Coffee van man is smiling again after donations
A COFFEE van driver whose business was put in jeopardy when the engine of his van seized up has spoken of his joy after people donated money to help him get back on the road.
Rich Morgan, 31, owns Smiler’s Coffee Co and said he had to resort to lifts from his mum to make it to the spots where he usually trades when his vehicle packed up.
Rich, originally from Ebbw Vale, bought his Citroen Nemo van second hand three years ago and had it fully converted with a coffee machine fitted in the back.
The engine’s van seized up just as he was about to celebrate the third birthday of his business, leaving Rich without a mode of transport to go to his usual selling spots and markets.
Usually, he can be found at Hay-onWye on Thursdays and on Sundays at Chepstow High Street Market.
“At the moment, it means I’m completely without transportation so I can’t actually go to markets and sell my coffee from the van,” Rich said.
“Right now I’m literally asking my mum to give me a lift wherever she can.”
Rich roasts all the coffee from home every week before stocking up the van to go to markets. Now, with the encouragement of friends and customers, he has set up a fundraiser in order to secure £2,000 towards a new van.
He says that in just four days, he reached 90% of his target, offering free coffee vouchers in exchange for donations and hopes to be back on the road in a week or two.
Rich says the situation with his van has been a “fiasco” but that support from a fundraiser he set up following the loss of his vehicle has “really lit a fire under [him] not to give up.”
“I know for a fact that I could go out and get a loan, but it would mean having to pay off more money in the future while paying off the business loan I’ve already got for the next two years,” Rich said.
“I talked to a few market people and had the idea of setting [the fundraiser] up and they told me, ‘Go for it, what’s the worst that could happen?’.”
Rich, who now lives in Treforest, says he has a “long history” of wanting to work in the hospitality industry.
“All my education, I’ve driven it towards having a food-related business,” he said.
“It is just as hard as any other business,” Rich said of the work he has had to put in to set up the coffee van.
“Pre-pandemic I was just starting up so I was getting used to what would normally be considered a regular business day, a regular business week, trying to find the right markets.
“But then lockdowns really did hit the business because a lot of the markets I did, other than this Hay-on-Wye market, were pretty much closed.
“They just stopped operating because they just didn’t know what to do.”
Rich said he is “overwhelmed with joy” at the response he has had to the fundraiser and wanted to say a “big thank you” to Urban Markets and Events who donated £200.
“It’s really helped my situation relieve itself from that pressure of trying to find the money and it’s lit a fire underneath me to just work harder, because I can’t let these people down now,” he said.