An Independent Bakers Built on Tradition
Location: Cambridgeshire
Sector: Artisan Bakers & Retail
Project Scope: Equipment, Coffee Supply, Training & Support Across 13 Sites
Equipment: Sanremo D8, Schaerer Soul 2-Step, Marco MilkPal, E65S GBW
Key Focus: Consistency, Speed, Customer Interaction, Coffee Quality
Introducing Days Bakery
Days Bakery is one of Cambridge’s most historic family businesses, first founded in 1741 and taken over by the current family in 1996. With 13 sites across the city, Days has built its reputation on traditional craft, hand-made quality, and fresh products baked daily.
Their ethos is simple: everything baked fresh, every day. Bread, rolls, pastries and cakes are made on site each morning with no leftovers carried into the next day. Many of their processes are still hand-led, with bakers shaping dough themselves rather than relying on machinery.
This dedication to tradition has made Days a household name locally, trusted for its authenticity and consistency.
The Challenges
Days’ 13 sites range from farm shop cafés with sit-in spaces to high street bakeries serving commuters and local neighbourhood hubs. This variety is part of what makes the business unique, but it also created difficulties in delivering a consistent coffee experience across the estate:
A Low-Quality Coffee Offer - Despite Days’ heritage for hand-crafted baked goods, their coffee wasn’t living up to the same standard. Customers noticed the gap, and it risked undermining the overall brand experience.
Lack of Consistency Across Sites - The standard of coffee varied widely from shop to shop, meaning customers couldn’t rely on the same quality wherever they visited.
Long Queues at Peak Times - Small machines and limited grinder capacity created bottlenecks. During peak service, queues built up quickly and slowed the flow of service.
Limited Customer Interaction - Staff were tied up steaming milk or waiting on equipment, leaving little time to engage with customers or build the rapport that drives repeat visits.
Inconsistency Between Staff - Without the right tools, results depended heavily on the barista. Some drinks were excellent, while others fell short, creating uneven customer experiences.
Wastage - Milk was often overheated and overdosed, with small amounts of left over milk leading to unnecessary waste and adding cost to daily operations.
The family knew their coffee offering was lagging behind their bakery’s reputation, and that it was time to bring everything up to the same high standard.
Our Approach
When we first connected with Days Bakery, it was clear their reputation for freshly baked goods wasn’t being matched by their coffee. The family recognised issues with inconsistency, long queues, and outdated equipment, and needed a partner to help transform the service across their diverse estate.
A Collaborative Consultation
We visited multiple Days sites with the team to see how each one operated. Observing service during peak times highlighted key pressure points: slow grinders, queues building up while milk was textured, and staff lacking confidence in producing consistent results. Listening to both staff and management ensured the solutions we proposed would be practical and widely adopted.
Multi-Site Complexities
No two Days sites are the same. Farm shops required barista-led setups capable of handling hundreds of drinks per hour, while high street bakeries and grab-and-go outlets needed simpler systems that supported fewer staff and faster workflows. With this in mind, we designed a flexible programme that could be rolled out across the estate, tailoring equipment to the needs of each environment.
The Solutions
The result was a carefully considered mix of traditional and semi-automated equipment that struck the right balance between quality, speed, and usability - fitting out each site with their own tailored solution.
High Volume, Barista-Led Experiences
At the flagship Farm Shop, speed and consistency during peak times were the biggest challenges. We installed a three-group traditional espresso machine supported by an E65 On-Demand Grinder and a second grinder dedicated to decaf. A Puqpress ensured perfect tamping every time, while the Marco MilkPal proved transformational.
By automating milk texturing, it delivered barista-quality foam at the ideal temperature and consistency for cappuccinos, lattes, and flat whites. Staff could now prepare milk and espresso simultaneously, cutting queues significantly while ensuring every cup met the same high standard.
Grab & Go Sites
In grab-and-go sites such as Great Chesterford, the focus was on compact, efficient equipment that freed staff to spend more time with customers. Here we introduced the Schaerer Two-Step.
This semi-automated machine allowed staff to extract espresso and steam milk with minimal supervision, producing consistent results every time while speeding up service. The result was smoother workflows, less pressure on staff, and drinks that matched the quality customers had come to expect from Days.
Key Benefits of the New Setup
Improved Customer Experience
With smoother workflows, staff can focus on engaging with customers instead of being tied up steaming milk. Time previously spent manually steaming milk is now spent interacting with the customer, offering additional upsell opportunities, and building rapport. This has created a more welcoming atmosphere and stronger customer loyalty.
Faster Service at Peak Times
The new setups have dramatically reduced queues, enabling staff to serve hundreds of drinks per hour without bottlenecks.
Consistent Quality Across All Sites
With grinders, PuqPress, and the Marco MilkPal or Schaerer Two-Step in place, every coffee meets the same standard, regardless of who’s making it, thanks to the assistance now given to the team in coffee dosing, tamping, and milk texturing.
Greater Staff Confidence
Staff no longer feel anxious about preparing drinks. The equipment supports them, allowing even less experienced team members to deliver quality coffee with ease.
Reduced Waste
Automated milk dispensing from the Marco MilkPal ensures the perfect volume of milk every time, for each drink type on the menu, cutting down on wastage and saving costs across the estate, whilst the 2-step Schaerer machine reduces the need for cleaning and downtime in grab and go locations.
Their Chosen Coffee: Roots Wild Meadow
To complement the upgraded equipment, Days selected Wild Meadow, a seasonal espresso blend from our Roots range. This bright and expressive coffee brings together two celebrated origins: the high-grown washed coffees of Tarrazú, Costa Rica and the floral beans of Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia.
Grown by the pioneering CoopeDota cooperative in Costa Rica’s Los Santos region and smallholder farmers in Ethiopia’s Shantawene Village, Wild Meadow balances precision with personality. The citrus clarity of Tarrazú combines with Yirgacheffe’s jasmine and stone fruit notes, rounded off by a touch of cocoa for sweetness.
A Complete Support Package
Our partnership with Days goes beyond installation. The aim was not only to raise the quality of their coffee but to keep it consistently excellent across all 13 sites.
Account Management
Regular visits from a dedicated account manager ensure quality is reviewed, operations are refined, and guidance is always on hand.
Responsive Servicing
A reliable service plan keeps equipment running smoothly and ensures any issues are resolved quickly, minimising disruption during busy periods.
Ongoing Training
Hands-on training in machine operation, cleaning, calibration, and workflow has built staff confidence, ensuring consistency across the business.
Together, this mix of equipment, coffee, and ongoing support has given Days a strong foundation to grow their coffee offer with confidence.
The Results
It has been fantastic to see the impact the new partnership has had. Customers now enjoy consistently high-quality coffee, queues move faster, and peak periods are easier to manage.
Staff describe the changes as a “game changer,” with greater confidence and smoother workflows making daily service simpler.
Most importantly, coffee is now a strength within the Days brand, fully aligned with their reputation for fresh, hand-made baked goods and giving customers another reason to return.
"Bridge were brilliant. They came around our shops with us, showed us where we were going wrong, and gave us the right solutions.
They’ve been really welcoming and genuinely interested in helping us improve. It’s only going to make the business better, and improve the whole experience for our customers”
- George, Director of Days Bakery.
“With our new equipment, we're much more available to the customer. Every time the coffee is just right, and we can build rapport with the customer whilst it all happens in the background.
The quality of the coffee is much much better. It's really nice to have that every time"
- Hollie, Days Bakery Great Chesterford
“The new equipment has improved us a lot, when we have a queue we can get through the coffees much quicker than we did before and it's generally much nicer to use”
- Claire, Days Bakery Newton Farm Shop
