Boughton's Coffee House Issue 140 by newhallpublishing

THE VOICE OF THE CAFE COMMUNITY

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Issue 140

March / April 2023

LEVELLING UP

How excelling in a chosen field can transform your business Issue 140 • March / April 2023

MONEY MAZE

What should you spend on for your cafe?

COFFEE AND CANINES The dog cafe that raises funds for charity

TECH TALK

Chatbots, online ordering and new machinery

PLUS LOOKING AT TRANSPARENT SUPPLY CHAINS FOR TEA

Your place is full, orders are flying in thick and fast, meanwhile, Victoria Arduino’s Eagle Tempo is calmly taking care of business

Introducing the ultimate solution for restaurants, roasteries and bars that simply want to deliver quality coffee with speed and consistency. And as with all of Victoria Arduino’s creations, the Eagle Tempo is committed to sustainability, providing technology and innovative features.

VictoriaArduino.com/EagleTempo

WELCOME

Meet the team EDITORIAL

WELCOME After what has felt like a very long winter, we are delighted to look outside at brighter days and see that spring has finally sprung! While there are still challenges gripping the world of hospitality and beyond, one thing we are reassured by is that the coffee house scene and the thirst for specialty coffee is still growing with consumers and there are people continuously pushing for innovation and excellence right around the country. With the idea of ‘excellence’ in mind, in our main feature this month – Upping the ante on page 22– writer, Tristan Parker, has looked at three businesses that excel in a particular area to discover how creating a specialism in the offering helped to evolve the whole business. Searching far and wide, Omotesando Koffee (found in Tokyo, London and beyond), PekoeTea (found in Edinburgh) and Method (found in Kendal) were the selected few out of countless businesses we could have focused on, which speaks of the true strength and creativity in UK hospitality. Also this issue we have a three-feature focus on technology, first taking a wider look at your equipment setup in Where to focus your spending on page 10; then we look at an automated coffee machine in Time to welcome tech on page 14; before Andrew and Claire Bowen delve into Artificial Intelligence in Rise of the machines on page 16. The question of how tech will change the role of baristas and the efficiency of a coffee house may be key to future success. And last but not least, in Man’s best coffee friend on page 32, Amy Pay visits Coffi Lab, the neighbourhood coffee house that is not only attracting dogs, but actively raising funds for Guide Dogs in the process. We hope you enjoy the issue!

Editorial Director Fergus McShane Creative Director Gareth Evans Art Editor Lindsay Price Designer Jess Lord Pictures Robyn Barr Sub Editors Gillian Hook, Liz Atherton, Olivia Wilkinson

SUBSCRIPTIONS Sue Thompson E sue@boughtonscoffee house.com T 0151 668 0494

ADVERTISING Ali Wigg E ali@boughtonscoffee house.com T 07973 944940 Sarah Buttery E sarah@boughtonscoffee house.com T 07966 759083 Commercial Director Gary Turner

PRODUCED AND PUBLISHED BY

Newhall Publishing Ltd, New Hall Lane, Hoylake, Wirral CH47 4BQ T 0151 632 3232 E hello@newhallpublishing.com Managing Director Richard Woolliams

We’d love to hear from you – email us at hello@boughtonscoffeehouse.com THE VOICE OF THE CAFE COMMUNITY

boughtonscoffeehouse.com

Issue 140

March / April 2023

How excelling in a chosen field can transform your business Issue 140 • March / April 2023

MONEY MAZE

What should you spend on for your cafe?

COFFEE AND CANINES The dog cafe that raises funds for charity

TECH TALK

Chatbots, online ordering and new machinery

PLUS LOOKING AT TRANSPARENT SUPPLY CHAINS FOR TEA

@BoughtonsCoffee boughtonscoffeehouse.com

The contents of this magazine are owned by the publisher and may not be reproduced without permission. All information, prices and dates in the magazine were correct at the time of going to press and while every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of all adverts and details, Newhall Publishing Ltd cannot accept responsibility for any loss or damage caused directly or indirectly by the contents of this publication. The Editor reserves the right to shorten or modify any material submitted. The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those held by the Editor or publisher. The publisher does not accept any responsibility for the safe-keeping of unsolicited material.

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The new KM5 Burr Grinder Launcing April 6 - 2023

Treat yourself to the perfect cup of coffee A strong duo at home or the office: The Moccamaster KBGT and the new KM5 Burr Grinder.

Read more on:

CONTENTS

Issue 140

THIS ISSUE 6

WHAT’S BREWING? News and our pick of the latest innovations for the coffee shop trade

WHERE TO FOCUS YOUR SPENDING There so many things you could buy for your coffee shop, but what outlay will give you the best return?

TIME TO WELCOME TECH Max and Caitlin of 108 Group tell us why we should see coffee machinery as something to help baristas, not replace them

RISE OF THE MACHINES AI has been all over the news, but what’s it got to do with your business? Well, quite a lot, say Andrew and Claire Bowen

RIGHT TIME, RIGHT PLACE The creator of e-commerce app Slerp tells us how the pandemic helped his business grow just when he thought it was doomed

10 19 22 32

UPPING THE ANTE Three coffee shop owners tell us how specialising in one part of their offering helped to evolve their whole business

MAN’S BEST COFFEE FRIEND James Shapland launched a coffee shop business that not only welcomes dogs, it actively raises funds for Guide Dogs

COFFEE ON WHEELS? Mobile coffee shops come in all shapes and sizes – from vintage vans to bikes to scooters – but how viable are they?

MAKING TEA TRANSPARENT Knowing the origin of the coffee you serve is quite the norm, but doing the same with tea could win more customers

CAFE COMMUNITY Discover the innovative ways coffee companies are developing their brands

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WHAT’S BREWING?

We take a look at the latest news, trends and products that could help give you a business edge in the coming months

HOPING FOR A HAT TRICK Popular cafe hoping to extend its winning ways to a third award

aving won two awards previously – Best Café in 2021 and Best Eatery in 2022 – The Lounge @ 26 is automatically entered into this year’s England’s Business Awards, and the cafe in Alcester, Warwickshire, is hoping for a third win. Launched in November 2020 by Louise Hanks and her business partner Elizabeth French, the coffee shop has gone from strength to strength, building its reputation for great coffee and friendly atmosphere. Louise and Elizabeth also own The Lounge in Redditch and are looking to expand its offering following business growth support through Project Warwickshire – a free programme to help companies in the tourism, leisure and hospitality sectors in the wake of the pandemic. This support included an in-depth target marketing exercise feeding into the development of a social media content plan and advice on an upcoming website launch. Starting 5 March, The Lounge will provide bottomless brunch one Sunday every month, which will include pancakes, Belgian waff les and bagels. The England’s Business Awards winners will be announced later this year.

PRODUCT NEWS We reveal our pick of the best new and innovative products for the coffee shop trade

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GO (TIGER) NUTS FOR HORCHATA This creamy and refreshing drink has been a favourite in some regions of the world for 3,000 years – and now Gretel & Belle have brought it to the UK. This Valencian-inspired version uses the highest quality organic tiger nuts as part of the company’s commitment to producing the tastiest product while preserving biodiversity. The ready-to-drink range currently has three flavours – Cocoa, Coffee and Kunu (a spiced version as an ode to the original recipe). gretelbelle.com

WHAT’S BREWING? NEW BASE FOR COFFEE BAR NO 17 The owners of independent coffee bar No 17, David Muscroft and Michelle Sargeson, are thrilled to be taking over a former retail store in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. Open from breakfast to late evening, the contemporary coffee shop will stock 200 Degrees Coffee, offer fresh pastries, cheese and charcuteries, and serve a signature cocktail, lager and wine menu. Recruiting for 12 positions, it will also bring new jobs to the area. Passionate about great food, coffee and cocktails, and lovers of a great dining environment, David and Michelle believe the town centre spot in the Marshall’s Yard shopping centre is the perfect location for their new venture, with its thriving line-up of retail stores and complementary food and drink outlets in the market town.

ON TRACK FOR FURTHER EXPANSION FCB Coffee is aiming to more than double its train station stores by 2028

rain station specialty coffee chain FCB Coffee, which partnered with Network Rail in 2020, currently operates 10 kiosks across London, East Sussex, Kent and Surrey and it is looking to more than double its outlets by 2028. Growth plans are set to begin this summer with a new store at London Clapham Junction station. Despite being hit by the rise in remote working and rail strikes, managing director Barney Clevely still believes the chain should be able to reach 25 sites over the next five years, as there is currently a “huge amount of

potential in the travel sector”. According to the UK’s Office of Rail and Road, 990 million passenger rail journeys were made during a 12-month period ending 31 March 2022 – 43% lower than 2020, but a 155% increase from last year. “Footfall is down overall, but it continues to slowly come back to pre-pandemic levels,” Clevely explains. “We have a number of great performing sites – including Paddington, Denmark Hill and Brighton – but all our sites are doing great business and are all valuable parts of our portfolio, with great teams running them.”

