< Previous30 BUSINESS DIVERSITY boughtonscoffeehouse.com There are multiple benefits for cafes to introduce more vegan options on their menus, and it can definitely create more profit for them. People are now reducing their meat and dairy intake for environmental and ethical reasons. There are a lot of different drives going on and people are interested in the subject, so by offering more of those options you’ll be appealing to a much bigger market than just people who are vegan. It’s really easy to create tasty, healthy, vegan-friendly meals with enough calories and protein on a budget and still make a profit. Just be sensible with your pricing. Whether you’re buying in or preparing the food yourself, choose things that are in season where you can, and provide options with a mixture of grains, legumes, vegetables and fruit. All these things can be some of the cheapest foods and they make wholesome, satisfying meals. In terms of specific items that cafes could offer, it’s very straightforward to keep things accessible and affordable. If they’re buying in from suppliers and want to keep it simple, consider sandwiches and wraps with interesting and healthy fillings, salads, soups, falafels and even vegan-friendly sausages and burgers. Those are all good options if you’re looking to prepare food in-house as well, but there are also lots of other great and simple things you can make. The choices are endless, really! Then there are treats and sweet choices: cakes, pastries, flapjacks, muffins and cookies can all easily be made vegan or bought in. It’s good to have those things that people can grab and take away, as well as sit in with. If you’re going to have just one or two vegan options, go with popular choices, like a buddha bowl or a salad with lots of different ingredients, or even a vegan burger with sweet potato fries. Offering more vegan items isn’t expensive. Stick to wholefoods and if you’re making your menu in-house, the amount you can sell your food for – compared to what you’re paying for those items – means it’s easy to make a profit, particularly with dishes you can make in bulk, like a vegetable chilli, soup or curry. There are some customers who won’t want to try new foods, of course, and will just want something simple – like a sandwich or a burger – but you can always provide that as well, just a plant-based version! Make sure you advertise whatever vegan options you’re serving. Using words like ‘whole foods’, ‘plant-based’ and even just ‘vegan’ can entice people to come in. Serving items that look nutritionally appealing – and may even have the calories and the protein content written on the menu – is good as well, so that consumers know more about what they’re buying and eating. Providing more vegan choices can really help with a cafe’s image, showing that you’re more ethically minded as more people are interested in making environmentally friendly choices. It’s an all-round benefit for businesses – it just makes sense! thevegannutritionist.co.uk CHANGE: PUT MORE VEGAN OPTIONS ON YOUR MENU Rose Wyles, vegan nutritionist and consultant Rose advises individuals and businesses on creating healthy, balanced, plant-based diets and meal plans ROSE WYLES’ THREE TIPS FOR INTRODUCING MORE VEGAN OPTIONS ONE SPEAK TO YOUR SUPPLIERS See what vegan choices are available from wherever you normally buy. They might already have good pre-prepared options. TWO TRIAL TO FIND WHAT WORKS Trialling items or offering them as specials lets you see if a dish is worth putting on the menu permanently. THREE FOCUS ON NUTRITIOUS AND BALANCED FOODS Show customers the nutritional benefits of a dish – that it’s high in protein for example.31 BUSINESS DIVERSITY boughtonscoffeehouse.com Slot-roasting is essentially hiring out a roaster, which might include the use of everything in the roastery space. The way we operate at Pharmacie is that if a client is hiring the roaster per hour, what they choose to do with that time – how many batches they want to roast, how much feedback they want, whether they want to cup the coffees immediately afterwards – is entirely up to them. What clients get for their fee will vary slightly from roaster to roaster. Slot-roasting might appeal to someone who’s considering setting up their own roastery and wants to get their training and practice in, to see whether it’s something they really want to do before spending tens of thousands of pounds on buying their own roaster, plus all the other costs involved with creating your own coffee brand separately. So, some people see it as a segue into starting their own roasting business. But for the most part, it’s coffee professionals who are either owners or heads of coffee, and who want more control over their coffee, but don’t necessarily want to start a separate business. And if you’re sensible about slot-roasting and choose the right space and roaster to hire, then you end up saving money, too. We’re a small team and we have a very ‘DIY’ ethic. We started offering slot-roasting partly because we knew that it was a way to make money from a really expensive piece of equipment when we weren’t using it. Our set-up means that our roaster isn’t used in the afternoons, so that’s when we hire it out. Mostly our clients are independent business owners and coffee house owners who really care about coffee. Depending on the experience