Coffee@Events

Sample Chapter

The following is an excerpt from the Coffee@Events eBook.

2. Why do coffee?

The outdoor event market has a huge range of possibilities that can make extremely good profits, so why is it good to sell coffee? We have personally operated most of the main food groups at events but keep coming back to coffee. Here is why.

Low Set Up Cost

One of the biggest attractions of setting up in coffee is the relatively low start up cost. This could be as low as £5000 for what is known as a BUILD UP operation.

For this you would need a decent coffee machine, a grinder and a small gazebo or marquee. These will be your main costs. After that, you need a small amount of equipment and stock such as coffee beans, milk and cups. This is the most basic set up but one that can be as effective as an expensive trailer. If you get the layout right and think through the ergonomics, you will be able to make great coffee hour after hour. There is more about this later in the book.

High Profit Margins

There is nothing else that can touch coffee for profit margins. With careful buying of cups and coffee, the profit can easily be 90% so a cup of cappuccino that has cost you 20p will sell for £2. I will go into this in more detail later but you can see what can be achieved.

No Waste

Unlike food operations where you always have to make an educated guess at how much food to buy and prepare, coffee that is made to order is, for the most part, free from wastage.

Any unopened bags of coffee can be re sealed and put into a dark cold place such as a fridge for later use and if you use UHT milk, this will also keep until the next job.

I have been a professional chef for 30 years and one of the biggest challenges facing anyone in the food business is controlling waste as this will destroy all of your hard work in preparing, marketing and selling your product. At the end of the day we are in it to show a profit and this cannot happen if good food ends up unpaid for and in the bin.

A Growing Market

Coffee and coffee bars are still experiencing growth worldwide. Most other food categories remain constant. Ten years ago, your local high street would not have had a speciality coffee bar on it, but now it would be hard to find one without. Coffee consumption in the home is on the increase and when these people go to an event, they are no longer satisfied with the cheap inferior instant coffee that used to be acceptable. They are making informed decisions and ordering a ‘skinny latte’ or a ‘ristretto’. This says a lot about lifestyle choices and image in the way that wearing designer clothes or driving a certain make of car does. It tells everyone else you are discerning and clear about what you want.

This brings me to the next point, which is image.

Good Image

Coffee has a good image! It’s cool to drink quality coffee. It’s one of life’s pleasures and has always been associated with relaxation, conversation and even revolution! When you operate a coffee bar, your customers will be people like you and you will enjoy serving them the perfect coffee. They will be happy to pay a premium price if you can deliver service and a quality drink. They are less suspicious of you as a trader than if you were selling burgers for example as this has often been seen an overpriced item of poor quality sold by unscrupulous traders.

When you sell coffee, you are selling quality and if you get your image right, you will have no resistance to your prices. Your customers will thank you and go away happy.

Clean

When you operate a coffee bar you go home clean - you don’t go home smelling of grease. This is a small point and perhaps one that can only be fully appreciated by anyone who has stood over a grill for 12 hours or more and gone home dripping with fat. You will finish your day with more energy and wearing clean clothes.

Low Risk

A pitch for coffee always costs less than a pitch to sell food, so straight away, you are at less risk. Most organisers will ask you to pay your rent in advance or at least a deposit. If, as a worst case scenario, the show was not as good as promised, you have minimised your loss- unlike the food vendor who will most likely have to throw food away. If the show is not as busy as you anticipated, you will be left with a surplus stock but very little is perishable and you can use all of it on your next event.

Staffing

In our experience, when we have operated food and coffee units together, we have always found it easier to get staff for coffee because the work is easier and cleaner. Good staff can be hard to find for event work as the irregular hours don’t suit everyone, but by doing coffee, you have a larger pool of willing staff to call on.

Repeat Business - All Day

There are very few food or drink items that are in demand all day. Coffee breaks this rule as it is the first thing everyone wants in the morning, and it’s not only the public. You will find your fellow traders joining the queue for their first hit of the day whilst the burger boys are only just rolling out of bed. Demand for coffee remains constant through the day with no noticeable drop off, and it will be the last thing someone buys as they prepare for the drive home.

Also, if you are doing your job properly, you will see the same customers several times a day and build a rapport with them.

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