HEAPED IN GOODNESS

LET’S GET CANNDID…

Heaped coffee bags contain 10g of specialty coffee grown by the Mam people in Guatemala and the Paéz people in Colombia. The cartons are recyclable, the bags compostable and 50% of profits go to charity, so as you sip notes of warm chocolate milk, caramel and red berry, not only are you enjoying great coffee, it’s also great for the conscience. drinkheaped.com

Growing in popularity in the health and wellness sector due to benefits such as stress and pain relief, CBD has found its way into our beloved hot beverages. Canndid have a wide range of CBD products – including edibles, pouches and more – and their extensive drinks range includes flavoured teas, caffeinated and decaf coffees and hot chocolate. canndid.co.uk

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WHAT’S BREWING?

DIARY DATES Some of the top events to look out for in the coming months

LONDON COFFEE FESTIVAL When: 20-23 April Where: The Truman Brewery, London Info: londoncoffeefestival.com

ore than 250 artisan coffee and food stalls will be tempting visitors along with coffee cocktails, music, art exhibitions, live demos from world-class baristas, interactive workshops and the Coffee Masters – a fast-paced multi-disciplinary barista competition with a £5,000 prize.

MARCH

APRIL

FOOD AND DRINK EXPO

together Scotland’s best coffee

When: 24-26 April

beans, baristas and roasters for

AMSTERDAM COFFEE FESTIVAL

SPECIALTY COFFEE EXPO

Where: NEC Birmingham

a caffeine-filled weekend of

When: 21-23 April

Info: foodanddrinkexpo.co.uk

tastings, cuppings, talks and

When: 30 Mar-1 Apr

Where: Oregon Convention

Free three-day trade event that

film screenings. Explore the

Where: Westergas

Centre, Portland

brings together the best in the

world of coffee, blow your taste

Info: amsterdamcoffee

Info: coffeeexpo.org

UK’s food and drink industry.

buds and enjoy engaging coffee

festival.com

Billed as North America’s

See the latest products, meet

talks that open up the world

Amsterdam’s flagship coffee

largest specialty coffee trade

suppliers, enjoy debates and

of specialty coffee. Don’t

event returns with more than

show, the expo includes best

discussions with high-profile

forget to take your own cup!

100 artisan roasters, tastings

new product competition and

speakers, enjoy masterclasses

and demonstrations from

display, coffee design awards, a

and discover the latest trends.

world-class baristas,

green coffee buyers and sellers

The show runs with the National

When: 13-15 May

interactive workshops, music

program, SCA lectures, SCA

Convenience Show, Foodex

Where: Le Carreau du Temple

and street food plus the Roast

workshops and an expanded

Manufacturing Solutions and

Info: pariscafefestival.com

the Farm Shop & Deli Show.

Visitors are promised a total

MAY

specialty coffee, with more than

GLASGOW COFFEE FESTIVAL

interactive demonstrations,

Masters tournament,

Roaster village.

the Dutch Latte Art

Preceding the Expo

Championships, a speciality tea programme and the return of

CELEBRATE NATIONAL TEA DAY WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS ON 21 APRIL AND RAISE A CUP TO A GREAT BRITISH TRADITION!

is the Re:co

immersion in the world of 120 exhibitors and roasters,

Symposium (19-20 April,

LE PARIS CAFÉ FESTIVAL

same venue),

When: 13-14 May

immersive workshops, food,

with expert

Where: The Briggait, Glasgow

music, art and cocktails plus the

speakers, live

Info: glasgowcoffeefestival.com

French SCA Brewers Cup and

Coffee

discussions and

Supported by Dear Green

Cup Tasters championships and

Experience.

networking.

Coffee, the festival brings

the Roast Masters competition.

The Mindful

Malawi Compostable Nespresso® Compatible

100% COMPOSTABLE

Nespresso® Compatible Capsules

Available in roast & ground and coffee bags Find in: Central England Co-operative and Midcounties Co-operative stores coffee@revolver.coop

www.revolverworld.com

01902 345 345

INVESTIGATION

WHERE TO FOCUS YOUR SPENDING As a coffee shop owner, it can be hard to determine what you should spend more money on. The truth is, there are several areas where you can reap the rewards of spending extra, says Amy Pay

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INVEST IN A COMMERCIAL ESPRESSO MACHINE

This is one of the most crucial investments you can make as a specialty coffee shop owner. A high-quality machine ensures that your customers are getting the perfect shot of espresso every time, which is essential for building a loyal customer base. It’s also designed to handle the fluctuating volume of orders that busy coffee shops have, so you won’t have to worry about downtime or breakdowns during peak hours. The cost of a three-head commercial espresso machine in the UK is upwards of £6,000. This can vary depending on the brand, features and quality of the machine. Regardless, it is a significant outlay. It’s also something that, used properly, could take your offering to the next level. La Marzocco’s Linea Classic is a popular choice, known for its consistency and durability. Nuova Simonelli’s Aurelia II has a user-friendly interface and advanced features. Victoria Arduino’s Black Eagle is favoured by baristas for its precision and ability to bring out complex flavours. If buying a new machine is too big an outlay, you could lease or rent one rather than purchasing it, or buy one secondhand.

GET PITCHER PERFECT

The vessel you heat milk with can really affect the outcome of a drink, which, in

turn, impacts on your reputation. Look for pitchers made from durable, easy-toclean and non-reactive materials like stainless steel. A sharp-pointed spout will give you more control over your pour and help you create better designs in your latte art. Comfortable handles re a must if you are often slammed with orders, too. The Barista & Co Pro Pitcher, designed by latte art champion Dhan Tamang, is a relatively affordable option that packs a punch in the results. Its precision spout makes it easier to create crisp, intricate latte art, while the double wall insulates the pitcher to keep the milk at the right temperature, buying you time to perfect that pour. You could also look at Fellow’s Eddy for a similar experience, though the price tag is higher.

“THE COST OF A COMMERCIAL ESPRESSO MACHINE IS A SIGNIFICANT OUTLAY. IT’S ALSO SOMETHING THAT, USED PROPERLY, COULD TAKE YOUR OFFERING TO THE NEXT LEVEL”

INVESTIGATION

“WORK WITH A POTTER TO CREATE YOUR RANGE OF CROCKERY”

SORT OUT YOUR SYSTEMS

If you’re looking to purchase something to streamline your operation, invest in an EPOS (Electronic Point of Sale) system. A well-designed EPOS system can help you manage orders, inventory and sales data in real time, allowing you to make informed decisions in an efficient way. In the cafe, a more complex (and pricey) EPOS could help reduce queue and wait times because it can take orders and payments quickly and accurately. This would improve customers’ experiences and neaten up the workflow behind the bar. Some can dive deep into the analytics of your business’s income, showing you your top-selling items, identifying the drinks with the best and worst margins and giving you insights into potential areas of improvement. It might also be worth looking into the EPOS system’s ability to integrate with other software you use.

IT’S NOT JUST GEAR It’d be easy to overlook one of the biggest potential areas for worthwhile investment

because it’s not something you can just ‘add to basket’. Training your baristas is one of the best decisions you can make as a coffee shop owner. Your staff are the face of your operation, so the better the customer service and coffee, the greater impression they’ll leave on your customers. Depending on your baristas’ level of knowledge, you could pick a course that gives them a strong foundation of coffeemaking skills or refreshes the skills they already have. This ensures consistency and quality across the team. You could consider advanced latte art training, which will add interest and variety for both your baristas and customers. For front of house staff and baristas who interact with customers regularly, customer service training can help with communication, conflict resolution and the general atmosphere of the cafe. Look for trainers that have accreditations from recognised organisations, such as the Specialty Coffee Association or City & Guilds. These accreditations help to ensure that the training provided is of a high standard and relevant to the specialty coffee industry.

THINK ABOUT THE LITTLE THINGS The look and feel of a coffee shop can be just as important as the quality of the coffee and the service provided. Invest in elements that make the cafe more comfortable, relaxing and memorable. It could be something as simple and cheap as swapping harsh lighting for warmer light bulbs. Or you could replace more major things like the seating or tables. This will cost you, but it could make a tangible difference to the experience customers have. Consider your crockery, too. Generic plates and cups could let you down on social media, where visual interest, style and unique branding are what counts. You could work with a local ceramicist or potter to create your own range of crockery to use in-house. It’ll be more expensive, but you’ll up your visual game, help support the creative community and set yourself apart from competitors.

