How It All Began
Our story goes back around 25 years, to our founder Gerry Ford. Armed with a passion for coffee, he had a vision to create traditional Italian cafés across Europe; places that would serve very high quality coffee and serve as neighbourhood meeting spots.
We started off simply trying to make a few local independent coffee houses work. And they did! We never aspired to be a big company; in fact, even today we see ourselves as a start-up.
We have reinvested in the business to stay true to Gerry’s original vision and we’ve done this with resilience and determination.
"Since 1997, we have grown one coffee, one customer and one store at a time – always trying to be the best at what we do."
Quality and Consistency
Making great coffee takes some doing. So, we built our own Roastery and created a unique award-winning coffee blend (we regularly work on developing new and interesting blends too). And, importantly, we set up our espresso training school – where all our Baristas master the art of coffee making.
This has led to our family owned and operated business opening more than 800 coffee houses across Europe.
Accolades
We are proud to be recognised for the quality of our coffee and service. Here is a selection of our awards:
- 2002- 2009: Ranked ‘best coffee quality’ and ‘best coffee house brand’ – Allegra Report
- 2009 – 2011: The Masters of Coffee Barista Champions: 2009 – 2011, 1st Place
- 2013: Voted ‘Best Tasting Coffee on the High Street’ – Independent Consumer Magazine
- 2013: Voted ‘The best independent coffee shop brand’ – Food Business Awards
- 2015: Award winner in category: Cafe Retailer of the Year
- 2015: National Coffee Olympics, 1st and 3rd Place
- 2016: Coffee Shop Retailer of the Year – CEE Retail Awards
- 2017: Best Store & Best Menu – Sweets & Coffee Awards
