The Sim Trava Backstory 

The story began in 2004, when our co-founder, Simon Vardy, found himself struggling to find a shop to get a good cup of coffee in the South Manchester market-town of Altrincham. Upon his return home he began researching the coffee market and found that Whitbread – the UK’s largest hotel, restaurant and coffee shop operator – had just launched Costa Coffee opportunities to franchise partners.

In 2004 following intensive research by Simon and Tracy, (many coffees were consumed) and several interviews with Costa, Sim Trava was established. The business name comes from a mixture of letters from our founders first names and family name; Simon and Tracy Vardy, very in keeping with the way the family Company has grown.

The initial business plan was to open just 5 stores starting with Northwich in October 2005. To grow the Company Simon and Tracy reinvested every penny back into the business to open more stores. The Vardy’s knew what kind of business they wanted to create, a Company whose values represent who they are, and has shaped our culture and growth from the beginning.

Over the next 17 years Sim Trava grew to have 40 Costa Coffee stores across the North of England from The Wirral to Newcastle. This single sentence doesn’t really cover the amount of work involved in achieving this or the gratitude Simon and Tracy have to the people that have been with them since 2005 and are still with them now and the hundreds of people that have helped create Sim Trava that have moved on to other opportunities.

During the difficult period from 2020 to 2021 for everyone, Sim Trava was honoured to be selected to be the first Costa Franchise Partner to purchase existing Costa stores from Costa Limited. So, in 2022 Sim Trava acquired 17 stores, located across, Preston, Blackpool, and Southport region.

Sim Trava is a Company that like to celebrate milestones, this year we will be celebrating our Company’s 20th Anniversary with the news that Sim Trava have successfully completed the acquisition of a further 21 stores stretching from North Wales, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Sheffield, Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire.

Sim Trava has now grown to 80 stores with over 700 colleagues and are the second largest Costa Franchise partner in the UK. Simon and Tracy will be forever thankful to all the people involved in making this happen and to all our current Baristas who serve our wonderful customers with perfect coffee every day.