SIN

Crowd pleasing hot chocolate

Five varieties

Single origin beans

Request a free sample pack

Real flakes

Easy to prepare

Tel: (01279) 714527

Free samples

www.marimbaworld.com

TECHNOLOGY

TIME TO WELCOME TECH Max Holder and Caitlin McHugh of 108 Group import and distribute automated coffee machinery across the UK that is centred around optimising workflow efficiency

The journey from being not just life partners but business partners too began in October 2021 for Max Holder and Caitlin McHugh, when they bought 108 Group from a friend. Now this Manchester-based husband-and-wife team import coffee equipment and distribute it to coffee shops across the UK. Everything at 108 Group is centred around optimising workflow efficiency, and their biggest seller is an innovative milk frother from German company Übermilk – a machine where consistency is key. As a former barista, this was also a crucial factor for Caitlin. “No matter how good a barista you are, you’re still going to have some variation.” But the automatic and intuitive operation of Übermilk removes this issue, she says, by producing consistent milk froth every time. Übermilk draws individual quantities of milk from its holding tank in real time, making this a more hygienic piece of technology that doesn’t produce waste, as it doesn’t hold any excess milk. Given that milk is the single greatest contributor to shops’ carbon footprint, this attribute was appealing to 108 Group: “We understand

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the environment we’re in – coffee’s such a wasteful industry. Efficiency can also be improving the environmental impact. So we reduce our milk waste.” Milk is pushed through an air valve to texturise it before Übermilk’s slow heating process, using a high-power heater, brings the milk to its literal ‘sweet spot’ – where its full sweetness is revealed. A 3D-printed filter then produces the microfoam. The machine’s capacity to be configured for temperature, texture and quantity, as well as to texturise 8oz of milk in about 10 seconds, with an infinity mode for

peak periods, means the technology will produce first-class foam for up to 250 drinks per hour. Without needing to use water – so the milk is not diluted or steamed – or split milk, Übermilk produces a better product to pour latte art with. “I personally think it’s better than a steam wand,” says Caitlin. The absence of water also means no plumbing is required, so Übermilk can work well on any coffee counter. Though currently only configured to work with dairy milk, Übermilk do have plans to do a multi-milk version. Übermilk also works well with another of their imports – the IZAGA range of automatic coffee grinders from Spanish company MarKibar. “The reason we import both of them is because they work seamlessly alongside each other; the workflow is optimised to the absolute max,” says Caitlin. With its isolated grinding chamber, smart ventilation, innovative grinding point control system and top-quality materials, the IZAGA is designed to produce consistent cups of coffee in shops with high demand and consumption levels

using the most advanced technology. The two working modes – on demand and pre-ground – can be switched between at the touch of a button, and the built-in dispenser means the filter receives the ground coffee in a compact dose – features that optimise efficiency and avoid waste. IZAGA W uses innovative grind-byweight technology and is the first coffee grinder with instant scale-controlled dosing – designed for workflow, speed and consistency and guaranteeing constant quality in all coffees. Weight-controlled dosing brings many advantages, including that minimal adjustment is required – meaning doses remain consistent despite changes in coffee type and grinding point, wear on the burr in the grinding chamber, and environmental changes such as temperature and humidity. Despite the obvious benefits of using automation and technology in coffee shops, people still push back on its integration – believing it replaces the opportunity for the barista to display their craft. However, with over a decade in the industry between them and a background in both running a business and being front of house, the perspective that Caitlin and

Max have on this issue is beneficial: “We were baristas, we were managers, we don’t want the job gone – that’s not what we’re talking about. It’s a consistency regulator and also a stress reliever for the barista… so we think technology and automation should be welcomed with open arms.” They may only be a team of two, but operating their business from a barista’s perspective serves them well: “To be honest, I do think it’s rare. In most companies that are distributors, they come from a sales background, but we’re never going to try and force the sale – I don’t think I could do it,” Caitlin admits. “Ultimately, people buy from people they like, people buy from people that they trust, and people buy from people that they think are going to be able to help them.”

“WE WERE BARISTAS, WE WERE MANAGERS, WE DON’T WANT THE JOB GONE. TECHNOLOGY IS A CONSISTENCY REGULATOR AND ALSO A STRESS RELIEVER FOR THE BARISTA” boughtonscoffeehouse.com

ACTION PLANS

Rise of the machines Artificial Intelligence may seem like sci-fi, but it’s here now and will change your coffee shop business for the better, say Andrew and Claire Bowen

The first time a computer defeated a human chess champion was on February 10, 1996, when IBM computer, Deep Blue, defeated the reigning world champion, Garry Kasparov, in a six-game match in Philadelphia, USA, which was watched by millions worldwide. The computer has been in development since 1985. Today, the Google DeepMind program, AlphaZero, took just four hours to learn the game and beat the world’s best chess-playing computer, which itself could beat any grandmaster. Unless you have been on a desert island for the last few months, you would have heard of ChatGPT; it’s been all over the news because people are both excited about what it is capable of and its potential impact on jobs and society as a whole. School children have been early adopters, using it to get top grades for assignments without their teachers knowing! What’s that got to do with coffee shops, we hear you cry. Will this help me serve my customers better, or make more money? I’m already busy! Imagine having a virtual

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assistant that can handle all your customer service needs, assist with marketing and improve the overall customer experience. That’s what ChatGPT can do for you. ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence technology that can help people communicate with computers more naturally. It works by using advanced algorithms to analyse and understand human language. It can answer questions, provide information and even carry on a conversation with you. This technology can be used for various applications, from customer service to marketing and beyond. You ask it any question as you would a person, give it a little background and detail, and even suggest a writing style, and it will give you a very credible result. We’ve been working with it for a few months, with our clients and in our own coaching business, and here are the things it can do to save you time, give you ideas, or both. We have found it especially useful when you have a block and need inspiration to take the next step. Working with a start-up coffee shop, for example, it helped write a customer avatar simply by telling it what

type of coffee shop it was and where it was situated, like in a town centre or an office district. The results were a great place to start and better than we have seen in countless business plans. The next thing we’ve used it for – and this is where it will save you a lot of time – is marketing. When we asked it to produce a marketing calendar for a small cafe on the west coast of Scotland, it came up with 24 great ideas, although it did miss out Burns night. When we asked it to produce a month’s worth of posts for our Instagram account, it gave us 31 posts with hashtags and ideas for the photo as well; all we needed to do was copy and paste them into the Meta Business Suite, and we had a month’s worth of social in the bag! It produced an excellent brunch menu for a coffee shop, including small plates,

“Whatever your view on technology, no matter how busy or successful you are in your business, if you don’t start investigating what AI can do for you, you will be left behind” mains, sides and drinks. Its next trick was to produce a menu card for each item with ingredients and production methods. Next, we asked it to write a job advert for a barista to join our team, and the result was as good as we could have done. You can ask it to write a blog post for LinkedIn or your website in a particular style, so you can sound like William Shakespeare, but not Donald Trump, as that goes against its content policy on political impersonations. If you struggle to understand something, ask it to explain a concept so a five year old can understand it. It will write you a legal document, like a contract or agreement. We asked it to write an Employment contract, telling it how much the salary was and to include a non-compete agreement. What was produced looked very similar to the one we were using. Although we are obviously not legally trained, this type of technology will change how legal documents will be produced in the future. ChatGPT can do calculations for you as well, just by asking a question. For example,

we asked it to tender for a catering event based on the cost of each item, profit required and the number of guests. If you have an online shop, you can link ChatGPT to a chatbot to interact with the customers in natural language, far better than any chatbot we have interacted with. It can suggest items that go with their basket and offer extra information, all naturally. When you next get a bad review on TripAdvisor, Google or Facebook, feed it

into the machine and ask for a constructive response to the complaint. You will get a level-headed response. We even asked it to reply to the complaint in a humorous way, and it didn’t disappoint; the reply would have brought a smile to even the most hardened of complainers! On top of that, It will do all of this in different languages if needed. This is just the very tip of the iceberg, as ChatGPT is still in a beta mode with a big update coming in April this year, which, if you believe the rumours, will increase the amount of data it has from 175 billion to 100 trillion, an increase of over 571,000 times. Whatever your view on technology, no matter how busy or successful you are in your business, if you don’t start investigating what AI can do for you, you will be left behind by those who embrace it. No more wasting time on mundane tasks – ChatGPT can handle it all quickly, or as Chat GPT says when asked to write a conclusion: “Whether you are a business owner or just someone who wants to get things done faster, ChatGPT can help you achieve your goals.”.

