A Guide For Reopening
Thinking of reopening your premises for takeaway? Whenever you're ready we are here to help
Back to business unusual during COVID-19.
Under government guidance, food businesses are allowed to open offering take away and delivery services, but you must ensure strict social distancing measures are in place. We have been speaking to as many of our customers as we can during this period, to better understand how owners are feeling about resuming business and also what measures those who have opened have taken to ensure safe operating for both customers and staff. We want to share their learnings and recommendations for when the time is right for you to consider re-opening your doors (or windows).
Our open customers are showing positive trading results:
- Increasing coffee take away sales week on week
- Some are selling 40+ retail packs a week
- New revenue streams from sales of complementary grocery products and home delivery boxes
We have noticed that success is being seen by customers who are located in areas within walking distance of their customers' homes (neighbourhood cafes) and also when there is a lack of other premises open. Indeed these cafes are finding they are gaining a lot of new customers from those cafes still closed
Finance
We are here to share how we have gained government support to help you gain access to government schemes if you haven’t already, including:
• CBILS
• Furloughing staff and claiming back staff costs from HMRC
• Delaying PAYE/VAT/corporate tax payments
• Accessing grants from your local council
• The £50k business Bounceback Loan scheme
We appreciate that the process is complex and we’re doing our best to provide insights and up to date advice via our COVID FAQs page
We are also here to talk through how we can support you with repayment plans to help you manage cash flow when you are ready to place your first order. We are in this together!
Opening your Doors / New Revenue Streams.
In order to open safely, some of our clients have modified their space to suit their offering, and minimise or eliminate any contact between customers and staff. Here are some useful suggestions and solutions which you may want to consider adopting when you begin operating again:
- If allowing customers in, ensure only one or two people (size dependant) are allowed in the space at any one time
- Alternately, bar the door with a table and use it as an order/collection point
- Mark the pavement outside the store to help customers keep their distance whilst queueing
- Designate a collection point for customers after order has been placed
- Display retail coffee bags, grocery, baked goods and other food items in the front window or on door table for customers to browse while they are waiting
- Display coffee and groceries inside where customers would ordinarily sit
- Take orders before arrival via email, your website or Whatsapp
- Set up an online shop and offer delivery service
In addition to a significant increase in sales of coffee bags for home consumption, we are seeing customers successfully sell a range of grocery products, using their usual cafe suppliers to provide these items. Some have started a delivery box offer too, boxing up a selection of products and delivering these to their local customers on a daily or weekly basis.
If you’d like more information on what coffee take home bags to offer, or other grocery products to consider, do get in contact.
Making Sure Your Equipment Is Ready
Before you re open or are considering placing an order, please reach out to us to tell us your plans well in advance. This will give us the best possible chance to support you with anything you need to get back up and running. There are also some things we recommend you do at least 4-5 days before you open, especially if your machine has been off through this period. The early the better really, as many espresso engineers have also halted operations
- (if possible) Purge 4-5L of water from the softener
- If you have a two stage switch, turn the switch to “1”, let it fill, then turn to “2”
- If a group is not dispensing water when operated, try repeatedly operating the group rapidly 6-7 times. This may unstick the solenoid.
- Ensure your boiler and extraction pressure reach their normal operating level, nominally these are 1-1.5 bar for hot water boiler, and 9 bar for extraction.
If you can reach your cafe safely, it’s best if every week or so you turn on your machine, purge the groups and hot water dispenser sporadically to ensure solenoids and flow meters don’t stick. If anything appears out of the ordinary on your machine, give us a call so we can assist.
We hope these guidance notes are helpful, if there is anything you would like to know more about or discuss further, please reach out to us using the contact provided below:
Stewart Morrin - Head of Finance
stewart@volcanocoffeeworks.com
Tom Denner - Head of Account Management
tom@volcanocoffeeworks.com
Sonya Karlsson - Orders
orders@volcanocoffeeworks.com
All other enquiries
roastery@volcanocoffeeworks.com
Ph: 02038760876