of the client, we offer two days of training, with practical advice based on tasting, in order to get people to understand what it is that they’re doing when they’re roasting. It’s been proved time and time again that anyone can roast coffee, but not everyone can do it well! Most people come to us to slot-roast because they have the desire to learn more. Saving money isn’t the main reason or drive – it’s much more about skill sharing, growing networks and collaboration, and expanding their knowledge beyond making coffee. In specialty coffee there’s more room for thinking outside of the box like this – independents should always be looking out for ways to share knowledge. Slot-roasting has definitely become more popular recently. We’ve had a lot of interest in the service in the last six months and we currently have about four or five clients that use the equipment regularly – we’ve even a got waiting list! Roasting coffee is our passion and I think that’s why people want to come here to slot-roast with us, because they share that passion. pharmacie.coffee CHANGE: TRY SLOT-ROASTING Tash Murphy, manager of Pharmacie Coffee Roasters, Hove Roaster and coffee shop Pharmacie is one of the growing number of cafes to hire out its roaster to clients and offer roastery training TASH MURPHY’S THREE TIPS TO START SLOT-ROASTING ONE REACH OUT TO DIFFERENT ROASTERIES Find out who offers slot-roasting in your area. If no-one does, ask roasteries if they’ll consider it. Roasters often aren’t working at capacity so it might appeal to them. TWO GET USED TO CUPPING COFFEES Before becoming a slot-roaster, you need to be cupping and tasting coffees regularly, so that you can really consider what it is you want when you get to the roastery. THREE DON’T SEE IT PURELY AS A COST-SAVING EXERCISE It could save you money, but you still need to be prepared to put in care, attention and time to roast great coffee. A REUSABLE CUP FEATURING COFFEE HUSK. DESIGNED IN SYDNEY, MADE FOR THE WORLD. # H U S K E E C U P # H U S K E E S W A P H U S K E E . C O @ h u s k e e c u p3333 boughtonscoffeehouse.com Watch House founder Roland Horne reveals its new space in Somerset House following a merger with Fernandez & Wells 33 Enter through a door from the courtyard into the East Wing of Somerset House and you’ll walk into some serious coffee-brewing action. Somerset House, one of the capital’s largest creative art communities and home to The Courtauld Institute of Art as well as a range of events including ice-skating and fashion shows, has for many years been a destination in its own right. Its prominent cafe reopened at the end of February after a transformation by new operator, ‘coffee, bar, eatery’ Watch House, then closed for several weeks during lockdown, but will reopen in line with the easing of restrictions. Until the end of 2019 the cafe here was run by Fernandez & Wells, coffee duo Jorge and Rick, two of the original pioneers of the London specialty coffee scene 15 years ago. Watch House’s arrival at Somerset House marks the merger of the two companies. “Rick and I refer to it as a merger,” says Watch House founder and MD Roland Horne (inset, page 34). “But it’s an acquisition. We paid a premium for the business.” The possibility of acquiring Fernandez & Wells reached Horne via mutual coffee connections. In 2018 Watch House’s coffee supplier Ozone acquired Hasbean, Fernandez & Wells’ coffee suppliers. Horne, a long-time supporter of Fernandez & Wells, recognised a shared ethos between the two brands and approached them. “There has to be an Coffee Blend BRANCHING OUT Watch House Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA watchhouse.com and @watchhouse3434 BRANCHING OUT boughtonscoffeehouse.com element of synergy and similarity between you and the brand you’re buying,” he says, “I met with Rick and we agreed a deal.” Horne hired a consultant who, as Head of Integration, was responsible for undertaking due diligence in the three months leading up to the acquisition. “We had a full MOT and a look under the bonnet before we bought,” says Horne. “Tracking data, looking at supply chains – it was a costly exercise.” Satisfied with the findings, the sale proceeded and the refurbishment that followed saw the site closed for two months. The finished result certainly seems to satisfy Watch House’s vision – ‘Beautiful, unique spaces, amazing food and modern coffee’ – yet one of the biggest challenges of the acquisition, says Horne, was redesigning the Grade I-listed space and working with the original Georgian features. “But,” he says, “it was also a genuine pleasure, more of an opportunity.” The revamp included installing new furniture and closing off the kitchen area that had previously been on show. The cafe’s prestigious location in Somerset House – formerly home to dignitaries and royals including Elizabeth I before the original house was demolished and rebuilt in 1775 – is impressive for an independent who first opened in 2013 in its namesake: a tiny 19th century watch- house on London’s Bermondsey Street that was originally built to shelter watchmen guarding the graveyard behind it. Horne, who had founded an aquarium design business after finishing university, was introduced to the watch-house site by a friend who worked in coffee and, despite Horne’s limited F&B and coffee “I want to change the notion