CafeBuyer-2020

4 in non-residential areas as the population has shifted to working from home. Closure of foodservice outlets with the loss of several weeks, even months, of revenue. A buying public reluctant to return to their old habits, living under the constant threat of a return to lockdown measures. So how has your café business coped? With a heady mixture of determination, R emember those heady days before masks, the furlough scheme and ‘biofogging’ were on your radar? In these unprecedented times you may have had sleepless nights wondering how best to keep your business alive. The challenge, still surreal enough to sound like a Hollywood film plot, is known to us all: flatlining footfall ingenuity and luck, if the stories of our readers are anything to go on. Evolve... Take Perky Blenders, the East London Roastery with four cafés which decided to keep three open despite Government hints of a moral obligation to close. “At first people in our area were scared but relieved not to have to travel into work, so there was almost a holiday atmosphere,” says owner Adam Cozens. “We diversified overnight, seeing that other coffee shops were starting to sell the additional items that public were finding hard to buy. We bought 14kg bags of flour, yeast and eggs, repackaging it to retail- friendly units, and so our spend per coffee transaction went up about 500%. We increased sales and have retained them– which has been a complete saviour.” Elsewhere survival tactics have involved obtaining an alcohol license, signing up to delivery services such as Deliveroo, and (another success for Perky Blenders) launching Crowdfunder campaigns to save the cafés communities hold so dear. Innovate... As the recovery began, the new challenges of operating in the time of Covid-19 have challenged businesses to rethink. The adoption of new technology has marched apace, with necessity creating some inventive solutions to the logistical problems of prepping and serving food and drinks amid a viral pandemic. A good example is the Real Food Café in Tyndrum on the edge of the Loch Lomond National Park. “We’ve installed an online click and collect platform for ordering, and extended our WiFi over the car park so that ordering from the car is now very easy and doable,” says co-owner Sarah Heward. While many businesses have seen a huge shift to online ordering via websites or apps, arguably a bigger change is the swing away from cash. According to research by Capterra, 95% of Brits who installed a mobile wallet onto their phone during lockdown intend to continue using it. “Going cashless has been a big thing for us,” says Stuart Wilson of Lost Sheep Coffee in Kent. “When you’re in this storm of mess you have 20:20 clarity. You think ‘We have to do this or there could be no business.’ I’ve wanted to go totally cashless for years and nowwe have. It’s obviouslymore hygienic, which If you can’t get the coffee right you might as well shut the doors. It draws people in; it’s a good hook, and once they’re here they buy some other bits CAFÉS IN THE TIME OF CORONAVIRUS It’s been a hell of a spring and summer, but what has Covid-19 done to the café scene, and where’s next? @specialityfood