Diary of a (coffee) CEO

Let’s start off by saying the world of speciality coffee is amazing! The industry and the shared passion infused into every small business whether they be roasters, bakers, equipment manufacturers or coffee shop owners is truly wonderful and a joy to be a part of. The ability to take unloved commercial units or high street shops and turn them into bustling little hives of the community, giving our patrons a break from the day to day, an energy boost and a little affordable treat with the opportunity to engage one another face to face in conversation is truly a marvel especially considering todays increasingly digital world and the ridiculous fast pace that world often demands. It’s refreshing to have a sanctuary on the high street full of aromas, sights and sounds to stimulate the senses and ground you in reality.

Oh and now to the original point of this blog post (apologies for getting carried away above), we do all this day in and day out for the love and said passion, but what do we get in return from the UK government? Taxes lots of taxes in the form of VAT and PAYE… increased input costs from a series of ill thought through referendums (Brexit was and still is a bad idea!), successive budgets and economic policies which result in inflation and high borrowing costs putting pressure on prices and consumer confidence. Finally if there’s anything left after all that and you’ve had a good sales year, you get to pay another 19 to 25% in corporation tax!

It’s no exaggeration to say that successive governments decisions and macro-economic factors outside of a Small Business (SMEs) control have made for extremely tough operating conditions post COVID creating a cost of living crisis hitting many small business operators just as hard as consumers. It is why investment and growth remains severely restricted and business insolvencies remain at a record 30 year high in the UK.

So, what is our new government’s plan to help protect, stimulate and support the Small Business economy? After all collectively SMEs account for over 50% of total UK GDP and employ 60% of the people… Frankly there’s little to be excited about in the Autumn budget to help SMEs instead our PM focused on smoozing large corporate foreign investors coupled with the continued pessimistic rhetoric coming out of Westminster it does little to inspire, but hey! We will endure, we will keep pushing for the love and the passion of speciality coffee!

Is now the right time?

It’s probably the question we ask ourselves the most, is now the right time? how do we know? should we wait? is it the right decision?

The truth is you never really know for sure, no one does. Every major decision of significance requires a leap of faith. Look back through your own history and all the big things that have shaped our lives involved taking a leap into the unknown. The right school, the right field of study, your spouse, if / when to have kids, forgetting the 9 to 5 and setting up your own business, scaling that business. You can only act on the information you have available at the time and trust your instincts.

And with that in mind we are thrilled to be embarking on creating Butler’s #3 in the lovely Nottinghamshire village of Ruddington. We very nearly started our journey here back in 2017 when we were hunting for our first site and on a personal note is a place very close to our hearts having spent hours in the country park and the amazing small businesses that pepper the village. The whole borough of Rushcliffe is dotted with these amazing places to live and work and we feel privileged to be able bring our chilled speciality coffee house vibe to enhance these high streets.

As some of you may know already we have a strong relationship with our good friends at Outpost Coffee Roasters and we’ll be setting off on our Ruddington adventure with them and the amazing design team at Boyes Design to bring the Ruddington site to life. Both are fellow local Nottinghamshire small businesses doing amazing things in their respective industries and we’re thrilled to be working with them once more continuing the Butler’s Coffee House journey.

Follow and stay tuned to our social channels to see how we’re getting on and do pop in to our Bingham and Radcliffe sites to get a feel of what to expect in Rudd…

And most importantly remember… keep the faith!

Independent Coffee Scene

The local independent coffee scene is something we at Butler’s are immensely proud to be a part of, it’s a thought that occurred as we took our team around Nottingham Coffee Festival last weekend.

It is these like minded independent small businesses that share a passion for bringing unique coffee shop vibes, great coffee, brunch, lunch and cake to your neighbourhood, it’s an inspiration, a community that has driven us from the start of our journey back in 2017 and continues to inspire us today. And the best part? Every major city in the UK has their own unique pockets of indies doing their thing. It really is something that should be widely acknowledged, celebrated and cherished 👏

So here’s a shout out to just a few of our fellow local Notts independents who we think 100% deserve your love and support, rest assured the people behind each one are true passionate coffee professionals -

Outpost Coffee Roasters, Kigali, Ginger & Blue, Yolk, Cartwheel Coffee, Okende, Cafe Velo Verde, Good Honest Bakery, Effy, Punch Coffee, Stewart’s of Trent Bridge, Forum Speciality, Greenhood Coffee and many, many more…

Go discover your local coffee scene and show them some love and support ☕️ ❤️

Sustainability

Going green, ESG (environmental, social and governance), carbon footprint, reduce, reuse, recycle, climate change… so many terms and talk around the subject of sustainability and the environment but it can be baffling to get your head around it all when bombarded daily through seemingly every media channel.

