FEATURE | Coffee Loyalty
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beans Most Premier retailers will be aware f the coffee to go opportunity, but, combine it with an effective loyalty mechanic and the profits can be positively perky.
O
nce known as a nation of tea drinkers, recent years have witnessed a dramatic shift in UK shoppers’ out of home hot drinks of choice, with caffeine cravers increasingly swapping bags for beans. In fact, according to Kantar data from 2021, coffee now accounts for more than half of total hot drinks category spend, overtaking tea and hot chocolate combined. Out of home coffee sales in the UK were also up 76% in the third quarter of 2021,
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with much of that growth having been delivered by retail outlet vending machines as shoppers reclaimed the high-streets following earlier lockdowns. It’s a trend that’s all to familiar to Sheffield-based Premier retailer Mandeep Singh, for whom coffee, and to be specific, specialty coffee, such as ‘Latte Macchiatos’ and ‘Flat Whites’, have become a major footfall driver. The quality cups created by the store’s unbranded barista-style coffee machine is certainly a draw, but, as Mandeep explains,