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PIONEERS

RIGHT TIME, RIGHT PLACE After years of development, e-commerce platform Slerp was just finding its feet as the pandemic hit. But what could have been its death knell turned out to be perfect timing, as Sue Quinn discovers Never in his wildest imaginings could JP Then have predicted what would happen so soon after the launch of his e-commerce platform, Slerp, at the end of 2019. Following years of development, significant investment and just a few months on the market, Covid-19 struck. And the restaurants and cafes that he had banked on adopting his online ordering system shut their doors, just as Slerp was finding its feet. Very briefly he feared the business was finished before it had even started. But the opposite happened. The hospitality industry went into survival mode and ‘pivoted’, swiftly veering from eat-in to click & collect and home delivery. Slerp was able to facilitate that change by helping restaurants and cafes stay connected with their customers and

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thereby stay afloat. “The hospitality sector was so hamstrung by not being able to have customers walk in, reaching them at home became an important lever,” Then explains. “It put direct ordering solutions like Slerp on the radar because people realised that they couldn’t actually run their business just on a marketplace because it wasn’t profitable. There had to be other options.” He acknowledges the pandemic “put a rocket” under Slerp’s growth trajectory, but it was the years of work beforehand that perfectly positioned it to support the hospitality industry in the way it did. “We were inundated,” Then recalls. “There were definitely customers using Slerp that I didn’t expect at all, like hotel groups and fine dining restaurants offering food deliveries. It was right time, right place.” Originally, Then conceived Slerp as a business tool for Crosstown, the Londonbased bakery brand best known for its premium donuts and specialty coffee, which he co-founded in 2014. Crosstown was tech-savvy from the start. For example, it was an early adopter of card readers at market stalls as well as ‘aggregators’ – services like Uber Eats that

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mediate between customers and restaurants to take and deliver orders. “It was 2015/2016 and I was building a brand and thinking, how can I actually do direct ordering rather than rely on these third parties?” Then says. Although aggregators served a purpose, he was worried that Crosstown didn’t control the ordering or delivery process. Neither did it own the transactional data, a valuable asset. “We felt there was a middleman separating us from the customer,” he says. “We needed the appropriate technology to own the customer relationship,” he says. “So, I basically solved the problem for my

own company with Slerp.” For small to medium-sized coffee operators, Slerp offers particular benefits, Then says. Big coffee chains can afford their own tech departments and proprietary platforms, which smaller operators can’t. Slerp offers them a solution that is both off-the-shelf and custom-made for each business. In simple terms, Slerp enables customers to place and pay remotely for click & collect, on-demand delivery and catering orders via an app. “For coffee, it’s very much click & collect, while bakeries do quite a lot of on-demand delivery,” Then

“All we’re doing is actually simplifying how customers can order. They can be two minutes away, place their coffee order and just go in and collect it”

PIONEERS

says. Slerp products range from a basic online ordering platform right through to managed marketing. For coffee shops, a branded app has proved hugely popular, enabling customers to place fully customised orders remotely. “Apple Pay and Google Pay are all linked up, so it’s a very quick checkout, and you can build a loyalty programme on the back of that,” Then says. “All we’re doing is actually simplifying how customers can order. They can be two minutes away, place their coffee order and just go in and collect it.” A further major benefit is that operators can gain a better understanding of who their customers are from the data that flows from their orders. “We can integrate that data with a customer relationship management (CRM) system and allow a business to customise an interaction with a customer,” Then says. For example, at Crosstown, they could use such data to customise and target an email campaign to anyone who had bought a chocolate donut from the Shoreditch branch in the past 30 days. “That’s very powerful because you can really tailor the approach for each customer,” Then says. “We’ve just started opening Crosstown shops outside London, so what’s the point of sending a London email to someone

in Bristol and Oxford?” Few coffee operators currently use CRM systems to their best advantage and the smallest businesses may be best served concentrating on collecting the data in the first instance, Then says. But is the system even financially viable for single site operators? “Definitely,” Then says, “although you really get the benefit of the suite of products when you have multiple sites.” The financial investment required for the entry level package is minimal. A tablet for the app that receives orders will set you back between £100-£150, while an app customised for your business costs £25 a month. Slerp then charges 3% commission on every click & collect order (with a

different pricing structure if you want Slerp to arrange deliveries). “We don’t charge up-front fees,” Then says. “We build a web checkout, we build an app, there’s a small monthly fee and then we take the commission on each order. We really feel we want to make this accessible to the market.” Then is convinced that click & collect and home deliveries are legacies of the pandemic that are here to stay, so platforms like Slerp will rapidly become more popular. “We’re growing about 10% month on month, that’s the number of orders being processed,“ he says. The coffee sector is fuelling part of that growth. Coffee lovers, well-versed in placing food and other orders via an app, appreciate the convenience of not having to wait to order and pay for drinks. More and more operators are seeing the value in shorter queues and a streamlined workflow. “Slerp has been getting more traction with coffee shops in the last six to nine months than we ever have,” Then says. “I think they’re waking up to the fact that Starbucks and Costa are already doing it and maybe they should too.” For more information about Slerp and how to use the technology to sell online, visit: slerp.com

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Upping the ante Raising part of your cafe’s offering to a new level can help evolve and transform your business, says Tristan Parker. Here’s how to work towards excelling in a chosen field, with advice from three owners known for an exemplary specialism

SPECIALISM

Running a coffee shop is a balancing act in more ways than one. On a daily basis, owners weigh up the need to keep drinks and food at a standard high enough to please customers and encourage repeat business, with the need to keep things affordable for those same customers. Similarly, a venue’s design and decor need to be distinct enough to feed into your brand, but also broad enough to appeal to a wide cross-section of people. It’s often about finding the middle ground in order to cover as many bases as possible. Sometimes, however, it pays to veer away from that middle and strive for something that stands out – something exceptional. Honing something from your F&B offering to raise it above and beyond what people might expect (and perhaps what they can find elsewhere) can bring real benefits to your business. As well as the clear financial incentives that come with selling a superlative product, elevating an item or part of your menu can provide a huge boost to your venue’s reputation and can significantly shape your brand in a positive way. Crucially, this doesn’t have to mean positioning your business as extravagant or eye-wateringly expensive. Everyone is all too aware of the spiralling cost of living and thus also the danger of a coffee shop adopting an elitist pricing structure. Instead, this is about honing one element or product from your business to an extremely high level to make it really stand out. Yes, this will likely mean increasing the sale price to the customer, but it doesn’t have to be prohibitive and it doesn’t need to be a permanent fixture. For example, consider offering finely crafted small plates on just one or two days a week, or serving rare and showstopping

coffees – brewed perfectly, of course – on select afternoons. But although elevating something can produce a real boost for many businesses, it’s a move that requires a lot of thought and pre-planning to ensure it fits in with your wider identity. One lesson echoed by our interviewees is to think about what works for your business – and what doesn’t – before raising the profile of an item or category. Elevating something means doing things a little differently, but this should still fall within the parameters of what makes sense for your operation. And while it may sound obvious, having sufficient knowledge is also key to executing a successful product elevation. Take the time to learn about what it is you’re improving and how to do it to a genuinely high degree – after all, the aim is to stand out for doing something at a higher level, thereby giving your business a USP. Alternatively, consider bringing in an expert who has that knowledge and can either guide you through what’s required or undertake the service themselves. Clearly, when trying to make something stand out for its quality, the last thing you need is to come across as lacking skills, or selling people a product that doesn’t live up to its promises. Put the time in to finesse the offer, as that’s the image you’re presenting to customers. It can feel like yet another moving part to add to the balancing act that owners and operators have to manage day to day. So, to help things get off to a smooth start, we spoke to three owners who’ve spent years refining their business to create something unique and extraordinary for their customers. On the following pages they reveal what goes into elevating a product – and offer advice for other business owners on doing the same.