of being a multi- site operator. We’re not reinventing the wheel, but we want to do things really well and make a positive impact”35 BRANCHING OUT W ORDS JENNIE MILSOM PHO T OS LIZ GRE GG. THEW A T CHHOUSE. C OM SOMERSETHOUSE. ORG. UK boughtonscoffeehouse.com MERGER AND ACQUISITION CHECKLIST Don’t overpay for a business – do your due diligence first and don’t rush. It will be worth the time and money invested. Choose your sites well. View sites, visit locations and meet agents. Check the sun orientation and outside seating opportunities. Ask yourself, would you want to sit in that space? Look after your staff. They are one – if not the biggest – value add as part of your growth. Stay true to your original vision and never be too proud to protect your brand. Say no or turn down an offer if it’s not right. It’s key to keep looking at your growing business from a customer perspective as much as you can. Don’t be ashamed to learn from your competitors and be honest about it and be open to others learning from you. Keep reminding yourself of the businesses and brands that inspired you – it will help you to hold on to the magic you had at the start. Challenge yourself to improve on the acquisition of quality the more staff and sites you have. Buck the trend and be proud to do so. experience, he took it on, remodelling it into a cafe and launching the business. He ran his first Watch House with “a youthful naivety”, taking inspiration from ‘clinical, minimal’ Blue Bottle Coffee, the Californian roaster and operator, and approached the business from a customer viewpoint. People flocked. “By luck we’d found a good mix of residential and commercial,” he says. “I’ve always enjoyed building things and was intrigued by the notion of building sites.” During the five years that followed, Watch House steadily expanded, opening larger sites at Shad Thames, Fetter Lane and Spitalfields. Horne was approached by Department of Coffee and Social Affairs, the group well publicised for buying up independent operators, who offered him a seven-figure sum for the business. He turned it down, “We should be celebrating people’s achievements and aspiring to push commercial success,” he says. Instead, he secured a £2.1 million investment and galvanised the brand, temporarily closing and reformatting Fetter Lane, the ‘black sheep’ of the portfolio. “We spend a lot on our fit-outs,” he says. The redesign paid off – per square foot it’s now their highest turnover site. The newly designed space at Somerset House is a grander, more stately beast, extending over a handful of high- ceilinged rooms. There’s a state-of- the-art brew bar at the entrance and seating is plentiful with bars tucked into cosy alcoves beneath huge windows looking on to the courtyard, smartly upholstered benches and tables dotted with posies of flowers. Horne’s ambition for Somerset House was to nail the aesthetics, the food and the coffee. “For me, it’s about coming to a space that satisfies a list of customer experiences. People want a clear idea of who you are,” he says. “The downside to a food offering is it does diminish your coffee side, generally,” he says. As part of the acquisition, Fernandez & Wells staff transferred to the Watch House group and there are three more former Fernandez & Wells sites to be relaunched under the Watch House brand. In addition, there are four new Watch House sites in the pipeline – two in the City, two in the West End – and they also plan to launch a roastery in Maltby Street near London Bridge and bring their coffee supply in-house. Expanding successfully to multiple sites while staying true to your original vision and values isn’t easy to pull off and Horne believes only a handful of multi-site independent operators have achieved it. When he made the decision to go cashless in their Bermondsey Street site, for example, takings dropped by 20% but part of their goal was to be as paperless as possible. And then there’s the issue of staffing – “When you expand sustainably you have to build up your team,” he says. While expanding and opening more sites is clearly on his agenda, creating ‘cookie-cutter’ sites is not. “I want to change the notion of being a multi-site operator. 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Free Barista Training *Refurbished Packages also available Traders Coffee Ltd, 274 Ewell Road, Surbiton, Surrey KT6 7AG 020 8390 0311traning@coffeebay.co.uk www.coffeebay.co.uk Just £145 ex V AT per month37 THE FEEL-GOOD FACTOR boughtonscoffeehouse.com Helping everyone from the homeless to providing workplace opportunities for people facing barriers to employment, Spoon is proof positive of the huge potential in a social enterprise business Local heroes A cafe run on the principle that everyone is welcome, regardless of their ability to pay, might not seem an obvious strategy for business success. But if social impact has a value, then Spoon Cafe in Glasgow is knocking it out of the park. Once a hospitality training facility for people with learning disabilities, the cafe and catering service supports a wide range of vulnerable people in the community. But it took a major blow to Unity, the charity of which it is part, for the cafe, now run as a social enterprise, to happen. Chief executive Emma Soanes explains that Unity’s trustees were forced to re-evaluate the charity’s operation