Chester Zoo Gets Creative With Coffee

In a special feature, Ian Reynolds-Young meets coffee 1652’s Pete Atmore, (pictured), to discuss the creation and introduction of ‘Shuka’, Chester Zoo’s exclusive coffee brand.

 

There’s ‘coffee’, and then there’s ‘creative coffee’. Even before you meet Pete Atmore, when your only evidence of him is his business card, you’re aware that here is a man of the ‘creative coffee’ variety.

coffee 1652

The clue is in the name of the company, ‘coffee 1652’. I’m a bit of a wannabe coffee nerd so I recognised the allusion in the use of 1652. That’s when the first coffee house in England opened, in St. Michael’s Alley, Cornhill, in the City of London. That’s smart, that’s clever; that appeals to my sense of humour and it demonstrates to me that creating something new, blazing a trail, is high on the company’s agenda.

It’s only when our interview is over that I bring up the connotations of the company name. Pete, urbane as ever, compliments me on getting the gag. Had I failed to mention it, the subject wouldn’t have arisen. He’s not the sort of bloke to take the ‘look-at-us-aren’t-we-clever?’; cheap-shot approach. It’s a fitting end to our chat, because it reflects the whole timbre of Pete Atmore’s approach to the business of ‘creative coffee’.

SHUKA BRAND

We had arranged to meet to discuss the development of the exclusive ‘Shuka’ coffee brand, for Chester Zoo. Since its introduction of Shuka, at Easter 2011, the UK’s leading animal attraction has seen a huge hike in coffee sales across its estate. The question I want to ask is so impertinent that I swallow it back: ‘how on earth does a company from St.Helen’s take on the big guns of coffee and beat them to a blue-chip client?’ My face must give my thoughts away, because Pete doesn’t need words to understand the question.

‘We’d just completed a coffee supply agreement with Chester Race Course and I was chatting to the Executive Chef there when he happened to mention that his opposite number at Chester Zoo was looking to organise another coffee supplier’, he said. ‘I knew it was very much ‘last minute’, so I got in touch straight away and I was told an appointment was about to be made, but that I was welcome to come in if I thought I could bring something new to the party.’

Conservation and sustainability

That was quite a challenge. Two international coffee brands were already on site; however, coffee 1652 stepped up to the plate brandishing a Big Idea and smashed the others out of the park.

‘I thought, ‘what if the coffee was an extension of the zoo’s commitment to sustainability?’ Pete Atmore

‘Conservation and sustainability are at the core of everything Chester Zoo does’, Pete said. He’s right; on its web site, Chester Zoo states: ‘our mission is to be a major force in conserving biodiversity worldwide, and we do it through a combination of field conservation, research, conservation breeding,  animal welfare, and education. Pete said, ‘I thought, ‘what if the coffee was an extension of the zoo’s commitment to sustainability?’

‘We have a relationship with a coffee plantation at Monte Sion in El Salvador’, Pete says. ‘The plantation is owned by a husband and wife team and what they’ve achieved there is an object lesson for plantations across the world. The workers there have reasonable housing, free vaccinations and access to health care. The family built a school for the village and they’ve undertaken to pay the tuition fees of undergraduates, so long as they commit to returning to the village, so that their newly-acquired skills can benefit the whole community.’

Pete saw the opportunity to create a coffee offer that was, in itself, the happy ending to a story about ethical, sustainable trading; from harvest, through RFA certification and monitoring, to the coffee bar, to the consumer.

PETE BARISTA

‘Our relationship with Monte Sion is direct and authentic’, Pete said, implying that other ‘relationships’ in the coffee trade might not be. ‘Every purchase we make has a direct benefit to the plantation and its community, with no foundation or organisation in the middle to muddy the waters.’ There was a clear synergy between the aspirations of the venue and the achievements of the plantation. Pete took the idea to the client, who was immediately convinced that the idea of creating an exclusive coffee blend that embodied Chester Zoo’s ethos and tasted fabulous deserved serious consideration. It was good news and bad news for Pete: an invitation to make a twenty-minute presentation to members of the board was the good news; just seven days to prepare was the bad news.

