Coffee: make a profit from the daily grind

By Ian Boughton

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Coffee Wetherspoon

Coffee: maximise hot drink sales
Coffee: maximise hot drink sales
Ian Boughton explains how serving coffee can boost takings during typically quiet periods and bring in a whole new clientele to your pub. It is no...

Ian Boughton explains how serving coffee can boost takings during typically quiet periods and bring in a whole new clientele to your pub.

It is no longer odd to order coffee in a pub. Most chains now have a coffee project in place, although too many houses are still stuck on a tiny number of hot beverage sales.

But the one they all look at is JD Wetherspoon, which in mid-May hit 600,000 coffees a week for the first time, and now counts itself among the UK's top 10 coffee operators. How did the company do it?

Wetherspoon's coffee is by Lavazza, whose sales director Barry Kither says that the chain's success came from strategy and mindset.

"The lesson is that Wetherspoon's coffee project was led from the top. At the very first staff training course we ran, the chief executive, John Hutson, walked in, and everyone knew the board was serious — and they have never wavered," he says.

"I think they had predicted a fall in sales of pints, so they put their minds to ambitious targets in coffee."

Wetherspoon also took a unique and practical view to staff support.

"Their management appreciated that serving coffee takes longer than pulling a pint, and that this can cause tension behind a bar — so they said to their staff: 'Yes, we understand that a tray of cappuccinos is going to take longer than a tray of pints — don't worry about it, we're with you on this.' They were, of course, very aware of the profit in coffee!

"And now, they tell us this concentration on coffee has brought them a new customer mix, with a move towards those who are most likely to buy food."

Wetherspoon's coffee machines are supplied by the same people who supply McDonald's and Starbucks. This is First Choice, where managing director Elaine Higginson says that the Wetherspoon principle works in all sizes of pub.

"You have to really want this success. Don't just hope for it — make the time to sit in a coffee bar and see how they work, then make your own coffee offer a visual one. Sit your machine on your bar, and promote your coffee with your meal deals," she says.

"Once you think about how to drive your coffee business, you'll understand how you can be as good as anyone on the high street. We've proved this in small pubs as much as we have in Wetherspoon outlets."

Coffee Revolution

The stars of the high-street coffee revolution are espresso coffees — cappuccinos, lattes and mochas. But there is a helpful new trend towards filter coffees, which are easier to make.

At Drury Tea & Coffee of London, director Marco Olmi's family blended the espressos used in the first coffee-bar boom of the 1950s, but even he says espresso may not be the way.

"The customer will be much happier with a well-made filter coffee than with a badly-made espresso, and a good filter coffee will get you started at a very high level of quality, very inexpensively," he says.

"But if you really want to serve espresso, it doesn't have to be a big machine. Our Rancilio Epoca can be adapted with an automatic milk frother, and be run off a 13-amp plug, for under £1,600. If you choose a machine that takes espresso pods, you save the cost of a grinder, and the mess."

(Pods are like circular tea bags; there is another no-mess system called "capsules", which are used in the Nespresso machines, with new variations by Lavazza, Metropolitan Kimbo, and Gaggia. For low volumes of espresso, both are acceptable options).

Whatever you do, says the entire coffee trade, never use a carafe on a hotplate. These give coffee a life of 20 minutes at best, and yet in many pubs they brew and stew all day.

By contrast, inexpensive "bulk brewers" and airpots are now sufficiently hi-tech to keep one of the world's very greatest coffees in good condition for maybe two hours.

At Cooper's Coffee of Huddersfield, managing director David Cooper says that explaining this to barstaff is essential. In Italy, the "barista" understands both coffee and alcohol — in Britain, the two jobs are still far apart.

"Too many pubs don't bother training staff on coffee — but if you're hoping to bring in customers from the high street, it had better be good!" he states.

"If you don't have the budget for espresso, fresh filter coffee held in insulated flasks is a fantastic, foolproof method with no great expense or skill required. It works out at typically 6p to 8p per cup, so you can turn filter coffee into a promotional feature — you can offer a very high-quality 'guest' filter coffee at a fairly minimal cost."

Competition

The ale trade will readily understand the craft of coffee, says Jeremy Torz of Union Hand-Roasted, one of London's craft coffee roasters. He was the roaster who worked with Whyte & Mackay's blender Richard Paterson, to create menus of top coffees partnered with top malts.

"How do you compete with coffee shops? Consider what the customer will want — look at the high-street coffee shops, and see the mums with strollers trying to find seats, and the businessmen trying to find somewhere for their laptops," he says. "You've probably already got the space they want, and you're still paying rates on those morning and afternoon periods when your bar is empty — so put a few pastries on the bar, and let people know that you're open at these times for great coffee. Invest a few quid in airpots, buy some decent coffee, and you're started."

There is a quality parallel with ale, adds Torz.

"The Gold Cup standard is the coffee equivalent to Cask Marque — it certifies that coffee is handled and brewed to the right standard. It's now understood that coffee has complex standards, and ale enthusiasts and malt enthusiasts find they share the same lexicon of tastes and flavours with coffee drinkers."

The profitable follow-up is to do the same with tea.

"Tea is the opportunity to fill up your dead afternoon times," says Nick Kilby of Teapigs, the company that pioneered high-quality tea in a new kind of pyramid tea-bag format.

"But customers know supermarket tea is a penny a bag, so they are not going to be impressed if they see it hanging out of your teapot at £1.75. The secret of tea is, accept that your customers already know there's a better drink to be had, and promote that you have it."

And sell it, adds Peter Haigh, brand development manager at Tetley. "You wouldn't have a pump-clip that just says 'beer' — but pubs just offer 'tea'. Tell them about it."

Tips for great coffee

Advice from Angus McKenzie, managing director, Metropolitan Kimbo of London

• Only a good quality coffee will work — and not roasted too high for the UK palate.

• Your coffee customers will not be your existing customers, so use signage that says something: "We sell great, fresh coffee, the way you like it."

• Make it easy to choose, like a coffee bar does. Have coffee menus on tables or blackboards. Why do so many food pubs forget to put coffee on the menu?

• Serve the right size. The larger your cups, the harder it is to serve hot, balanced coffee. Think between 6oz and 10oz — there is no value in a tepid, milky bucket.

• Cleaning is key. Make sure the coffee-machine cleaner is included in every month's order, with the beer-line cleansers.

• Coffee sells best with other lines — cake, muffins, pastries, bacon rolls. A simple "coffee and…" promotion is worthwhile.

• Keep a pictorial guide to the drinks, recipes, and the cleaning process. Beside it, keep phone numbers for both a barista trainer and your technical help.

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