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SPECIALISM

COFFEE Russell Stradmoor, owner and managing director, Omotesando Koffee, London and worldwide When it appeared in 2011 Tokyo, Omotesando was intended as a year-long pop-up, but its meticulous approach to serving high-quality coffee resonated with customers. The company now has branches around the globe, including one in central London

The original founder of Omotesando Koffee, Eiichi Kunitomo, noticed there were only large-chain coffee shops in the Omotesando area of Tokyo, so he wanted to create a coffee concept that belonged to the neighbourhood and – most importantly – the people. We go by a Japanese saying, ichigoichie, which means ‘once in a lifetime’, and we strive to create an unforgettable coffee experience. Nothing extravagant, but we try to perfect the basics through a balance of taste, smell, texture and attention to detail. That’s what we believe makes a good cup. From the start, Omotesando Koffee was built upon the concept of an Italian espresso bar, but with a Japanese approach to craftsmanship, quality and hospitality. Our iconic ‘koffee cube’ – a square bar that we brew our coffee in – takes inspiration from a traditional tea ceremony, where the host serves their guests on a square tatami mat. These elements naturally elevated our barista and customer interactions and produced a more bespoke speciality coffee experience. When finding a new store, we always plan from the perspective of the barista and how they can best execute their job within the

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surrounding environment. The koffee cube design is unique to the brand and a lot of meticulous planning goes into it, in terms of how far apart the stations are, the reach, the average height of baristas. When you look at a traditional long espresso bar set up, the espresso machine is often between the barista and the customer. That’s why in our set up, our machine is on one side, so the channel of interaction between the barista and the customer is open. That allows for baristas to understand what the customer is looking for in a cup in the shortest amount of time. Regarding our coffee brewing and serving process, we always aim to bring out the best characteristics of each coffee. Between sweetness, acidity, bitterness and mouthfeel, it is necessary to eradicate all negative or unpleasant notes in order to maximise the extraction. There’s no doubt that preparation work is very important in this, and our baristas spend hours sorting and picking out any defects that may diminish the quality of the final cup. Understanding the roast development of the coffee and its characteristics – along with a simple recipe — can help to elevate it. I firmly believe quality food and beverage can be elevated by

“UNDERSTANDING THE ROAST DEVELOPMENT OF THE COFFEE AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS CAN HELP TO ELEVATE IT”

the stories we share in between, which is why our brand story and identity are so important to us. This has certainly helped boost our business. Reputation in any industry is important, and I believe constantly striving for perfection is what upholds this reputation – not only in serving ‘elevated coffee’, but in other aspects as well. Customers are a lot more educated and knowledgeable nowadays, so we must respect that as shokunin (artisans) and as business owners. It’s important to offer a unique experience, one that is memorable to customers, so that – fingers crossed – they come back. We don’t serve an array of food. From a business perspective, offering more food does add to your average ticket size, but our focus is very much on the coffee. In some of our Asian markets we do offer certain items, like Japanese-style sandwiches, but we never introduce food that would ultimately affect the coffee experience. It’s always looked at either as a side item that does not alter the taste profile of the coffee, or something that complements the coffee. In our London store we serve kashi, a square cake inspired by the biscotti you’d receive with an Italian espresso. But overall, we’ve never put a lot of emphasis on food, as it’s always been about the coffee for us since day one, and that will continue to be the focus. While we believe it’s important to be progressive in our approach to coffee, there are many traditional elements that stay consistent. The house-blend espresso we serve is a strong

representation of our brand and ethos. Our London blend is no doubt lighter in profile compared to the original blend we serve in Japan or Hong Kong. However, the main characteristics and components are there. We are proud of the blend we created alongside Assembly Coffee. It took nearly eight months and several rounds of back and forth to get it right, but we got there. When you step into our spaces, the focus is on the product – our minimal design approach allows for customers to reset and enjoy their coffee. Good design isn’t difficult to achieve, but good design with functionality and purpose can be challenging and hard to attain. Often, these elements aren’t visible and are almost seamless. For example, our London counter is 2.3in higher than those we build in Asia, simply because the average guest in the UK is taller in height. All these small details can contribute to the overall customer experience. The advice I would offer to other business owners wanting to elevate their coffee is to have a strong sense of identity. Your identity is your brand and who you are/what you represent. Only a strong sense of identity can create purpose. And with purpose, the hard work and passion naturally comes. Understand your customer and be mindful of what others around you are doing, but don’t be consumed by it – it’s about striking the right balance. Know that you can’t please everyone, but that there is always room for improvement. Be patient. There will always be people who will like your product. ooo-koffee.com

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SPECIALISM

TEA Esther Kungu-Cooper, co-founder and director, PekoeTea, Edinburgh Launched in 2008 to sell high-quality teas, PekoeTea now has a dedicated specialist tea shop and a wholesale operation, both focusing on luxury teas When we started, our specialism was sourcing high-end, single-estate teas, and then we found there was more of a demand for flavoured blends. So, five years ago we began making our own blends, but we wanted to keep the same ethos of sourcing the best single-estate teas. All our blends are made in Scotland, and wherever we can, we source the best-quality Scottish ingredients. The luxury ethos of the business came about later on. It was initially just about trying to find the best teas available, but as we progressed it naturally fell into that luxury space, because we avoided the mass-market options. Our space is specifically designed for tasting and brewing tea – we’re not a traditional sit-down cafe where you’d go for tea and cake. Our focus is purely on tasting teas, such as in our gongfu-style tea experience – we don’t call it a tea ceremony because that wouldn’t be quite right, and it’s our own take on it.

It’s about trying to be respectful of the roots of the tea. But we do want to brew the tea the way it was designed to be brewed. For these experiences we have a lot of very fine oolongs from China that are made by tea masters. People can book out the whole shop for a private, sit-down tasting lasting around two hours, working through each of the teas, talking about why they’re special and seeing them brewed. You get the aroma of the tea leaves, you watch it being brewed and poured in front of you – it’s a whole multisensory experience. One of the rarest and most unique teas we have is a small amount of Scottish-grown tea. It’s completely handmade in Angus and only about two to three kilos are produced each year, but an incredible amount of work goes into it. The tea has a very unique flavour – very sweet, appley and cinnamon-y. We’re constantly shaping and maintaining our luxury ethos and brand image. We’re always looking at

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SPECIALISM

“FOR A SMALL COFFEE SHOP, A CONCISE RANGE DONE REALLY WELL IS MUCH BETTER THAN 20 TEAS WITH LITTLE OR NO KNOWLEDGE BEHIND THEM” 28

the business and asking ourselves how it can be made better. We never sit still and say, “OK, that’s our packaging done, we don’t need to look at it again.” And it’s the same with sustainability, which is also very important to us. We think about what we can make things more sustainable and better for the environment. If coffee shop owners want to elevate their tea, the first thing I’d advise is to learn a bit more about the tea you’re serving. You don’t have to become an expert, but just understand a little more. We do a lot of training for cafes and there are some very simple things we come across a lot that could easily be improved. For example, we’re still surprised at the number of coffee shops that make a green tea using the water from the coffee machine. That almost makes us cry every time we see it! Get a separate kettle or urn for the tea, or a temperature-controlled kettle is even better. Making good tea is actually easier than making good coffee. Just ensure you use the correct water temperature for the tea you’re brewing and don’t steep it for too long. If it’s something like loose-leaf green tea, you don’t want boiling water on it and you don’t want it steeping for five minutes while your customer is having a chat with their friend,

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as it’ll taste horrible when they pour it. Always be mindful of the water temperature and brewing time. It’s a really simple thing to do, but a lot of venues still don’t do it. If business owners are worried that elevating their tea will be expensive you don’t actually need that much equipment, particularly compared to making speciality coffee. You can easily improve your serving of tea with just a few simple things. In terms of selection, I’d recommend a minimum of five or so different blends as a starting point. Something we find with some of our wholesale customers is that if you have a menu with hundreds of different teas, you won’t be able to train your staff to learn about all the varieties. It’s better to have a concise range covering all the basics of what people are looking for, and then have your team trained well, so they know something about each of the teas. For a small coffee shop, a concise range done really well is much better than 20 teas with little or no knowledge behind them. If a coffee shop wanted to start offering specialist tea tastings, it is something that can be done, but make sure you have the knowledge behind you first. pekoetea.co.uk

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FOOD 30

Becks Newton-Meyer, co-owner and chef, Method, Kendal Becks and wife Scarlett opened Method in 2019. They built up a reputation for serving elevated food and it is now a hugely popular dining destination Both Scarlett and myself have always been obsessed with food. Around ten years ago, I was working in a venue that showed me there are cafes spending as much time on daytime food as restaurants do on nighttime food. I wanted to bring that care and attention to daytime food and service. It had always been our dream to have our own place and for food to be the focal point, although the coffee is a massive part of it as well. We use highquality local suppliers and follow the seasons with what we serve. We don’t really do standard things like jacket potatoes. For me, cooking brunch and breakfast and lunch is really creative, because there aren’t any rules. But we also have to keep in mind that there are certain things people will always want on a daytime menu. We always have a Benedict on the menu, but it’ll be a little bit different. Currently, we make it with a fennel salami, chive oil, toasted fennel seeds and pistachios, so you get all your classic flavours, but there’s also a twist. Another is our signature bun, which has mooli, carrot and red onion slaw, crispy confit chicken thigh and Penang sauce in a coconut milk and potato bun. We also want to make sure we cater just as well for vegans, so we have a vegan version with crispy battered aubergine and a Penang sauce without fish stock. Just as much thought goes into the

