Garden Centres are popular destination spots for many. Offering something for everyone, many Garden Centres have become destinations spots attracting families looking for a fun and relaxing trip outside on the weekend.
To keep customers in store longer, garden centres often offer refreshments and typically have a dedicated café or restaurant area. We have found that a garden centre’s café can often be the most profitable arm of the business thanks to the steady flow of customers looking for a relaxing morning coffee.
Garden centres can benefit hugely from implementing and improving on their café offering, encouraging visitors to stay longer, spend more, and have a more relaxing visit. This blog post therefore provides a check list for any garden centre looking to improve their customer experience through a fantastic café experience.
Continue reading for our top recommendations on products, equipment and accessories for garden centres to get the most out of their café, brew delicious coffees for their guests and increase revenues.
1. Sustainably Sourced Coffee
Your customers care about where their coffee comes from, and so should you. The conscious consumer is a rapidly growing market segment with large crossover into the garden centre target audience.
Utilising coffee blends and single origins that are traceable, responsibly sourced and that give back to the farming community through welfare initiatives will not only give you radically better tasting coffee, but also peace of mind for your eco-conscious customers.
Through serving coffees that have been awarded Fair Trade certifications and that undertake direct trade practices, you can be proud to serve your customers a coffee that protects the coffee growing communities and climate.
The Roots Collection
Respecting Coffee, Rewarding Farmers.
Click to view our sustainably sourced line of specialty coffee blends and single origins, exploring the journey from the farmers and the farms to the coffee we drink.
2. A Great Coffee Machine
Not every garden centre has the same requirements from their coffee machine. Some will have a dedicated café / restaurant area where a traditional espresso machine could be well-suited, whilst others may require an easy-to-use automatic machine that allows anyone to create great coffee at the push of a button.
The good news is, there are a huge variety of coffee machines available to suit the needs of any garden centre.
From small one-group espresso machines to the incredibly capable, hands-free automatic Eversys machines, one of the key ingredients to perfecting your garden centre’s coffee offering is with a fantastic coffee machine.
3. Staff Coffee Training
Just because you invest in the most premium coffee equipment and a delicious single origin coffee, does not mean it will automatically taste incredible. Frustratingly, there is a lot to learn about how to get the best tasting coffee possible.
Thankfully, a little bit of learning goes a long way!
Once you and your staff have mastered the basics of brewing delicious drinks, it won’t be long until customers are raving about your coffee to their friends and family.
Consider employing yourself and your staff on an introduction to coffee training course with the Specialty Coffee Association. Many of our customers are able to increase their revenues after drastically improve their coffee quality and consistency through engaging with our SCA Training Courses.
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4. A Capable Coffee Grinder
To serve the best tasting coffee possible to your garden centre visitors, you need to grind fresh.
Coffee beans start losing their aroma to the air as soon as they are ground thanks to the drastic increase in surface area. You’ll start to miss out on the delicious flavours you paid for if you leave the coffee sitting unbrewed for too long after grinding.
That’s why it’s important to invest in a capable coffee grinder for your garden centre café.
Many automatic machines come with a grinder preinstalled, allowing incredible ease of use and speed. If you’re considering a traditional espresso machine, you’ll want to dedicate a significant fraction of your budget to the grinder, with grind size and consistency having a greater impact on coffee quality than the type of espresso machine used.
Coffee grinders vary drastically in pricing, with greater budgets affording you better grind consistency, build quality and materials, and longevity.
5. A Bespoke Coffee Brand
Whilst many coffee roasters can provide a wholesale line of coffees that perfectly aligns with your business objectives, brand messaging and ethos, sometimes the ideal solution is to create your own brand of coffee.
A bespoke offering allows garden centres and other businesses to create their own coffee brand and an identity that speaks to their existing customers.
Our white label coffee brand can help you stand out from the crowd and connect to your customers in a new way. View how we create brands for our white label partners here.
6. Other Drink Options
As much as it pains us to admit, not everyone loves coffee.
Garden centres can be a fantastic destination for the whole family to enjoy a day out, with many garden centres offering a wide range of activities and amenities to entertain all age groups. So make sure to do the same with your café offerings.
Consider offering soft drinks, teas, milkshakes, hot chocolates, and even a range of syrup flavours, to compliment your coffee offering and keep all of your guests delighted and refreshed.
Looking to serve something a little different? Ask us about our Seasonal Promotions package, where we take care of the ingredients and marketing for our wholesale partners to serve delicious seasonal drinks year-round.