National award for local coffee business

Buckfastleigh-based independent coffee specialist, Coffee West Ltd, has been announced as winner of ‘Distributor of the year’ trade award at the Spring Ball in London last week.

The Award ceremony on 10 April, 2013 was sponsored by the Essential Café magazine and took place at St John’s Smith Square, in the heart of Westminster.

The awards observed the highest standards in terms of objectivity and impartiality and have been decided in closed session by an independent panel of judges.

Coffee West was recognised for providing the most outstanding all-round support to café owners and operators taking into account maintaining a premium product range, offering industry leading training, comprehensive logistical support and service innovation.

The judges were impressed with the way Coffee West operates, focusing on helping their customers to prosper, supporting them as a coffee partner rather than simply a supplier of coffee.

Taunton based Roots Café, a bustling daytime ethical restaurant, has recently switched their coffee to Fatroc and Sylvia Merton, one of the owners said: “It has been astonishing how changing one component in our offering has influenced our business. In the first month we doubled our coffee sales and customers are still commenting on our coffee’s lovely flavour and aroma.

“However, it wasn’t just the coffee in my view. Having the support from Coffee West most definitely helped. They organised the switch-over and not only provided coffee for our open day, but helped spread the word for us in local papers and social media and even had people on the street handing out leaflets. We knew we were making the right decision, as we could taste the difference in the coffee ourselves, but we did not expect such a fast and dramatic turnaround,” Sylvia added.

Another crucial aspect of Coffee West being at the forefront of the industry was training support provided to their customers as well as the whole region.

Coffee West opened the flagship ‘UK Coffee School – South West’ in November 2012. The specialist training centre sets new industry standards with a unique purpose-built coffee shop-style training centre. It has already been nationally accredited by the Beverage Standards Association (BSA) and City & Guilds, and provides the specialist training for businesses across the Coffee Shop, Tourism and Hotel sectors.

Karen Brady from The Country Table Café, Newton Abbot mentioned: "We have always seen training as one of the most important elements of service provided by our coffee supplier (Coffee West Ltd) and this facility (UK Coffee School SW) is really awe inspiring and I have no doubt it will over time make a great difference to the Coffee we serve”.

Since its opening, UK Coffee School South West has been used extensively for a variety of training programmes, including Basic, Advanced and Expert Barista Training as well as Train the Trainer courses.

In addition, the centre has been outsourced on few occasions for corporate team-building days, offering coffee skills training culminating in a barista competition.

And the last, but certainly not the least, is the innovation Coffee West brings to the industry. That includes pioneering service of personal delivery and on-going support as well as extensive clients support.

Coffee West drivers are City and Guilds accredited Barista Trainers  and have been trained to offer grinder adjustment, frontline training, technical troubleshooting and stock management assistance.

So far, the response has been very good. Both, drivers and clients see benefits in this heightened level of service. Steve Partridge from Coffee West commented, “I love the rapport I have with our customers and am really enjoying my new role. Now that I can support customers more effectively when they need help, I really feel that I make a difference.”

Monica Schallhorn, owner of Fresh Café in Hayle, Cornwall, agreed, ”It is good to know that whenever we receive a delivery, we have someone who can quickly sort out the grinder and give my staff help on how to make their coffee better.”

Managing Director, Andrew Tucker commented on the award, “This award is a true statement that after 12 years in business our love of coffee and determination to help make coffee something to be proud of for every one of our customers has been recognised. We will continue to support our clients success in every way we can, enhancing the coffee experience served with every cup… every day.”

Click here for further information about Coffee West.