four years ago when it lost a key contract to deliver services relating to homelessness. At first, they wondered whether they would be able to continue, but quickly realised the full potential of the training facility was not being realised. “Perversely, it forced us to be a bit more creative in how we offered help,” Soanes says. After a six-week refurbishment, the facility reopened as the cafe it is today. Alongside top-notch coffee and simple fresh meals, it offers training and work experience to adults with learning difficulties and others who face barriers to employment. And thanks to the generosity of customers, it gives free meals away to people affected by poverty, homelessness or other disadvantages. Located in the rapidly gentrifying Merchant City part of Glasgow, Spoon doesn’t try to compete with the high-end cafes that populate the area. Its coffee is just as good (in fact, it has a loyal following among office workers), but the food is simpler and less expensive.“We do it well and it’s very affordable,” says Soanes. Spoon is able to offer free food and drink to those who can’t afford it thanks to the success of its Pay It Forward 3738 scheme, largely funded by customers who round up their bills or make donations. The system works discreetly; customers aren’t directly asked if they’d like to give money. “We think that would be a bit pushy,” Soanes says. Instead, there’s a simple note on every table explaining how the system works. Importantly, beneficiaries don’t need to ask for free food, they simply present a Pay It Forward card that’s indistinguishable from the cafe’s loyalty cards. These are distributed by Spoon’s partner organisations, including homeless charities and women’s refuges, to people in need. “We really wanted to offer people free food in the moment they need it, but to do it in a way that removes the need for them to ask for it,” Soanes says. “There is very little dignity in asking for free food.” Soanes modestly underplays the scheme’s success. “We know it’s not life changing, but we think offering people who need it a couple of hot lunches during the week, gives them one less thing to worry about.” The scheme is so well supported by paying customers that there are sufficient funds to not only cover the cost of free meals throughout the year, but also to cover the costs of Spoon’s annual Meet Santa breakfast, which provides a delicious Christmas meal and gifts for families living in extreme poverty. The cafe currently employs around 17 staff, including four people with learning difficulties, and everyone receives the Scottish Living Wage of £9.30 per hour. Spoon also runs a work placement scheme, typically for people under the age of 25 who face obstacles to employment. This might mean they’ve experienced mental health issues or spent some time in care. Sometimes this throws up challenges. “We want to operate as a high- quality cafe but of course we have staff who lack some experience, so we have to balance that,” Soanes says. “It basically means that everyone in the team has to work just that little bit harder.” Over time, though, Spoon has been warmly received by the community, and overcome, at least in part, misconceptions about its mission. “People did have, and to some extent still do have, the perception that if your business is a social enterprise or part of a charity it will be substandard,” Soanes says. “I find that a little infuriating because it’s a very old-fashioned view.” Key to Spoon’s success has been building up a solid base of customers who return again and again because they love the offering, not because it’s giving back to the community. Soane’s says that “pity customers” – those who come in once or twice to see what the cafe’s about, buy something and never return – are valued. “But what we want is for people to come in and enjoy the food and the coffee, and as a by-product be able to support what we do in the longer term.” Spoon has worked hard to build up this loyal customer base, reaching out to community groups, including those working with the homeless and LGBT communities, and making the cafe available after hours as a venue for events and meetings. In turn, Spoon has been embraced by these groups, who help them raise money. “We’ve really prioritised making friends, I think that’s the best way to describe it,” Soanes says. “My advice to anybody looking to do anything like this, is to collaborate. And there are organisations out there doing wonderful things, and you can actually upset the apple cart a bit by inadvertently trying to replicate what other people are doing.” Is there one piece of advice she’d give other coffee businesses who want to give back to their community? “One of our new values is Be Brave,” Soanes says. “We’ve made a commitment to have a go at stuff. We don’t always know how it’s going to work out, but we’ll absolutely have a bash.” THE FEEL-GOOD FACTOR “We really wanted to offer people free food in the moment they need it, but to do it in a way that removes the need for them to ask for it” Quote: Coffee 03 Call us on 01274 979920 Info@coffeesafe.com www.coffeesafe.com CoffeeSafe work in close partnership with leading industry manufacturers, suppliers and service providers to deliver compliance with Pressure Systems Safety Regulations. For more information please contact using the below details Next >