — what they can defend, what the store can carry, and what has actually been asked. The gaps between them are the negotiation.

WHAT THE CENTRE DOES

Centre specialty sales, $ a sqm

Published for most centres over 40,000sqm in the Shopping Centre News Big Guns tables — GLA, MAT, specialty sales a sqm, visits. Ask centre management if it is not listed. Leave at zero and the rest of this card falls back to the floor-area check.

Target occupancy cost %

WHAT A LANDLORD CAN DEFEND

WHAT THE STORE CAN CARRY

Can the wage budget actually staff the store?

NEEDED

FUNDED

WHERE THE HOURS GO	DAYS	HOURS A DAY	HOURS A WEEK

IS A PARTICULAR BLOCK OF HOURS WORTH TRADING?

WHO WORKS THOSE HOURS, AND WHAT THEY COST

WHO IS ON	SHARE	HOURS A WEEK	COST AN HOUR	A WEEK	A YEAR

What the wages line really costs On-costs sit on top of the roster. They are not optional and they are not in the award rate.

LINE	A YEAR	% OF NET SALES	NOTE

THE TRADING WEEK, AND THE DOOR

What a different trading week is worth

	NOW	ALTERNATIVE	CHANGE

What the door has to deliver

IF THIS SHARE COMES IN	PASSERS A DAY NEEDED	AT THE COUNT ENTERED	TURNOVER THAT IMPLIES

HOW TO GET THE NUMBER

Two ways, and they cross-check each other. Ask the centre for the people-counter data at the nearest entry and on this arm of the mall, hourly, by day of week — every centre meters its doors, and asking signals that you are underwriting the site rather than guessing at it. Or stand at the shopfront and count passers in fifteen-minute blocks at 8am, 10am, 12pm, 2pm and 4pm, on a weekday and a Saturday. Ten blocks gives a defensible day curve. While you are there, count how many turn into the neighbouring tenancies — that is the conversion sanity check, and it costs nothing but a morning.

Is the rent reasonable?

TEST	THIS SITE	PUBLISHED COMPARATOR	READ

THE YEAR, LINE BY LINE

Where every $100 of sales goes, after GST

Owner's benefit against turnover

The year, line by line

What "everything else" is actually made of

LINE	A YEAR	% OF NET SALES	WHERE THE FIGURE COMES FROM

FIVE YEARS, AND WHAT MOVES THE ANSWER

Five years

YEAR	SALES INC GST	OCCUPANCY	OWNER TAKES HOME	% OF TURNOVER	CUMULATIVE	AGAINST CAPITAL IN

If the store traded at a different level Year one, everything else held at the settings under Assumptions

SALES INC GST	NET SALES	OCCUPANCY	%	OWNER TAKES HOME	OF WHICH PROFIT	RETURN	PAYBACK

What actually moves the answer One change at a time, everything else held. Sorted by how much it matters.

IF THIS CHANGED	BY	OWNER'S BENEFIT BECOMES	CHANGE

What is known, what is derived, and what I have assumed

Every assumption in this model exists because a fact is missing. This is the list, and the single question that deletes each one. The model gets simpler as the answers come back — not more elaborate.

THE INPUT	WHERE IT STANDS TODAY	THE ONE QUESTION THAT SETTLES IT	ASK
Area, rent, outgoings, term	KNOWN off the leasing pack	—	—
Franchise fees and the cost lines	KNOWN as Emporium states them	—	—
Trading hours	KNOWN if the lease specifies core hours	Does the lease mandate them, or is the operator free to set them?	Landlord
Turnover	ASSUMED — typed in, not derived	What did the outgoing tenant actually turn over? Or: what is the people-counter reading at the nearest entry?	Landlord
Average sale and people per docket	ASSUMED	What is the network average docket and basket for this format?	Emporium
Traffic past the door	ASSUMED — nothing entered	Counter data for this arm of the centre, hourly, by day of week	Landlord
The roster	DERIVED from covers and service rate	What does a comparable store in the network actually roster?	Emporium
Cost of goods and running costs	BENCHMARK — ATO café bands	What is the network's real COGS on this menu?	Emporium
Buy-in and working capital	ASSUMED — and it drives the return on capital tile	What is the actual price, and what float does the store open with?	Emporium
The owner's target income	YOURS — a choice, not a fact	What does the operator need to earn to say yes?	The operator

Four of the ten lines are straight assumptions and two more are benchmarks standing in for network data. That is not sophistication — it is a measure of how little has been handed over. Every extra mechanism on this page exists to hold the place of a number somebody already has. One email asking for the outgoing tenant's turnover, the counter data at the nearest entry, the network's real COGS and docket averages, and the buy-in price would collapse most of this back into arithmetic.

Read this before you quote any of it

Thirteen things that change the answer materially, roughly in the order they bite.

1 · Occupancy cost, not turnover, decides this.

2 · How the percentage rent is written.

3 · The fee rates are placeholders.

4 · Gross or net rent.

5 · The owner's benefit is a wage before it is a return.

6 · GST, and what the till actually shows.

8 · The landlord contribution is the largest single variable here.

9 · The contribution has to be disclosed. Where the franchisor or an associate receives a benefit because of the lease, the ACCC requires it to be disclosed to the prospective franchisee — and the disclosure document, the Information Statement and a copy of the lease or agreement to lease must be given at least 14 days before the franchise agreement is signed or any non-refundable money is paid. A contribution paid to the head lessee is exactly that kind of benefit. It does not create a franchisee claim on the money, and there is nothing improper about the head lessee receiving it and applying it to the fitout — but it has to appear in the pack, on time. Getting the disclosure right is what makes the structure defensible; leaving it out is what makes it look like something it is not.