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vegan dishes as the meat ones. We also have another potato bun loaded with hash browns and maple sausage for people who want something more traditionally breakfasty. We’re making sure there’s something for everyone. We make a chilli-cheese cornbread, which comes with a sour-cream sauce and coriander dressing. We serve it either with streaky bacon or with mushrooms, plus a poached egg and avocado. It’s kind of our version of a traditional full English. But it also has a red onion and lovage salad with a really sweet lemon dressing – which makes the lovage much more palatable – finished up with a smoky seasoning. People have gone wild for it! Our food has definitely become a USP and social media has been key to that. We run the social media ourselves, we take and edit all the pictures, do all the content for the stories – it’s us through and through. If I load up social media stories on Friday night telling people we’re serving an M&M peanut butter brownie or a miso caramel brownie – going behind the scenes to show how they’re made – you really notice the difference on Saturday. People come in and immediately order a brownie because they’ve already seen it being made. The social media side of things has been integral for us because it piques people’s

SPECIALISM

interest in the food we’re passionate about. Putting the effort into making really creative food has been a business boost for us as well, especially as we’re in a small market town. We often hear that people have found us through word of mouth and been recommended to eat here. Something that’s been really helpful in how we operate is using a waitlist app, especially as we don’t have a lot of seats. The app is like a virtual queue, which people can join from home through Instagram or from the front of the cafe using a QR code. It’s been a game-changer for us. In terms of our kitchen and equipment, we get by with what we have! We don’t have a lot of space, but we make it work. When it comes to advice for other independents who want to

raise their food offering, it’s about trusting your instinct and just going with what you think is right for your business. The thing that it always comes back to for us is staying true to the food: is it high quality? Does it taste great? Is it what we stand for? If you’re unsure what to do, talk it through with someone who knows about food. I’ve been a chef for years, but I still go back to other chefs I’ve worked with and ask for their opinion. Scarlett’s mainly a baker, so she takes control of the cakes, while every plate of food that goes out of the kitchen is cooked by me, which is another USP for us – it’s our food, no one else is cooking it. We shut two days a week for that reason, so that we can have control over it. instagram.com/methodcafe

“THE THING THAT IT ALWAYS COMES BACK TO FOR US IS STAYING TRUE TO THE FOOD: IS IT HIGH QUALITY? DOES IT TASTE GREAT? IS IT WHAT WE STAND FOR?”

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FEEL-GOOD FACTOR

Man’s best coffee friend

Amy Pay meets James Shapland, who made his name as the founder of Coffee #1, a national coffee chain that he sold for millions. Still thirsty, he started a new coffee shop business in 2021: Coffi Lab

“During lockdown, everyone was deprived of social interaction and was working from home,” explains James. “Like many people, I bought a dog. Having him around had a huge impact on me; it made me realise how much of an emotional connection you can have with a dog, to the extent that they become family. “Wandering round the leafy suburbs of Cardiff, where I live, I couldn’t find many places where I could get a quality coffee with my dog beside me. This didn’t sit right. Why shouldn’t our dog be included in a trip to a coffee shop? It seemed like it’d

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be a good chance for them to socialise with other dogs and people, which we too could benefit from. That was it; I decided to try to create Coffi Lab – an open, welcoming cafe with great coffee for humans and their canine companions to enjoy.” James knew he had to get the foundation of his cafe right. “It can easily get forgotten when you have a strong USP,” he says. “We are dog-friendly, but our focus is equally on great coffee. It’s in our name: ‘Coffi’ is Welsh for ‘coffee’, while ‘Lab’ is a play on ‘Labrador’. It’s got to be a balance of both those things. In the same way that we don’t

go all in on dogs in the way that cat cafes do with their niche, we keep our coffee offering solid without overcomplicating things. The average dog owner who pops in mid-walk will want a quality coffee, but they aren’t necessarily into technical things like pour overs or an aeropress. That’s why we offer a broad enough coffee menu for most, along with a wide selection of cakes and savoury items. “I like designing spaces, so I invested a lot in the interiors. I didn’t want to make the place dog-friendly at the expense of being comfortable and warm, so we made sure

we had cosy, bright spaces, plenty of room and functional furniture – just like you might want in any other cafe. The shopfitters were more worried about the impact dogs could have on the place than I was; they had concerns about having enough ventilation to avoid doggy smells and potential chaos caused by panting and wagging tails, but neither of these have been an issue for us. The dogs people bring in are so incredibly well behaved, often more so than children!” Lots of cafes claim to be dog-friendly, but James thinks that being truly dogfriendly is more than just allowing dogs. “It needs to be part of the heart of the business, rather than an add-on. I get that being welcoming to dogs has its limitations. Not everyone is a dog lover, and I respect that some people have allergies. But we can’t please everyone

and we make our offering very clear in our branding and name. There is an emotional warmth and a connection that I feel when I go into our stores. It’s something I didn’t feel previously in my cafes; I just love it. I think we partly have the dogs to thank for it! Most of the people in our teams are dog owners. They help to create a consistently welcoming atmosphere for dogs as well as people.” The link with dogs runs deep into the business’s core, says James: “Dogs make a wonderful difference to our lives, so I wanted our business’s social mission to acknowledge that. We formed a partnership with Guide Dogs right from the start, with the hope that we could use coffee shops to raise vital funds and awareness. “I remember chatting to my dad, Tony, about the idea of creating Coffi Lab and

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FEEL-GOOD FACTOR TIPS FOR ATTRACTING FOUR-LEGGED CUSTOMERS Let people know ● Put a sticker on your front door so passers-by know you’re dog-friendly ● Mention you’re dog-friendly on your website ● Share photos of canine customers on social media Set some ground rules ● Have a poster or sign outlining what dogs (and owners) can/can’t do ● Employ a ‘no muddy paws on furniture’ rule to save your upholstery ● Ask owners to keep dogs on leads Make sure there’s enough room ● Spread tables out so that dogs have room to lie down ● Keep walkways clutter-free to avoid things being knocked by waggy tails

“We sell homemade dog biscuits for £1, with half the money going to Guide Dogs. We’ve sold over 41,000 dog biscuits since opening!” the plans to fundraise. On the opening day of our first store, we donated our entire day’s takings to Guide Dogs. It’s something we’ve continued to do with each opening. Sadly, my dad passed away shortly before we launched, but in his memory we named the first Guide Dog we sponsored after him. We’ve made similar tributes in the names we’ve given sponsored dogs since, which is a lovely thing to do. “As well as opening takings, we sell homemade dog biscuits for £1, with half the money going to the charity. There’s a noticeboard in each shop with a fundraising thermometer showing how much we’ve raised to date, photos of

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the dogs we sponsor and photos of dogs enjoying their Coffi Lab biscuits in store. We’ve sold over 41,000 dog biscuits since opening! One of our business milestones is to raise £100,000 for Guide Dogs. We’re currently around the £50k mark, so it seems achievable by the end of 2024. “We’re looking to expand our business in the next three years, first in more suburbs of Cardiff and South Wales, then moving into Bristol. It’s important for us to stay true to the brand, so we’ll focus on leafy neighbourhoods with plenty of dog owners. We’re ambitious, optimistic but realistic, and we reckon we could grow to over 20 stores by 2026.” There are lots more wagging tails to come!

Keep things clean ● Sweep the floor regularly during the day to stop dogs scavenging for crumbs ● Move any pre-prepared or unwrapped food out of reach of dogs ● Between customers, wipe down tables and surfaces dogs come into contact with Make dogs feel welcome ● Provide at least one water bowl and replace/top up water regularly ● Create a menu for dogs – think puppacinos (frothed coconut milk), biscuits or sausages ● Have free mini dog treats nearby to keep antsy dogs distracted

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SHOP FLOOR SURGERY

COFFEE ON WHEELS? They’re the hottest thing in coffee: trikes, bikes, vintage vans, caravans, trucks and horsebox trailers – anything on wheels – kitted out as mobile cafes. But how viable are they, asks Sue Quinn

From tube stations to sports fixtures and food markets to corporate events, coffee outlets on wheels are popping up everywhere. If you’ve ever wondered whether they’re profitable, consider UK-based coffee group Grind. It recently credited its three-strong coffee cart fleet for contributing to a 105% growth in sales.

