Coffee shop serving up home delivery service during crisis

A coffee shop founder says the pandemic has spurred him into offering a home-delivery grocery service which he intends to continue as lockdown measures continue to be eased.

Freddie Hewett has operated Stag Coffee in Ashford high street since 2016 - and last year added an outlet in Canterbury.

But when lockdown measures were introduced at the end of March, he had seen the direction of travel and pivoted his business to start offering a delivery service of essentials the bulk of which are sourced from local suppliers.

He and his team have also branched out into making ready-meals, using local ingredients - something he hopes to now build upon going forward and, eventually, take nationwide.

At the peak of the crisis he was making 40 deliveries a day to homes in and around Ashford, Canterbury, Tenterden and Folkestone.

As social media spread news of his service, he even ended up doing runs as far as Sevenoaks.

The 28-year-old explains:

“As long as we broke even that was the only aim really. We weren’t looking to make any profits from it just to keep staff in jobs if they wanted it and trying to support the local community.

“We were doing 40 home deliveries a day in the first couple of weeks, but it has dwindled as other services become available.

“But we break even, and some weeks are better and some are not.”

The firm applied, and received, a £25,000 grant from the government’s package of support available to small businesses, allowing it to move from taking orders over Facebook Messenger to a more user-friendly online system as well as help service the bills which have continued to add up during the lockdown.

■ For more on Stag Coffee, see page 40.

Ashford’s Stag Coffee has set up a delivery service