Swedish esports bar chain, Kappa Bar has announced plans to open their fourth establishment in Swedens third largest city, Malmö. The new location joins their other locations in Stockholm, Göteborg and Jönköping.
We spoke to co-founder Klas Bergqvist back in April. At the time he told us: “We never started Kappa Bar to have one shop in Gothenburg”. Whilst the new location is still in Sweden, Malmö is Sweden’s main connection to Denmark, which by definition place it as their main connection to Europe. Malmö will also be Kappa’s biggest venue so far with 365 square meters of space.
We caught up with Klas this week to discuss the news.
Esports Insider: What made you choose Malmö?
Klas Bergqvist: “Well, Malmö is Swedens third biggest city. It also has a really good connection to Denmark. We have been working towards Malmö since we first opened in Gothenburg and it has always been a target for us. Although we had some troubles along the way with finding the right location.”
Now when we found both the right people to work with(it’s a franchise) and the right location we finally made it happen. Now the fun part begins and we aim to open in spring 2019. We are totally thrilled about it and we hope that the citizens of Malmö are as well!
ESI: Back when we spoke earlier this year, you said you wanted to expand into Scandinavia, have you had any interest from people outside of Sweden looking to franchise Kappa?
Klas: Regarding the expansion, we’ve had a lot of request, both nationally and internationally. We want to make the expansion fast but retain control of it. Our franchisees are everything for us, we have to give them the support and backup that is needed to open every Kappa bar with success.
ESI: What’s next for Kappa Bar?
Klas: We are working to have 10-12 signed Kappa Bars by the end of 2019 and 6-7 restaurants up and running. We are always looking for more people to work with and to find more franchisees out there. The expansion is not set to stop with Sweden or even with Scandinavia, we want, and will take this the whole way out there.
Esports Insider says: Kappa Bar might not be that well known outside of Sweden, but Klas and his team are looking to change that. The bars are fully featured and well run and with the rise of the esports bar in Europe, Kappa could be coming to a town near you soon.