Hugh and I were kindly invited by Jeffery Young of Allegra Strategies to attend the UK Coffee Leader Summit on the day previous to Caffe Culture. These events are always useful from a networking perspective (even though that’s generally an expression that puts the fear of god into me) but there was some great content… Read More »
I’m just back from nearly three weeks in the US and spent considerable time in New York – it is, as ever, just about the most stimulating city on the planet. I saw some amazing retailing and some inspirational restaurants but I have to say the quality of the coffee bars (that I saw anyway)… Read More »
I’m increasingly obsessed with this concept since it applies to such a large extent in so much of our lives. Why does Tiger Woods want to keep getting better at golf for example? What drove Michael Schumacher, despite so many years at the top of Formula One, to still work harder than anyone else and… Read More »
On Sunday and Monday of this week Hugo and I were speaking at the Hotelympia show in London. Ultimately both talks went very well and we had good audiences at both but it was a graphic illustration of the need to have a strong “reason why” in terms of promotion. There had been very little… Read More »
Coming through Edinburgh airport for the second time in as many weeks I was again struck by just how superb a job the West Cornwall Pasty Company do. They have the last stand in a long line of food and coffee operations but their branding and use of great images is so brilliant that you… Read More »
(Sorry – long winded post alert. But please bear with me.) I was passing through Edinburgh last week meeting some new clients and had some time to kill before I took my plane home. As usual my intention was to trot round all the coffee outlets I could find and see what was interesting and… Read More »
“Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test… Read More »
According to a recent Mintel report the market for branded coffee shops will increase by 52% from 2006 to 2011. The profile it follows will be something like this. 2006 – £675 million 2007 – £736 million 2008 – £801 million 2009 – £874 million 2010 – £948 million 2011 – £1.02 billion The big… Read More »
The death of passion and the initial obsession to create a truly outstanding business is a horrible thing to witness. And yet we see it every day of the week. As I was returning home from my holidays we stopped off in a little restaurant that we have used over many years. The food was… Read More »
“You have to be there…” It’s nonsense for so many reasons. But obviously at it’s most simplistic Howard Schulz isn’t there in every Starbucks and they seem to do okay. Every major chain manages to cope without the “owner” being there so why can’t you? But immediately I hear murmurs along the lines of “well,… Read More »