A week later, after a maelstrom of activity that included the creation of concept storyboards and packaging mock ups, Pete was ready to face his interlocutors for the prescribed twenty-minutes. Ultimately, the meeting lasted for over two hours. ‘There was a lot to talk about’, Pete smiled. ‘We went through the whole process of creating a coffee blend and we spoke at length on the merits of coffee, ethics and conservation. The members of the panel were extremely well – informed.’

Conservation work in the rain forests of Africa

Afterwards, Pete was kicking himself: “I really thought I’d missed a trick’, he said ruefully. ‘Chester Zoo is noted for its conservation work in the rain forests of Africa and I hadn’t thought of using an appropriate African coffee in the blend’, he said.

Nevertheless, Pete’s presentation was ‘warmly received’ and he was invited back. He was asked to create a number of specimen coffees, blending beans from Africa with those from Monte Sion, and then to put them to the ultimate test: a public tasting.

Taste Test

CAPPUCCINO

‘We set up camp in the barbeque area at Chester Zoo’, Pete said. ‘We set up five coffee machines and asked the public to taste the five espressos on offer, two of which were the incumbent brands.  As a ‘thank-you’, we made them a drink of their choice using their preferred espresso as a base.’

Evaluation cards had been prepared in advance and the results were so startling that Pete – and Chester Zoo – elected to keep them under wraps. Suffice to say that the specially created blends were ‘very well received’ by the public…

‘Based on the findings of our research, we got to work and the Shuka blend was born within three weeks, right down to the brand design. As for the name ‘Shuka’? ‘It’s the name given to a wrap worn by the Masai tribal women in Africa’, Pete says. So Shuka is another brand name with credentials of its own that ticks the ‘creative’ box…

For the coffee offer to work, two blends would be required, as Pete explained: ‘we needed two because high-speed self-service machines create a slightly different flavour than traditional barista machines. Bean-to-cup machines tend to use a coarser grind than traditional machines, due to differences in temperature, water pressure and extraction times, so using an identical blend in each would create two distinctive flavour profiles. My job was to ensure that different machines delivered the same taste experience.’

Also high on the agenda was the ‘consumer experience’, so Pete worked closely with the food area designers, both to create the required ambience and to specify the right machines to deliver the full potential of Shuka.

PETE DRINKING

‘We specified self-serve bean-to-cup machines and ‘traditional’ barista operated coffee machines, as required’, Pete confirmed.

Immediately after the ‘go-live’ at Easter 2011, there was ‘a significant rise’ in Coffee consumption at Chester Zoo, and ‘lots of positive feedback’ as regards the quality of the coffee and of the peripherals, such as branded sugar sticks, paper cups and crockery.

The scope of the project – creating the brand, creating the blends; taste testing; designing the logo; specifying, sourcing, purchasing and installing almost 30 coffee machines – makes the timescales achieved seem miraculous.

PACKAGING

Ultimately, Chester Zoo got far more than just a new coffee offer for its discerning customers. In fact, it has a new brand of its own. ‘Chester Zoo owns the Shuka brand’, Pete acknowledged, ‘and the opportunity is there for them to sell Shuka branded products, particularly coffee, for customers to take home.’ With 45,000 active members and trustees, all of whom are eager to support the zoo’s work, the potential market for Shuka products must be considerable? ‘Absolutely’ Pete agreed. ‘There’s massive potential and we are really excited about what could be achieved.’

 

About the author

The Editor

Planet Vending’s Editor is Ian Reynolds-Young and it’s Ian’s unique writing talent that has made PV what it is today – the best read (red) vending blog in the world, and vending’s best read (reed). Ian ‘tripped and fell into vending’, in the capacity of PR executive, before launching a specialist agency, ‘reynoldscopy’, dedicated to the UK Vending business. The company continues to represent the interests of many of the sector’s leading brands.

‘It’s all about telling stories’, he says. ‘We want to make every visit to PV a rewarding experience. By celebrating the achievements of the UK’s operating companies, we’re on a mission to debunk the idea that vending is retailing’s poor relation.’

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