The management at commercial coffee roaster Blendly have been considering how changing coffee habits due to Covid-19 have impacted on its business in a positive way.
Good coffee is really important to those people working from home, as it is the general view they will have little chance of getting back to their offices any time soon.
During lockdown Blendly made a move into looking after their coffee customers at home, with its Blendly at Home service, which delivers coffee blends to the domestic market within three days. It invites these domestic customers to come up with their own blends, which in turn can then be listed on their repository.
“Blendly has come out of lockdown stronger, not only through our diversification into the At Home service, but through starting to develop some new funding to develop new online platforms for our trade customers, such as predictive ordering,” said Blendly founder, Mark Wilson.
“Coffee shops were always a social gathering point pre covid – good coffee there was an added bonus! Hopefully, our online community at www.blendly.co.uk goes some way towards providing our customers with support and camaraderie as they deal with their huge lifestyle changes. It’s going to take time to adjust!”
“The hospitality industry has of course, been hugely impacted by the covid-19 pandemic, and will continue to be for some considerable time. The coffee shops, hotels and restaurants that worked with us to develop bespoke coffee blends that are now listed online in our repository, will hopefully make some income out of selling the coffee to others, and can go on to develop more blends,” added Mark.
“We say to them that having your own bespoke coffee is something to be proud of. Tell customers they can indeed buy it for their use at home. It’s easy with a QR code to scan on the premises, or find the blend online.”
Mark said that he believed many coffee companies had now quickly restructured their business models.
“Retail and commercial sales will now drive us all forward, and hopefully enable many coffee businesses to survive this challenging time,” he said.
With the commodity coffee market experiencing a massive surge in buying, it appears that some commercial roasters may be stockpiling coffee.
Mark also said he thought there was always a risk of such a thing happening in a pandemic situation.
“Coffee is grown in many of the countries which have been worst affected by the pandemic, such as India and Brazil. It takes time and expertise to grow and harvest coffee. It’s a labour intensive task. These countries do not have a strong infrastructure or health care system to start with, so the pandemic has had a devastating effect on the amount of coffee being picked and transported. It’s still very difficult to predict ahead for the next six months.”
“For the many thousands of coffee shops that reopened in Britain in the summer, when lockdown started to ease, there was a period of intense demand, which will now have levelled off, with local lockdowns taking effect, and the ever present threat of more.”
“As a coffee roaster, we will have to keep a careful eye on the markets in the coming months. Let’s plan now for a sustained recovery in 2021.”
Mark and his team at Blendly would like to see support for independent coffee shops.
He concluded: “We hope that, through Blendly, we are helping to make coffee an accessible and transparent commodity for all.”
Check out www.blendly.co.uk to create your own coffee blend, or choose an existing blend.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
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