CafeBuyer-2020

21 INDEPENDENT ERA specialityfoodmagazine.com cappuccinos, lattes and flat whites that people really come for. And when you have your own roastery there’s an excitement that comes with it. People buy our beans for home, recommend us to others and give our beans as gifts.” Coffee, after all, is a habitual behaviour strongly linked to an individual’s ‘personal myth’ – the stories they tell themselves and others about who they are. “We see the same people every day,” says Edwin. “We get to know their order before we know their names. People missed their coffee and they’re now they’re queuing to enjoy it again.” CAMBROOK NUTS PRODUCER SPOTLIGHT We are a specialist producer of caramelised and baked and salted nuts. We use the best ingredients and grade of raw nuts and transform them into something extraordinarily good. Because of this we have a unique range of nuts which we think makes us the best specialist nut manufacturer there is and the reason why top hotels, bars and independent retailers come to us for their nuts. With sizes starting from our handy 45g ‘grab and go’ packets to our 1kg packs we should have a nut for you. cambrookfoods.co.uk Launched in 2012 from a three- wheeled micro coffee van pitched outside Starbucks in Canterbury, Lost Sheep Coffee was operating two café sites and a roastery when lockdown wiped out 85% of turnover. Pivoting to online B2C sales and a subscription service kept the business alive, but now a loyal army of coffee anoraks is helping it flourish. “From a brand perspective, independent status has been huge for us,” says founder Stuart Wilson. “People trust faces they’ve seen for years. People felt safe with us, and we picked up a lot of new customers who’d started buying our ground CASE STUDY: LOST SHEEP COFFEE, KENT coffee for home during lockdown. We’re very fortunate; we have quite a cult following so our customer base is extremely loyal. They’ve come flocking back and bought their friends as well.” So how good are post-lockdown sales? “When we re-opened our Canterbury site we took double what we were doing [before Coronavirus],” says Stuart. “It was almost a badge of honour to buy a Lost Sheep coffee over a Starbucks; customers want to be seen to be carrying that cup. That’s fantastic for us. We found a lot of people talking about supporting local indies. With our takings literally doubling that can only be attributed to people supporting independents.” STUART WILSON, LOST SHEEP COFFEE EDWIN HARRISON, ARTISAN CAFÉ