Catering consultant Charles Manners from Turpin Smale summarises the key trends and companies in the London cafe scene

1. Café Tour 20th November 2013
Presented By Charles Manners

2. Agenda
• Buying with your eyes - playing on the
senses
• Product – ingredients, source, display
• Humour, atmosphere & design and
environment
• Companies to watch!

3. Café Context
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Total of 15,723 stores, 5225 branded coffee shops in UK, up
from 4,600; grew by 7.5% in 2012 to £5.8billion
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Market has doubled in the past 6 years
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1 in 5 visit a coffee shop daily
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Potential for 7,000 branded units in 2017, potentially 10,000
beyond
Source Allegra Strategies

4. Buying with Your Eyes
Playing on the Senses

6. Display & Playing
on the Senses
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Ambient sandwiches on display (Spianata)
Herb plants for garnish for customer use (Chop’d)
Move product on display at the entrance around
depending on what time of day it is (Carluccio’s)
• Fresh fruit, vegetables and bread on display outside
inviting you inside (Albion)
• Cakes displayed on slates
• Ovens on display with pastries coming straight out
(Princi)
• Buy with your eyes cake displays (Konditor and Cook –
images below)
Smell of freshly baked bread (Albion)

7. People & Service
• Big trend in personalisation – make it your own
(Starbucks, Vital, Chop’d)
• ‘Great jobs for great people’ (Pret)
• ‘Looking for cool people’ (Jo and the Juice)
• Deliveries (Pret)
• Huge opportunity in takeaway cakes
(Hummingbird)

8. Marketing & Personality
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Using humour in POS and marketing to create a
personality for the brand and a sense of humour. On
the outside of the breakfast club are the words ‘Today
is going to be a good day’ and inside ‘Sex, drugs and
bacon rolls’
Table tennis tables outside Leon
‘Lovingly hand made’ (Pret)
Xmas themed pasta in Carluccios
‘Provenance – customers want to know and see
pictures of where the ingredients in their food have
come from (Chop’d, Pod, Abokado, Starbucks)

9. Product – Ingredients, Source, Display

10. Product
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Mini bites and cake pops are the next big
dessert trend. Suitable for those on a diet as
well as those in need of a quick sweet fix
removing the need to indulge in a oversized and
often intimidating piece of cake (Starbucks)
Luxury fruit bread with berries and lightly
toasted (Starbucks)
Giant versions – giant bourbon and custard
creams (Costa)
Loose leaf teas are becoming increasingly
popular
Afghan biscuit (Liberty Norton Folgate)
Red Velvet Cake (Hummingbird Bakery)
Hot broth pot to hot noodles (Eat)
Savoury muffins – parmesan and spinach
(Ozone)
Fresh juices - people will pay a premium for
fresh juice (although expensive to produce)
Gluten free demand increasingly growing
Billionaires shortbread (Paul A Young)

11. Product
• Giant macaroons (Pauls)
• Gourmet pork pies
• Porridge (Pret)
Sandwiches
• Triangle sandwiches in a box are few are far
between, the modern day sandwich needs to be
something different and more exciting
• Flat breads are increasingly popular
• Giant sandwich in a loaf that you can portion off
(Slate)
• Open sandwich (Fernandez and Wells Café)

16. Cakes & Traybakes
The most important menu segment for mid-morning, lunchtime and midafternoon

17. Cakes & Traybakes
Great display (and taste) is what it is all about

18. Humour, Atmosphere &
Design and Environment

19. Design & Environment
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Kitchen cloths as napkins and bone handle cutlery
(Bishopsgate Kitchen)
Tea cosies on tea pots (Albion)
Cutlery in golden syrup pots (Albion)
Rustic feel was very common, and wood was used
a lot in the furniture and design
Exposed Brick (Pret)
Milk in mini milk bottles
Objects hanging from ceiling (Pizza East)
Use of reclaimed furniture (Foxcroft and Ginger)
Interesting menu displays – some on brown paper
and others on old cinema boards
Vintage tableware

20. Design & Environment
•
Open displays with products on show so that customers
can buy with their eyes
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Open kitchens that invite customers in for visibility and
transparency (Bishopsgate Kitchen)
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Toasters to ‘do it yourself’ at breakfast time (Bishopsgate
Kitchen)

28. Design
• Store as many quality looking raw food ingredients
• out front to evidence your foodie credentials
• Technology
• Trayslides encourage queuing so keep to minimum
• by hot food, hot drink and till stations
• Retro is in
• Staff Uniform to have fun message on back

29. Story
Storyboard at or near café entrance so that customers
are aware of ‘mission’ and quality prior to purchasing
food and drink
Key elements to stress
Local sourcing with specific details of ingredients
Personality, emotion and distinctiveness

30. Special Interest Groups
Cater for every known group
WiFi
Babies
Gluten-free
Lactose intolerant
Dogs
Cyclists
Smokers

31. Menu Signage

32. Menu Signage

33. Waste & Recycling
Customers recycle at home and want to support those businesses with a
conscience

34. Companies to watch!

35. Giraffe Stop

36. Peyton & Byrne

37. Benugo

38. Apostrophe

39. Tesco Watford

40. Yum Charr

41. Pod

42. abokado

43. 26

44. Wahacio

45. Leon

46. Yorks Bakery Café Newall St
Birmingham

47. Now the Tour! –
www. greatcafes.blogspot.co.uk
Polo Café
Taylor Street
Bishopsgate Kitchen
Starbucks
Go
A Gold
EAT
Spianata
Costa
Leon
Giraffe
Carluccios
Liberty of Norton Folgate
Boxpark
Maison de Garcon Cafe
Allpress Espresso
Albion Caff
Itsu
Pod
Pret
Ozone
Thai
Salvation Jane café
Café Nero
Subway
Charles Manners – Director Turpin Smale
Charles.manners@turpinsmale.co.uk
07836550356