Ground force - pubs face a challeng in the current coffee boom

Walk down any high street and you will see a new coffee bar. But despite this boom, pubs have a lot to learn

Coffee is enjoying a bit of a renaissance at the moment. Coffee bars are springing up all over the nation's high streets, shopping centres and train stations in response to an insatiable consumer appetite for espressos, mochas and cappuccinos that has never been greater.

Figures from The Publican Newspaper Market Report 2000, a survey of over 1,000 licensees, recently revealed that the coffee and tea category is the fourth biggest growth area in the on-trade with over a third of all publicans recording an increase in sales last year.

Unfortunately, despite this unprecedented boom, finding a decent cup of coffee in pubs continues to be a fruitless task for the majority of drinkers. The simple message from both consumers and suppliers is that the UK pub industry needs to wake up and smell the coffee.

Hot beverages in general are not particularly high on the list of priorities for most publicans. More often than not, an order for a black filter will send staff scampering into the backroom for the kettle and jar of Nescafé. Or if you're lucky result in a stale cup of coffee from a luke-warm pot that's been stewing on a hot plate for the last three hours.

With this in mind, and Starbucks, Costa Coffee and friends inevitably just round the corner, serving a variety of drinks from almond flavoured espresso to a vanilla latte, the choice for the consumer remains an easy one. According to James Parker, director for Food Conexxions and food service consultant for Gaggia, the UK pub industry is slowly coming round to the idea of treating coffee as more than a peripheral concern. "The industry as a whole has been really missing out on a category that can deliver so much more than at present," he said.

"The big companies are moving very slowly but are beginning to question why their pubs are letting the coffee shops pinch their business."

The neglect shown by licensees to coffee seems all the more surprising when you consider the increasing importance attached to the dry side of their business - particularly in rural outlets.

Parker added: "Seventy-five per cent of pub turnover is food related, and part of that food experience is finishing with a good coffee. It's the last memory a customer has when he or she leaves your pub and you want them to leave with a good taste in their mouth. Also, it's a terrific margin to stick on the end of a meal and signifies a fantastic return."

However, quality coffee does not, erm, grow on trees! In order to make coffee the way it ought to be made, a coffee machine is essential - a contraption hitherto avoided by publicans like the plague.

In addition to its actual cost, for outlets with a rapid turnover of staff, the benefits of coffee are soon outweighed by the time, effort and hassle involved in training new recruits to use and maintain the machine.

However, help is at hand thanks to the arrival of fully automated coffee makers capable of turning a coffee bean into an espresso, cappuccino or filter coffee more quickly than you could open a jar of instant.

Gaggia, a leading coffee machine manufacturer has introduced the Syncrony machine, a stylish-looking fully automatic, digital espresso coffee machine aimed at laying publicans' cappuccino concerns to rest.

"It's 100 per cent idiot proof" claimed Ragne Leiderby, Gaggia national sales manager. "It does absolutely everything for you at the touch of a button and is perfect for publicans who haven't got hours and hours spare to train their staff."

Coffee manufacturers have gone to great lengths in their quest for both quality coffee and simplicity. Banbury-based Espressione, set up just three months ago, has introduced a unique "pod" concept to the UK market. The Amie pod, resembling a sophisticated tea bag, consists of seven grams of 100 per cent Arabica ground coffee compacted under extreme pressure between two sheets of filter paper.

Espressione director Jonathon Hudson-Evans said: "The pod machine is perfect for pubs with between 25 and 75 covers. It's small, compact and doesn't need to be plumbed in.

"An hour after you receive the equipment you'll be making coffee for your customers. It is imperative to get the grindology right, and the pod cuts out all the hassle and margin of error.

"It's consistently good quality coffee, there's no mess and once used, the pod is easy to throw away."

Despite these innovations, the more traditional manual coffee makers are not about to disappear. Melvyn Weisbaum, from leading coffee supplier Coffeemakers, said: "It's the manual coffee makers that provide the real theatre behind the bar as well as providing excellent point of sale."

If it's training you're worried about, the suppliers have got that covered too. Training can range from an informal run-through of how the equipment works to a professional Level 2 NVQ qualification.

Autobar Beverage Systems offers the comprehensive Barista training scheme endorsed by the Hospitality Training Foundation. Business development manager Steve Geipel said: "Training is key. We found that 90 per cent of people making cappuccinos burn the milk, and there's no need for it - you wouldn't serve burnt toast would you? It isn't difficult to learn how to make a cappuccino or espresso if you understand how and why to do things."

In addition to training, the majority of suppliers offer a comprehensive selection of point-of-sale material including cups, menus, shot glasses as well as business builder information packs and extensive support schemes should any of the equipment go wrong.

The profit margins of coffee make good reading too - only second in the on-trade to cordials. At between 30 and 70 per cent depending on circumstances, the yield from coffee should not be underestimated.

A visit to the price calculator, at www.espresione.co.uk, reveals that a pub selling 50 cappuccinos seven days a week at £1.50 a cup would generate an impressive £2,275 in takings, £1,850.33 of which would be gross profit - enough to pay the wages of one member of staff every month.

In addition to cappuccinos and espressos, coffee can be served under several different guises. Nicholas Peter, territory manager at Illy coffee, suppliers of several top London style bars, encouraged experimentation.

"We've teamed up with bartenders to produce various cocktails using Illy coffee and Absolut vodka - and they go down extremely well," he said. "The opportunity is there to take advantage of the flexibility of coffee."

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