CafeBuyer-2020

16 thing,” says founder John Sinclair. “The café had to close but the shop more thanmade up for the shortfall and the café teamwas busymaking up orders, calling customers and making deliveries.” Hot drinks were back on the menu at the first opportunity: “At the beginning of June we hired a catering van from a farm shop down south and operated outside the shop,” says John. “It was doing about 20% of the café business but withmuch lower staffing costs so it worked quite nicely. And now we’ve reopened the café.” But, not quite in its original form: a clever policy has helpedmaximise spend from those who do take up a table. “We get lower numbers in the café, but ask people to pre-book, pre- order and pre-pay,” explains John. “We deliberately didn’t include a A s emergency takeaway-only policies soften to allow limited seated customers, now’s the time to be weighing up the pros and cons of both. Will safely-spaced tables cover your staff costs? Can a takeaway counter ever attract large enough transactions? If you’ll mulling the figures with an eye to changing the way you serve your customers you’re not alone... Costs down, profits up Set in lush farmland to the west of Edinburgh, Craigie’s Farm is a long-established farm shop which, prior to lockdown, found its turnover equally split between its café and shop. Whilst Covid-19 has shaken everything up, the business has fared well. “We’ve really had quite a good pandemic, if there is such a coffee and cake option on the form though, because traditionally a lot of customers would spend a good few hours over a couple of coffees. So, we’ve put up a reducedmenu of higher-value options to make sure we’re getting a goodmargin from those who are coming in. Also, because we knowwho’s coming in, we can staff accordingly. The truck is still there so if people just want to turn up for a coffee they can without taking up that valuable space in the café.” So has the experience changed John’s view of the café element of his business? “Absolutely. We’re just in the process of building a 150-seater café on-site. It was going to be a tray-slide but we’re removing that element and going down the app ordering route. Throughout this we’ve tried to focus on opportunities: EAT-IN VS TAKEAWAY: WHAT’S RIGHT FOR YOUR CAFÉ? Whether you seat customers or serve them froma hatch, getting the balance right can have a real impact on profits @specialityfood JOHN SINCLAIR, CRAIGIES FARM SHOP BREAKFAST AT CRAIGIES