WHEN looking to revitalise their store and introduce a new food-to-go offering, Dennis and Linda Williams at Broadway Premier realised coffee was a key element.
Though they had struggled with coffee to go in the past, this time they were determined to get it right.
“There are just so many different kinds of coffee machine out there now,” said Linda.
“When we started looking I was a bit bewildered and didn’t know what to go for. We wanted the quality of Costa but we knew this area wouldn’t support the cost. Cost was really important.”
After looking at a number of different brands, they discovered Espresso Essential, which entered the UK market in 2004 after starting in Australia, and offers a compact, counter-top solution.
“It was critical to get a slim-line machine. I didn’t think we’d be able to get something so compact and so good,” said Linda.
“It’s great quality, bean-to-cup, self-service and self-cleaning. It’s such little work and really good coffee. It costs us 24p per cup and we sell them at £1.”
To get footfall up, keyring fobs were issued to repeat customers which can be scanned to get their cup of coffee for 79p.
“That’s going down a storm. Customers will come in four or five times a day,” said Linda.
The couple have also been giving out reusable travel mugs, stamped with the Premier logo, to encourage repeat custom.
Premier brand director Martyn Parkinson said: “Coffee is the anchor that brings people in. It draws people to the food to go. I think a lot of retailers are missing the key element of coffee and the £1 price-mark is absolutely point on.”