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So, is coffee on wheels a sound investment for everyone? And what’s involved? It’s definitely a booming sector, says Alan Fox, CEO of the Nationwide Caterers Association (NCASS). “A lot of it is driven by the rising popularity of street food and growing opportunities to trade at street food markets and halls,” he says.

Councils are more willing than they once were for food and drink being to be sold in public spaces. “The public have really taken street food to their hearts, so councils are responding to that,” he adds. Cafe owners see mobile coffee as an extra income stream, and for newcomers to the industry, it’s a way to dip a toe in the

SHOP FLOOR SURGERY water. “It’s a lot lower risk than setting up a coffee shop, with a lower cost to entry,” Fox says. “And if one location doesn’t work, you can travel to a new spot and try somewhere else.”

FLEXIBLE

The boom is also linked to the economic slowdown, says Ric Allan, owner and managing director of Coffee Latino. The Newcastle firm has been converting vehicles into mobile coffee units and selling off-the-shelf vehicles for more than 20 years. “In these trickier times, there are more people being made redundant, and if you’re a bit cheesed off with working for someone, it’s a good option,” he says. “A mobile unit is still a big investment, but it’s a lot cheaper than taking a lease out on a shop. It’s also an asset, so if it doesn’t work out for you, you’re still going to get a good chunk of your money back.” Flexibility is a major attraction, as operators can choose their hours. “It can be a good lifestyle,” Allan says. “We’ve just done one for a guy in the Shetland Isles who’s a retired teacher and he seems to be doing incredibly well.”

BUYING A MOBILE UNIT

There are three main options when it comes to choosing a mobile coffee unit: a new purpose-built vehicle, a vehicle that

needs converting or a vehicle already kitted out. Piaggio Ape 50s, quirky Italian three-wheeled scooters, are a popular new off-the-peg choice, Allan says. At £14,995, it’s a sizeable investment, but the price covers an espresso machine, grinder, starter stock, training and more. The cost of conversions varies according to the work required, but a horsebox trailer or van, for example, might cost £10k- £11k (plus VAT) to refurbish and kit out. “That includes your coffee machine, all gas safety work, electrics, plumbing, training and a bit of start-up stock,” Allan

“A MOBILE UNIT IS A BIG INVESTMENT, BUT IT’S A LOT CHEAPER THAN TAKING A LEASE OUT ON A SHOP. IT’S ALSO AN ASSET, SO IF IT DOESN’T WORK OUT FOR YOU, YOU’RE STILL GOING TO GET A GOOD CHUNK OF YOUR MONEY BACK”

says. The cost of the vehicle for conversion needs to be added to that, of course. There’s growing demand for vintage vans, but think about this carefully, Allan advises. “They’re more complex to convert, there are reliability issues, and because they’re desirable, they’re going up and up in price,” he says. “But they work in terms of footfall and drawing a crowd because of the way they look.” Due to the popularity of conversions, you may need to be patient. At the time of writing, Coffee Latino couldn’t start any new conversions until September 2023 and the work takes at least four weeks.

COMPLIANCE

Regulations across the UK vary, but you may need a street trading licence from your local authority. “Check with your local authority and communicate with them about what you’re doing,” Fox says. He recommends Level 2 food hygiene training for staff, provision for hand washing and of course, the right safety systems, documentation and insurance

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SHOP FLOOR SURGERY

“WHEN THERE ARE ORCAS OUT IN THE SEA AND PEOPLE GO TO LOOK AT THEM, HE ROCKS UP IN HIS VAN AND MAKES A FEW QUID” cover is vital. Fox recommends public, product and employers’ liability, often available as a package. “You generally can’t get on to an event or find yourself a pitch without all three,” he says. NCASS has developed codes of practice so you can check whether your vehicle conversion is fit for purpose.

THE RIGHT PITCH 38

Finding the right location is key. Local councils often have lists of available

pitches, but think outside the box, Fox says. “You may be able to convince the council that there’s a business case for a different spot.” Rather than paying Transport for London a few hundred pounds a month for a pitch outside a Tube or railway station, Allan says good research can help identify less obvious places where people gather. One of his customers has done well with a pitch at a Forestry Commission car park where dog walkers gather. And his

customer in the Shetland Islands uses Facebook to keep track of what the community is up to. “When there are orcas out in the sea and people go to look at them, he rocks up in his van and makes a few quid,” Allan says. For information about training and advice about setting up a mobile coffee business, visit ncass.org.uk or email info@ncass.org.uk For help buying or converting a mobile coffee vehicle, visit coffeelatino.co.uk.

CASE STUDY TATTON PERK Mark Lee-Kilgariff started his mobile coffee business, Tatton Perk, after giving up his job as a probation officer. He now has two coffee shops and the van. “I spent years sat in the park in Knutsford, Cheshire, with my two daughters and always thought a coffee van would do well. We bought the van from an eBay seller who restored the body work and did the paint job. Our espresso guys, Angel Espresso, fitted the gas pipes, electrics, and dual fuel machine. The whole thing cost around £22k, as we used reconditioned machines. We invested heavily in branding – concepts, logo and the look of the brand – and that’s been a huge asset for us. Starting the business was straightforward, albeit bureaucratic. We needed to apply for street trader licences, as we wanted to trade on public roads. We also needed gas certification, portable appliance tests, food hygiene and public liability insurance. The van established the business and helped us test the market before jumping into leases on two fixed premises. But 2023 looks good for the van and we have lots of booking. With the right pitch and enough time to establish yourself, a van can be a very good proposition. Overheads are low and risk

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is minimal compared to long-term leases on fixed premises. It’s tough, though. Standing all day in freezing temperatures with very few customers will test even the toughest characters. And it brings added issues around quality. For example, we have to dial in the grinder frequently throughout the day to compensate for temperature changes and moisture in the air. Rain is an issue, but wind is your worst enemy. You’ll regularly be covered in coffee grinds!”

BE PART OF OUR CAFE COMMUNITY

WHAT YOU’LL GET Six issues of your favourite Boughton’s Coffee House magazine per year delivered to your door

Make sure to never miss a copy of your favourite coffee magazine and join in the conversation online Boughton’s Coffee House is a magazine for the modern coffee shop owner, appealing to the stalwarts of the industry but also engaging with the new bright young stars that are taking their first steps into the world of the cafe community. We are committed to working with industry experts, innovators and creative minds to put together features that would share a wealth of information to streamline, innovate, diversify, rebuild – basically anything that helps the industry develop and build security. As part of this effort we have worked hard to engage online through our social channels and digital media. Taking a multichannel approach, we will continue to deliver high quality content made available in print, in digital and through our socials. We want to continue to get readers involved, so whether you have a question about your business, you want to share some tried-and-tested advice or are passionate about an area and want to kick-start a conversation, get in touch.

NEVER MISS A COPY

The usual mix of news and views from the retail world of tea, coffee and chocolate

Industry insight from the biggest names and their years of practical knowledge

Debate and opinion from the experts on subjects as diverse as corporate social responsibility and slot-roasting

The shop floor surgery, so you can ask the experts for help and advice on problems relating to your business

Visit our website and join the mailing list to receive every issue digitally straight to your inbox for free. You can also contact us to request free print editions Interaction and engagement with top tips and practical advice to boost your business and maximise your revenue

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TEA TIME

MAKING TEA TRANSPARENT Coffee businesses can win customers by looking at transparent and traceable supply chains for the tea they serve as well as the coffee, says Alison Tran of Karma Tea BROUGHT TO YOU BY ESTA

When it comes to speciality coffee, knowing the origin of what you’re drinking has long been the norm for consumers. Walk into any Starbucks and you can order a single-origin coffee from a particular region in a far-flung part of the world. Yet when it comes to tea, we’re still told very little about what we’re drinking. At Karma Tea, we feel that highlighting the origins of tea can be a selling point in the same way as it is for coffee and other products, like wine and chocolate. Here’s why…

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IT’S A TOUR FOR THE TASTEBUDS

Knowing where a tea is from and who made it tells you a lot about its flavour. Just like a quality single-origin coffee, a single-origin tea is an expression of its terroir, ie, the soil the tea was planted in and the seasons the tea grew through. The particular characteristics of a garden can give nuances in taste and add more depth and complexity than tea bags, which are mostly produced by blending many unknown sources to all taste the

same. Offering a product that has full transparency around its origin provides the end consumer with a deeper experience of the product and takes them on a journey of discovery.

