Tea & Coffee focus: Choice beverages
Extended opening hours have enabled high street pubs and bars to double up as all-day coffee bars, competing with the likes of Starbucks.
The Barroombar chain, which opened nine years ago and has spread to 16 sites across the UK, uses First Choice Coffee as a supplier. Ross Sanders, operations director of Barroombar, got the idea after he saw a First Choice machine in a high street coffee retailer.The Black and White bean-to-cup machine produces consistent coffee at the touch of a button.
The machine has recently been installed at the refurbished Barroombar in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Following its success and popularity there, there are now plans to roll it out across the chain nationwide.
Harry Dickson, general manager at the Stratford-Upon-Avon Barroombar, has noticed a real improvement in the coffee.
"With the Black and White machine and the Grand Café range we can be confident that we are giving customers coffee that is always of the same high quality," he says.
"We had full on-site training from the First Choice Coffee training team and every member of our staff is able to make all the drinks on offer to the same excellent standard."
There has proved to be a real market for coffee at Barroombar, says Harry. "We have been asking customers to fill out comment cards and have found the response to the coffee really positive. Coffee is a big part of our business and I think we give people a real alternative to the high street coffee chains and cafés.
"We offer a full table service at Barroombar so there's no waiting in line."
Martin Morrell, business development director of First Choice Coffee, agrees. "Coffee could give lots of pubs a boost in terms of profits and customers, with even a small pub serving 50 speciality coffees a day making around a 65 per cent profit," he says.
"Since the smoking ban, pubs and bars have really begun to appeal to new customers who appreciate their cleaner, fresher image - this fits in perfectly with serving coffee.
"It has the added bonus of making pubs and bars smell great, filling them with the aroma of freshly brewed coffee that's definitely a pleasant and welcome alternative to cigarette smoke."
First Choice Coffee also supplies the bar chain with syrups, tea and point-of-sale material.
Harry says: "At the moment, lattes are proving the most popular style of coffee but we are looking to push the other drinks. We can now really extend our portfolio and I want to take advantage of this and build it up in a way that's similar to a wine list.
"When staff offer customers coffee they are careful to give them a choice from what's available - this includes everything from lattes, cappuccinos and mochas right through to flavoured lattes."
