Following on from our recent blog about the Cafe2U Awards that took place at our annual conference this year, here's our second blog about the event, this time taking a look at the day's workshops and presentations.
Designed to benefit our franchise partners, these sessions are invaluable, with franchisees that have put the learnings from previous years' workshops and presentations into action typically experiencing sales increases, sometimes to the tune of 37.8%!
The conference began with a presentation from our CEO, Martyn, looking back on everything we've achieved over the last 20 years and providing some market insights (you'll be pleased to hear that the size and market value of the UK coffee industry is growing all the time!), before Cafe2U's Head of Operations provided attendees with some hints and tips on how to run a successful franchise, with advice on everything from choice of language to mindset.
Introducing Small Batch.
Next up was a representative from our partners at Small Batch Coffee Roasters, who delivered an informative presentation all about the coffee they supply to us, including how it's sourced, roasted, blended, packaged and delivered.
Coffee excellence.
The next presentation looked at the differences between commercial and speciality coffee brands, where we sit in the hierarchy of things and what this tells us about our coffee.
At Cafe2U, our coffee is hand picked and hand roasted in small batches, with each blend roasted individually to gain the best possible flavour profile from each bean. The utmost care is then taken at every part of the journey from the coffee farm to our vans.
Commercial coffee, on the other hand, is usually roasted and packed in large plants, where blends are frequently roasted together with little care for individual flavour profiles, resulting in low grade coffee quality.
As a result, we're delighted to say that, going forward, we will no longer be comparing and benchmarking ourselves against the high street's Big Three coffee retailers as we honestly believe we surpass them all in terms of coffee quality. Instead, we'll be comparing ourselves against organisations in the 'speciality' market instead - those that use only the world's best, highest-grade coffee, which comprises the top 3-5% of global yields!
We have total confidence in both our award-winning coffee beans and our award-winning baristas and we're sure this will be reflected in Cafe2U's performance over the coming months.
Good Till & Good Eats workshop.
Next up was a 'Good Till & Good Eats' workshop, in which we talked about how our franchise partners can utilise the systems we already have in place - like pre-ordering systems and reporting tools - to analyse trends and maximise profitability in an increasingly digital age populated by tech-savvy consumers.
According to a recent survey, 46% of coffee consumers prefer to self-serve or pre order, with 27% of under 25s regularly using a delivery service for their coffee orders. That's 3.3 million potential coffee consumers ready and waiting!
And finally…
The conference wrapped up with a breakout session on engaging with customers and an opportunity for franchisees to learn from each other and share tips.
As you can tell, we leave no stone unturned at our franchise partner events, so keep an eye out for the third and final conference blog in the coming weeks!