But as the saying goes, there is no victory without action, which is why it’s so important that we all understand our impact in terms of our own carbon footprint and play our part to reduce it where possible. The cumulative effect of our often small combined efforts can make a real difference both as individuals and as a company, so here is what it all means to us with real measures being pro-actively taken every day at Butler’s Coffee House to help reduce our impact on the planet -

1. Ethically and sustainably sourced coffee traceable to the farm level roasted locally in Radford by the experts at Outpost Coffee Roasters

2. Electricity from renewable sources and reputable suppliers only, low energy LEDs throughout all sites

3. Paper takeaway cups, cup holders, packaging manufactured from sustainable forest sources all BRC certified

4. Reusable coffee cups available to buy in every store and double stamps on your loyalty card for every coffee purchased

5. Discounts for customers of the local Green Rewards Scheme - https://notts.greenrewards.co.uk

6. Locally sourced fruit, vegetables and meat produce from like minded small businesses reducing our carbon footprint and keeping more money in the local economy

7. Paperless invoicing / digital accounting with all of our major suppliers

8. Waste management solutions separating all recyclable materials on each site

9. Waste coffee grounds reused as organic garden fertiliser

There is of course always more that can be done, and we are constantly assessing our practices to ensure we continue to operate responsibly and sustainably. Think global act local… 🌍💚🌱

If you’d like to better understand your own carbon footprint you can calculate it here - WWF calculator

Butler’s Radcliffe is 6 months old!

Wow! Where has that time gone? And what amazing support we’ve received from the fine folks of Radcliffe-on-Trent and the surrounding area. Having sold well in excess of 16,000 coffees so far it’s been a joy seeing so many of you enjoying our second site on the main road, creating a buzzing atmosphere and building the unique culture only speciality coffee brings…

But what do you think? We love to hear your feedback, reading and responding to every Google review, email or social media messages and comments. It’s the people that make the place and we simply wouldn’t be here without you!

In the last year we have created and launched Butler’s Radcliffe, redesigned our website, launched our online shop, hired 6x new team members and grown our retail offering, but we won’t be standing still!

Watch this space for exciting new announcements, products and services as we stride firmly forward into our second 6 months and toward Butler’s Radcliffe’s first birthday (with the inevitable paaaaaarrrrrrty 🥳)

Remember your roots

2017 is where our coffee adventure all began approaching 5 years ago! 🕰

Isn’t it funny how life presents certain opportunities? Hospitality has always been in our blood but never did we think 5 years on we’d have renovated 2x sites creating the Butler’s Coffee House brand and building such an amazing customer base in the process.

Our original Bingham site was born from a chance conversation with David (landlord and odd job gardener) back in the summer of 2017 who had been having issues with multiple tenants not paying rent and leaving the place in a sorry state. We were quite dismissive at first but when we saw the grade 2 listed interior and the potential for the space we just had to act and our coffee house concept was born!

Fast forward to the beginning of 2022 just coming out of the last round of government covid lockdowns in what has been a truly tough time for small business, the opportunity arose on Main Road Radcliffe-on-Trent. Life (and indeed business) is never without risk… would covid return? war in Ukraine, cost of living and inflation going through the roof, supply chain issues etc. But sometimes you have to grit your teeth and follow that passion and vision believing in what you’re setting out to achieve.

There are so many people and fellow businesses we owe a big thank you to who have helped us on our journey so far (you know who you are). And of course the BIGGEST THANK YOU 🙏 to you our loyal customers and friends who share our passion for unique coffee shop vibes, speciality coffee and supporting the local business economy ☕️👌

And just like that, Butler’s #2 Is open…

Well what a few months it’s been. Anyone who’s been following us on social media will have seen the journey we’ve been on to transform the old fabric shop on Main Road in Radcliffe-on-Trent into our second Butler’s Coffee House location. And we have to say we are thrilled with how it’s turned out and been blown away with just how many of you have popped in to enjoy the speciality coffee, brunch dishes and sweet treats in our first week of opening soaking up the unique contemporary atmosphere.

The place has been buzzing every day and the feedback we’ve received unanimously positive, so a BIG thank you! for all the love and support you’ve shown so far.

As this is being typed we’ve just put our feet up after the team have finished sorting out a few minor things on our ‘snag list’ so a BIG thank you! too goes to Sam, Phil, Josh, Neil, Sarah and Ben for putting in the hard graft and helping turn our vision for Butler’s #2 into reality.

Finally kudos goes to team Butler’s at both Bingham and Radcliffe who’ve adapted superbly to working cross sites and helping keep the day to day operational cogs turning. They’ve worked tirelessly to bring you the best in speciality coffee, brunch and cake and epitomise everything we are about as a company and are a credit to themselves as true coffee shop professionals.

Coming soon… Butler’s #2

It’s hard to believe it’s approaching 5 years since we created the first Butler’s site in Bingham back in 2017! The world was certainly a much different place back then and I don’t think anyone would have predicted that in that relatively short space of time we’d have lived through a global pandemic, completed Brexit leaving the EU single market and be living in a country with circa 10% inflation!

Yet here we stand, as committed as ever to bring you the joys of speciality coffee and chilled cafe vibes and we could not have done so without the continued love and support of our friends and loyal customers. So let’s do it again! Are you mad I hear you cry? Well maybe but we are now deeply in the midst of executing our plan to create Butler’s #2 in the lovely village of Radcliffe-on-Trent. Another place we know very well and is close to our hearts, we absolutely can’t wait to share the journey so stay tuned to our social media channels to see how the site is evolving.

We love to use fellow local businesses and trades people so this time a big shout out goes to Boyes Design based in Colwick who are helping us with the refit and Outpost Coffee Roasters once again providing their top class support in terms of kit and speciality grade ethically sourced coffee.

We’re aiming for a September launch but if you’ve never visited us before and simply cannot wait, then be sure to pop into our Bingham site to get a feel for what we are all about or alternatively visit our online shop - https://butlerscoffeehouse.co.uk/shop and get brewing at home.