IT QUESTIONS THE ETHICS OF PRODUCTION

Conscious consumerism is a growing theme in the food and drink sector, and providing full transparency is an important step in the move to a more ethical industry, particularly for products that span international supply chains like tea. Sadly, much of the tea trade, especially from South Asia and Africa, still operates with a very opaque system, in which tea is sold in bulk at auction and passes through several hands before reaching the end consumer. The exact provenance is often concealed, especially when it comes to blends. Knowing where your tea is produced gives you knowledge about its environmental and labour practices. This is much harder when you’re buying from an unknown source, as a lack of

TEA TIME WHAT DOES TRANSPARENCY LOOK LIKE?

pressure to produce more tea at cheaper prices, and this has created a wide-scale dependence on chemical inputs. There are exceptions, of course, but overall the system has become more and more untenable. If we consumers become more connected to the origins of what we’re drinking through transparent reporting on the origin, we can seek out tea from IT HELPS BUILD gardens that has been grown in a way that A SUSTAINABLE helps to sustain the soil quality, minimise PATH FOR TEA erosion and maintain the biodiversity of Full transparency on tea origins can help the gardens, for example. the tea industry on its path to become We know that clean and sustainable more environmentally aware and environments are becoming more sustainable. Most tea from South important for consumers and Asia and Africa is sold as a it’s our responsibility as commodity crop and is EUROPEAN consumers to help produced on large SPECIALITY clean up the monoculture estates. TEA ASSOCIATION environment and To meet market An inclusive organisation of ensure that we’re demand for cheap enthusiasts, tea baristas, making the best commodity-grade professionals and growers dedicated to promoting all aspects of choices when it tea, growers have speciality tea from bush to cup. comes to buying tea. come under huge transparency makes it easier to turn a blind eye to whether everyone along the supply chain is being paid and treated fairly. It also means that if farmers are not recognised or paid more for producing better-quality leaves (as most will be sold as a commodity at auction and later blended), there is little incentive to do so, and so growers struggle to move up the value chain and enhance their incomes.

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While it’s clear that tracing ingredients is important, it can still seem easier for businesses to quietly ignore the potential issues along the supply chain of a product than to take action. So what small steps we can take to provide more transparency? Firstly, we can seek out tea brands that provide as much detail as possible about the provenance of the tea on their labels, such as the name of the maker and the region where the tea is harvested. Try to source from brands that have a close communication with their suppliers and ideally by via direct trade. It is important to bear in mind that certifications like Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance and organic, while important, are only partly effective. A Fair Trade label doesn’t always mean a better deal for producers. Full transparency goes deeper than a certification or marketing logo.

LET’S HELP RAISE TEA STANDARDS

Sometimes, too much information may seem like a lot for consumers to understand, but if a supplier is transparent about the origins of their tea, it does show that care has been taken to source the tea carefully and this will be reflected in the quality of the product. Ultimately, the coffee industry can play a vital role in the shift to a more transparent and fair tea industry. If we all buy tea in the same way as we buy coffee, with a focus on provenance and taste, and not just price, then the speciality corner of the tea market can thrive and not be stuck in a perpetual race to the bottom in terms of price and quality.

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CAFE COMMUNITY

OUT AND ABOUT We look at the way innovative coffee movers and shakers at home and abroad are developing their brands

NEW BEAR

WORTH A TRIP

he UK-based CBD oils drinks supplier Trip has announced growth of 522% over the last 12 months, making it the fastest growing soft drinks brand in the UK. A key driver of growth has been Gen Z demand: in particular, switching from alcohol to TRIP, which has gained popularity through social media engagement. Studies show that people are increasingly giving up drinking alcohol, and drinking TRIP instead to help them relax in a similar way, unwinding without a hangover.

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Founder Olivia Ferdi described the year’s achievements as “a special milestone for us, showing how far TRIP have come in our mission to destigmatise conversations about mental wellbeing and rework misconceptions about CBD, helping millions prioritise their health.” Trip is supplied by major retail stockists including Waitrose, Harrods, Sainsbury’s, Boots, Ocado and Holland & Barrett as well as hospitality stockists such as Soho House. drink-trip.com

Midlands-based coffee house and bar operator, Bear, will open its sixth site in Ashbourne, Derbyshire this spring. The company is making a substantial investment in the St. John Street premises, breathing new life into the space whilst taking care to preserve its historic architectural features, which include beautiful high ceilings and original exposed brick. The shop will provide specialty coffee, seasonal fresh food, cocktails and craft beer, all served from morning to evening. Bear also recently announced an investment partnership with Poolebased private equity firm, Clark Group, and currently operates five other sites across the Midlands.

CAFE COMMUNITY

GENTLEMEN’S ROASTERY

pecialty coffee roaster, The Gentlemen Baristas, has unveiled a new London roastery that the firm says will help meet growing demand for high-end coffee and provide an engaging environment for education and training. The roaster, which has nine cafe businesses across London, says its new 12,000sq ft state-of-the-art site is six times larger than its previous facility. The Stratford facility also has a dedicated training space, including a cupping room, Specialty Coffee Association-specification school and

UK Barista Championship practice area. The Gentlemen Baristas has installed a new, environmentally friendly 35kg Loring Roaster at the new facility. Other sustainability initiatives at the site include the introduction of recyclable and reusable coffee bags and a refill service for retail customers. Since opening its first store in Borough, London, in 2014, The Gentlemen Baristas now operates a nationwide wholesale coffee channel, supplying cafes, restaurants and hotels, alongside a direct-to-consumer packaged coffee subscription.

GET SCHOOLED Roaster 200 Degrees has announced a new coffee shop and barista school in the heart of Chester, to open in May. Situated on Bridge Street, the Grade II-listed premises will seat 90 customers and feature the roaster’s signature interior design with a fireplace and cosy armchairs. The shop will be the company’s 19th UK venue and its third in the North West. It will serve sustainably sourced, freshly roasted coffee, a selection of deli ciabattas, toasties and soups, plus cakes and pastries. Hot chocolate, a selection of teas, smoothies and milkshakes will also be available. The Chester shop will also feature a barista school, with courses ranging from simple home brew methods to advanced barista techniques. Stephen Fern, managing director, says, “It’s really exciting that we’re also bringing one of our barista schools to Chester. This is the place for coffee enthusiasts and professionals alike to enjoy fun, hands-on courses.” 200degs.com

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CAFE COMMUNITY STARTUP GUIDE

SUSTAINABLE DEMAND

onsumers are increasingly demanding ethically sourced coffee, according to the Fairtrade Foundation. Even when inflation means they have to change the way they shop, they still largely expect businesses to do the right thing in terms of sourcing, says the group. A new consumer poll commissioned for Fairtrade Fortnight, held in March, revealed that nearly two thirds (64%) of

Carnival Coffee Roasters has launched a guide to help new South East London cafes and coffee shops set up and create unique coffee experiences, including help with implementing sustainable practices. The independent coffee roasting company based in Penge, South East London, has produced a new partners’ guide that offers valuable insights for new startup cafes and coffee shop owners. Carnival Coffee Roasters offers only sustainable and ethicallysourced specialty coffee and works with coffee shops, restaurants, event companies, offices, and businesses in the South East, supplying its singleorigin coffee on a wholesale basis. The launch of the guide coincides with the expansion of Carnival Coffee Roasters’ wholesale push-bike delivery service to ethically-minded cafes, hotels, and restaurants in the local area to help businesses reduce their carbon impact. carnivalcoffee.co.uk

the British public either agree or strongly agree that buying sustainably sourced food in the supermarket is ‘a lifestyle change you can make to help protect food grown in countries at risk of climate change’. Kerrina Thorogood of the Fairtrade Foundation says, “If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that the UK’s food stocks are dependent on supply chains that are, in turn, reliant on complex factors operating smoothly in the background.”

WORK AND PLAY

We were delighted to pop in to Bisque Coffee, a new coffee shop with an emphasis on work and play, which opened its doors in Southampton earlier this year. The high street cafe is owned and run by 21-year-old law student Fiza Rahman, who was keen to offer a space for students and remote workers to enjoy. Fiza says, “I wanted to bring something different to the city. At Bisque, we want people to have a space where they can study and work, and we want people to enjoy great coffee and cake alongside all of this. We also have a meeting room in the cafe.” For Fiza, interior design played a major part in the creation of the cafe. With cool, muted tones throughout and a range of seating options, she wants to cater for all cafe visitors. “We want our customers to feel like they are staying in a nice place with a warm and comforting atmosphere.”

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