10 · The approval pathway is worth more than the fitout discount.

11 · Rent runs from handover, not from opening.

12 · Where the running costs actually sit. Wages, superannuation and workers compensation are all inside the wages line — the roster is only about 87% of what employing people costs, because super adds 12% and workers compensation adds 2.25% of wages plus super on top. Public liability, contents, glass, stock and business interruption insurance sit in "everything else", not in the wages line; a shopping centre lease will normally require $10m–$20m of public liability and a certificate of currency before you get the keys. Workers compensation is bought separately from the business pack. In a centre, power, waste and air conditioning are frequently recovered through the outgoings rather than billed to the operator — check the outgoings statement before counting them twice, because that mistake is worth $20,000–$30,000 a year.

13 · Previous trade at the site is a floor, not a forecast. Historical turnover from a previous occupant is worth having and worth treating carefully. A different brand, a different fitout, different supply terms and a different operator produce a different number. Take it as evidence about foot traffic, and nothing more.

Return on capital counts profit, not the owner's wage. A broker will divide the whole return to owner by the buy-in and call it the return — on a $200,000 buy-in returning $153,724 that reads 76.9% and a 1.3-year payback. It is not a return on capital. Most of that figure is the owner's wage, which is payment for turning up, not a yield on money: they would earn it working for somebody else without risking a cent. The tile therefore divides only the trading profit above that wage — $43,718, or 21.9% and 4.6 years — and carries the broker figure beside it so you can see both. When you are buying, use the first. When you are selling, expect to be quoted the second.

Where the assumptions come from

ASSUMPTION	SOURCE	CONFIDENCE
Cost of goods 33–38%, wages 27–35%, total expenses 86–93% The ATO band is every café. Emporium approved stock runs 28–30% — a different measure, not a contradiction.	ATO small business benchmarks, cafés and coffee shops, turnover over $600k, 2023–24 data published March 2026	Actual tax return data. High
Occupancy cost 6–10% of turnover	Same ATO benchmark series, rent ratio for the same turnover band	High, but a band across many sites
Royalty / management 6%, advertising 2%	Placeholders set by the user of this model	Unconfirmed. Replace from the disclosure document
Superannuation 12% inside the wages line	Super guarantee, 12% since 1 July 2025, unchanged for 2026–27	Statutory. Certain
Specialty occupancy cost 8.4% to 15.9%, specialty rent $919–$1,933/sqm, specialty sales $10,024–$13,788/sqm	Region Group FY25, Charter Hall 1H FY26, Vicinity FY25, Stockland FY25, GPT CY25, Scentre 2025 Property Compendium, Mirvac FY25, Urbis benchmarks to Jun 2024	Primary landlord disclosure. High — but all-specialty, not café
Rent 10.79% of turnover for cafés and restaurants	Restaurant & Catering Australia, 2025 Industry Benchmarking Report, published March 2026	Member survey, all location types. Medium
Fitout $2,400/sqm serviced tenancy, $3,600 shell, $1,200 refurbishment	Synthesised from seven Australian fitout contractors' 2025–26 published guides. RLB's Riders Digest — the standard Australian construction cost reference — publishes no café or hospitality fitout category at all	Contractor marketing, not a QS benchmark. The refurbishment rate is derived — nobody publishes one
CDC 20 days; DA 85 days assessment plus 11 days lodgement in Greater Sydney	Planning Act 2016 (Qld) and Planning Regulation 2017 — material change of use and building development approval; council decision periods vary, confirm with the local government for the centre	Legislation and government data. High
Design and landlord approval about 8 weeks; construction 8–12 weeks	Region Group Design & Fitout Guide (weeks 1–8, approval at week 5); six fitout contractors converging on 8–16 weeks including approvals	One landlord's published guide plus contractor consensus. Medium
Workers compensation 2.25%, super 12%, payroll tax nil below $1.2m of wages	Super guarantee 12%. Work cover is carried at the NSW figure as a placeholder — replace it with the gazetted WorkCover Queensland rate for WIC 4511. Payroll tax: Queensland Revenue Office, $1.3m threshold	Statutory and regulator-published. High
Merchant fees 1.2% on 90% of takings	RBA Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs, Conclusions Paper March 2026 — surcharging removed and interchange capped from 1 October 2026; published acquirer rates mid-2026	Regulator-published reform. High. The dollar figure is derived
OneMusic $1,995; insurance $6,500; power $15,000; repairs 1–2% of turnover	OneMusic Dining licence 2026–27 published schedule; broker quote ranges 2026; Zembl small-business energy data 2025; industry rule of thumb	Music licence high. Insurance and power medium. Repairs is a rule of thumb and the softest number here
Rent-free period defaults to zero	Retail Shop Leases Act 1994 (Qld) — abatement is negotiated, and nothing in the Retail Leases Act requires it. No Australian survey of typical periods exists	The conservative and legally correct default
Rent, area, buy-in, growth and inflation	Entered by the user for the specific site	Only as good as the offer they came from

What this is not. Not a forecast, not an earnings claim, not financial advice, and not a substitute for the disclosure document. It is a model of one store under stated assumptions, built so a candidate can see which lever actually moves the answer. Anything sent to a candidate should say so on its face and should tell them to take it to their own accountant.