What’s your background?
As managing director of the UK & Ireland business, I am responsible for roasting over 8,000 tonnes of coffee and delivering over 20 billion cups of coffee a year out of home via leading foodservice operators and retailers. I was head hunted in 1996 by First Choice Coffee (later acquired by United Coffee in 2006). With time I rose up to board level and am now the key driver behind the company’s sales growth. I have been with United Coffee for 15 years, and in the hospitality industry for 20.
Who are your customers?
United Coffee is a market leader within the private label and single portion coffee sector and owns many retail and out of home brands including Grand Café, Templo and Rosca. Our foodservice clients include Subway, McDonalds and thousands of local cafes and restaurants as well as contract caterers.
Through the out of home market, United Coffee serves 20 million cups per day through 25,000 outlets. All of the company’s retail business is private label whereas all out of home is branded.
What’s your USP?
One year ago we acquired Cooper Coffee which is a regional coffee business in Yorkshire. When acquiring the business we really proved the case that we can bring a lot of support and professionalism to independents in terms of marketing, promotions and training.
As part of our ‘go to market’ strategy we plan to have seven regions – Ireland, Scotland, the North, The Midlands, South East, South West and London. We will have a regional business manager who will be responsible for driving out of home businesses in those regions.
It is really important for us to put the customer at the heart of what we do, at a regional and national level.
How is the new ‘go to market’ strategy going?
The idea of the ‘go to market’ strategy, as well as driving growth regionally, is professionalising what we do with our key account customers. We wanted to add value and respond to the changing demands and needs of our customers. I think customers are looking for so much more from us nowadays. So we have strengthened the sales and marketing function by creating more customer-facing roles and recruiting outside the organisation to bring new expertise into the team. We also have a category manager who is working across both retail and out of home so we are really taking a category approach, working with our key account customers and senior national account customers.
How does United Coffee stand out from its rivals?
Scale is one way we stand out from our competitors. As a group we are procuring and roasting 8,000 tonnes and our head office in Geneva does all of our coffee buying. Second to this is we are actually roasting in market. I think this is very important in terms of freshness and how far the coffee has to travel. And we are very much a people business, we have a great team who I am very proud of. I have helped grow the team to be bigger and better.
Coffee is a product that is very sociable. It is also a product that needs people. The machines have to be delivered and installed and serviced and we need to train people how to make coffee, so it’s a real people business. So we have continued to invest in people and systems as the business has grown. Even now we are recruiting. We are just about to introduce a late shift as many of our customers have increased their trading hours, so we are constantly aligning ourselves with the needs of our customers. We have to accommodate our customers.
We are also about to introduce our new service management system. We have been working on the project for the last 12 months and this goes live at the end of February. It’s a state of the art system. Again, it’s about putting customers at the heart of what we do and making sure we do this efficiently.
Both what customers and United Coffee are trying to do is really focus on the end product. We’ve always hung our hat on authentic drink recipes served at the right temperature, served well, and at a good quality.
Are you successful?
If you look at our growth in terms of our competitors it says it all really. In a climate that is tough, our business is still growing and we are retaining our business, which is another factor.
Who are your competitors?
It’s a difficult one really. We have a number of competitors because as a business we tend to specialise in total coffee solutions as well as coffee roasting, and direct equipment manufacturing. So we tend to have three different competitors in the UK. We have to be aware of what our competitors are doing and what they perceive to be their USPs.
But this doesn’t majorly influence what we are doing. We have a very clear plan which we believe is based on market input, stats and our own customer’s input. We are following our plan and we’ve got our various pillars for growth that we are focusing on. We are competitive and we are aware of what’s going on. We are hungry about getting and winning business, but equally we want to build a sustainable, quality business.
Pricing power is also a very important thing. A number of businesses are judged on their ability to manage pricing. It’s been interesting in the last 18 months with the commodities and coffee pricing doubling. So a lot of people have moved on price or changed quality and I think in this market you have to be very careful about that.
How do you keep ahead in the industry?
We have a coffee development manager, Lynsey Harley, who we recruited 18 months ago as a barista. She has an amazing palate. Part of her role is to really keep us at the forefront of the coffee industry. The first thing we decided to do was put her through a course to become a Q grader (testing and certification programme). She is also certified to teach others to become Q graders. She is involved with the barista community and responsible for in house mentoring and training.
There are a number of others ways we keep ourselves ahead of what’s going on in the industry and market. We have access to a lot of data and research such as Kantar Worldpanel, Mintel etc.
What’s the future for United Coffee?
Well, I’ve been on a bit of a journey, and I’m still on that journey. I am very passionate about continuing to build the team and drive growth. But there is still room for us to grow as a business. As a team, we must continue to professionalise what we do, build the team and really deliver growth with our customers.
In addition to that, we have built up quite a lot of momentum as a business. Even though we are a medium sized business, we still want to hang onto some of the things we believe are important to our growth. We still want to be entreprenial and make quick decisions and keep bringing products to the market, but we also want to take share and grow. We are quite aggressive about that. I think we could easily double this business.
For me, coffee is where my knowledge is; it’s what I enjoy, and we are having a lot of fun growing the business.
How do you measure success?
The biggest measurement is by talking to our customers. We’ve done various questionnaires where people can feedback. The next biggest one is our people. We have a strong belief that our employee engagement impacts the success and profitability of the business. We want to develop our people and allow them to shine in the industry.
Where does United Coffee need to improve?
For sure, there are always areas we could be improving in. A year ago we identified that there were a number of areas we could improve in when it came down to service. As a result, we have put in a new service management system and recruited additional people and introduced this late shift (mentioned above). We have also just gone to tender on a new ERP system which will allow us to be very efficient back of house. There are always a number of areas for improvement. As the business grows we need to keep on top of efficiency, productivity and operational excellence.
