Background:
The Greenhouse is a small independent coffee shop based in Boston town centre which opened and enrolled with the Centre for Food and Fresh Produce Logistics in early 2022.
The shop offers a range of hot and cold drinks, hot food including toasties, cakes and small batch homemade Chilli Jam. These can be enjoyed in the shop or taken away.
The Opportunity:
Setting up a new coffee shop required equipment, new processes, staff training, and a range of business decisions to be taken. Trading over the first two years required further investment and business management decisions. All of these elements provided opportunities for support from the programme team.
Support:
The Centre for Food and Fresh Produce Logistics was able to support with 50% matched funding for equipment during start up including food and drink preparation and later transitioning from leasing to owning key items such as coffee-making equipment.
When the business was making difficult decisions or dealing with challenging negotiations, they reached out to the programme team. This enabled them to talk through problems and possible solutions with a former manager from banking, or business leaders used to negotiations.
The Greenhouse chef makes great-tasting dishes and has recipes for a range of Chilli Jams. When they started to make small batches of jam for sale the programme team was able to support providing consultancy on:
- Batch cooking records
- Costings
- Ingredients declarations
- Shelf-life verification testing (at the National Centre for Food Manufacturing in Holbeach)
The Outcome:
The Greenhouse has become established as a leading independent coffee shop, growing to employ a number of part-time staff and providing a popular destination for locals and visitors. Since engaging with the programme, the Greenhouse has reported a 28% increase in turnover.
Lee Revell-Wiseman (business co-owner) Said, “We did not really know what to expect when we signed up for the Centre for Food and Fresh Produce Logistics programme. We knew there was funding available, which, of course, has been helpful. However, it is the wrap-around support we have received that has been the most valuable to us”.
For more programme information and to check eligibility, contact dthorpe@lincoln.ac.uk