Stop Waffling. Eat it instead!

This is not your average waffle shop. Wafflemeister boasts a secret Belgian recipe which dates back to the 1950’s. The freshly made waffles are topped with a range of toppings from Belgian chocolate fudge and freshly whipped cream to fresh fruit and natural gelato. Wafflemeister is all about delivering a high quality waffle and their promise is “It takes a lot of hard work, continuous training and dedication to become a Meister. The Wafflemeister takes great pride in providing high quality, fresh and great tasting products* which do not contain GM ingredients, artificial flavourings, colourings or preservatives.” How is it different from its competition?

The ‘meister’ in Wafflemesister founded by Alex Troullier means in German ‘a dedicated craftsman who is passionate about his trade’.

1. Online delivery service to be launched in December which will offer same day delivery or next day delivery UK wide.
2. 15% Discount to students at Imperial College London.
3. Loyalty Programme: Bronze, Silver and Gold. This gives you access to a large range of deals and offers, with increasing benefits as you go from bronze to silver to gold.

I spoke with Alex to find out more:

Tell me about yourself. I decided to venture into retail whilst doing my MBA setting up the Belgian Food Company (BFC), for which I opened 2 branches, one in Oxford Street the other in Baker Street. In 2000 just after I graduated, I got an offer in finance, so I sold my shares in BFC and went into Finance for 10 years. This involved working with private equity, hedge funds and capital raising. After a decade in finance, I went back to the waffle space because I missed waffles and for some reason it had a soft spot with me. I brought back BFC from the current owners, who were happy to sell the company back to me and I set about revamping and repositioning it within the market space. Some of the factors which I thought were important were to focus on handmade, homemade waffles using natural ingredients (organic when possible), redesigning and rebranding the business. I opened branches in South Kensington and Portobello road market and supply Harvey Nichols in Knightsbridge with waffles.

Why did you set up a waffle business and what is your vision of Wafflemeister for the future? I have always been passionate about good tasting food whether it is savoury or dessert. When I set up the business, apart for the conventional sandwich bar and the occasional crepe shop for example ‘My Old Dutch’, there was not much choice. Even to this day no one really does great waffles apart from us and there is no real brand ownership. My vision is that we will own this space; when people think of waffles they think of Wafflemeister. Whether this is in retail where you walk into the store, online where you get it delivered or hopefully in the future, supermarkets. We will also hope to sell frozen waffle dough, where people can purchase their own waffle iron so they can bake waffles themselves and have that fun experience. We have opened up Wafflemeister branches in Abu Dhabi and Kuala Lumpur’s Petronas twin towers through franchises and will expand to Dubai next February. We hope to have opened 10 stores globally by the end of the year and 20 stores by the end of next year.

Can you give me some insight into your personal experience of the MBA programme at Imperial. This was a very positive experience for me. One thing that stood out the most to me was the case studies. I did an executive MBA where I had a full time job as well as committing to studies. This flexibility meant I did not have to put any of my goals on hold, and was able to carry on with what I wanted to do simultaneously. It was a great experience to work under pressure as part of a international team, to meet deadlines which were set.

What advice can you give to students interested in enterprise? It is important that students know exactly what they want to achieve, how to get there and have them written down. Don’t make the list too long as, just simple points as the ‘to do’ list can get too long sometimes. The hard work you put into achieving your goals will pay off, be it finishing your degree or starting your own business.

Visit Wafflemeister South Kensington Today!