What are your plans for 2012?
We have a number of initiatives we are working on. One is really bringing real insight to our customers. We are hosting a small event on the week of Hotelympia in London for our key customers. We want to bring them key insight and take them in the direction of what we feel they should be doing.
We’re also launching a multi beverage capsule system. The growth of capsules across Europe has been significant and a lot of our customers are looking for that solution. We already have some customers onboard in the UK. It’s a great machine and is very easy to use. The range includes three coffee capsules, a chocolate capsule and a milk and tea capsule. There are a range of different drinks you can make from the machine.
If we look at some of the trends in the UK, it’s about quality. People are really interested in the premiumisation around coffee. People are also becoming very interested in provenance and the tasting notes of coffee, so we are launching some lovely brewed coffees. We are also looking at pairing coffees with food items.
Everybody is really looking at day parts. For a lot of operators, coffee is a big thing at breakfast, but what are they doing for the rest of the day? So we are working hard with operators on what they are trying to achieve and how we can help them do that.
And of course, with the Olympics coming up, we are supporting a number of our customers. There is going to be so much more footfall and it’s important that we make sure that we support our customers to really make the most of this opportunity. This is also a focus for us this year.
You say customers are looking for more, why do you think this is?
I think there are a number of reasons. What we have seen is an approach where our customers want to focus on what they are good at whilst looking back at their suppliers for expertise and professionalism.
The coffee market is very competitive. There are a lot of players out there. You’ve got your coffee focused people and non core coffee operators starting to do really well in coffee. For example Greggs the bakers is really improving on its coffee. It opened its first Greggs Moment store in Newcastle last year which is more of a sit down high street coffee retailer. They are also really rolling out coffee machines to drive growth in coffee and target the high street coffee retailers.
There are a lot of people competing, including all of these non core people, who are getting more into coffee. I think the operators that will win, will be the ones that really focus on a great consumer experience, quality and value. Consumers know the difference between a good and bad coffee. We want to be looking at the winners in the marketplace because clearly that’s who we want to be working with.
Do you believe coffee is moving in the right direction?
No, I don’t think it is where it should be but, at the same time, it has come along way. We have a lot of operators to thank for that. But I do think it has a long way to go yet. We have to work on the role of the barista and the quality of the coffee. There is also more education to do on coffee and I think we should really work to drive coffee in the whole market, so we all benefit from that.
One of the big, big challenges which directly impacts on the quality, is the cleaning and maintenance of the equipment. The more that we can do to help make it easier to clean and operate a machine, the easier it is to drive the coffee. So it’s really about supporting our customers to do all of these things. I also think there’s some menu development to go on.
In comparison to food, where is coffee?
There are a lot of great food products in the UK but I do think the quality can vary. I think where people fall down is what they can serve with a cup of coffee. Particularly with coffee, less is more. People have to think about what they enjoy with a cup of coffee. There’s a real opportunity with food to coffee pairing. I think there is a missed opportunity for operators.
We have teamed up with the Academy of Food and Wine Service to offer a recognised educational and training programme which will cover everything from basic education, where coffee comes from, how to make it, barista skills, how to upsell and how to clean equipment.
Our whole vision is to have better quality coffee for all.
Independents vs chain – who is leading the way in innovation?
I think there are a number of examples in both. If we go back a few years, the independents and artisanal coffee shops were really responsible for focusing on the quality of its drinks, its provenance, and the role of the barista. But having said that, you have to give Starbucks a nod for really driving focus in the market.
There are great examples out there of both chains and independents doing a great job of coffee; everything from the staff, quality, investment in the equipment, promotional activity and store environment. There is also now more available to customers. They now have free Wi-Fi, clean modern environments where people can sit and this is what they need to be doing, continuously upgrading this experience.
You also have to link it back to what price is being paid. I’m not sure consumers really pay enough for a great quality coffee in the UK market. We’ve all got to work to let consumers understand if we really want to up the ante, there has to be a price to pay for that.
Is the industry as a whole doing enough to drive coffee?
I think we could be doing more. Coffee is in growth but we could be doing more.
How did it feel to win an Outstanding Contribution to the European Coffee Industry award at the European Coffee Symposium? Did you expect it?
Not at all! The company has won several different awards over the past few years, but mainly for products. We have won awards for our coffee, equipment and have even won a best place to work award and fastest growing company award in the past, which we are very proud of. It’s also nice as it’s a way of getting a bit of recognition. We never put ourselves up for awards because the business is not about individuals, it’s very much ‘cut one and we all bleed’. But it was lovely.
We’ve been in the business for a long time. I joined the business when it was tiny, when we had eight people and were doing less than a million. Now we are dealing with some of the biggest names in the industry and plan to do £100m. You make a lot of relationships as you go, and we have lots of customers that we have dealt with for many, many years.
We have always tried to give back to the industry. We launched Fairtrade and Rainforest very early on – in fact we were one of the first – and we always try to bring innovation to the market. We are also always working with our customers to try and help grow their businesses, and really add value.
How do you balance personal and work life?
I am completely in control of my own time. I do work very hard and I like to lead by example. I have a lot of energy. I like to start early and I do fairly long hours. But if I am going to have my own time, I make sure it’s quality time. We do work hard at United Coffee and it’s not just me, it’s the whole team. People love being associated with something that’s really dynamic. We work hard, but we also play hard. Our staff are as important to us as our customers. But I really enjoy what I do.
This year we are supporting the British Legion Poppy Appeal and we have committed to raising 70,000 for the charity. As a result, the team have roped me in to doing the pedal to Paris cycle ride, and I haven’t been on a bike for 20 years! We are doing it over a four day period, taking place in September. So yes I will be doing something in my spare time up to September….riding my bike!