Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
How coffee van grew into multi-million pound chain
Louis and Lisa Hurst started selling brews out of the back of a 1960s van at business parks. But as they prepare to open their sixth branch, the pair tell Gerry Warren they aim to dominate the Kent coffee scene...
It all began with a little French vintage coffee van that trundled around business parks, providing office workers with their morning caffeine hit.
Called Hathats, the mobile service proved a big hit, with the 60-year-old Citroen HY a familiar and welcome sight. But seven years later, the business has grown into an award-winning, multi-millionpound company, which by April will have six outlets across east Kent. Behind its remarkable success are husband and wife Louis and Lisa Hurst from Chestfield, near Whitstable. The pair now have even bigger ambitions to become the county’s biggest independent coffee shop brand.
“We didn’t initially set out to go into the coffee business,” says Louis, 44, who describes himself as a “serial entrepreneur” and has a background in media, telecoms and marketing. “The van was originally just something for Lisa to get back into work as our three children were growing up. “We spent a few thousand pounds sorting it out and called it Hathats after our youngest daughter, Hattie, and Lisa took it around business parks and served commuters at Chestfield station.”
“There were some very early starts, which wasn’t much fun on cold, dark mornings,” Lisa adds. “But we always felt it was important for our customers to know we would be there for them with a warm greeting and a hot coffee or chocolate.”
After Louis sold his telecoms business, the pair saw the opportunity to expand their coffee brand. They snapped up the site at the Reculver visitor centre when the city council put it up for lease.
“People said it’d never work, but we’ve proved them wrong,” Louis says.
“It’s become hugely popular with walkers, dog owners and families.”
As well as coffee, tea, hot chocolate and cold drinks, the business quickly expanded its offer with cakes, ice creams and crepes.
“Coffee brings people together and our ethos from the start has been consistency, so we are open 364 days a year, come rain or shine,” continues Louis, a selfconfessed coffee lover who downs up to seven cups a day. “We did get some criticism when we opened during the pandemic for serving takeaway drinks, but we operated within the law. “I remember one old chap stopping myself and Lisa while we were walking our dogs and thanking us for being open, saying the smile and welcome he got from our staff was the only human interaction he had at the time.”
Hathats has now gone from strength to strength, opening a barista academy at its café at the Canterbury Academy. Outlets at Faversham recreation ground, Herne
Bay station and Whitstable’s South Quay have also launched. Customers will also start to be welcomed at the firm’s newest sites inside Herons Leisure Centre in Herne Bay and Deal station next month. In its first year, the van took £56,000, but Louis is now expecting to turn over £2.3 million by the end of this year. He is aiming to reach £5 million in 2025.
“We crafted more than 397,500 drinks in 2022, including coffee, tea, hot chocolate and frappes, smoothies,” he continues. “And, in the last three years, we have used the equivalent weight of two double-decker buses in coffee beans.” Louis says he has calmed his own coffee habit by recently “going decaf ”, after finding a brew he claims tastes almost identical to the “real” stuff. He believes the business’ success is not just down to the taste of his coffee, but also the high level of staff training and customer service which he obsesses about.
Fifty-eight people are employed across the chain’s branches - and 16 more jobs will be created when the new premises open.
But he envisages more Hathats outlets launching across Kent and beyond when opportunities for the right locations arise. He is also interested in hearing from other coffee shop owners thinking of packing it in, as he thinks he might be able to work with them.
Along the way, one of the business’ most successful recruits has been Charlotte Thomson, who first worked with Lisa on the coffee van when she was just 17.
Just two years later, she was named apprentice of the year at the KEIBA awards and now manages the site at Reculver. Also in 2017, Hathats was
named start-up business of the year. In 2018 it was shortlisted for an employer of the year award and in 2021, was a finalist in the medium business of the year category. Louis places great emphasis on staff training, ethical trading and community involvement.
He also runs the Amelix Entrepreneurship Academy in Canterbury, inspiring and mentoring young entrepreneurs.
He has developed the Hathats brand using IT technology and social media and also registered a new trademark, Together We Can. “We have had over 17,900 downloads of our customer app from the Google Play and Apple stores and more than 221,000 Youtube views on our channel,” he says.
He has also just launched the Hathats Foundation - a charity which will support community projects and the developing coffee-growing world.
But what of the future of the van, where it all began but whose mechanical woes have kept her off the road for some time? “Unfortunately, she became too unreliable - but she will ride again,” Louis promises. “We made a successful bid to the Kent and Medway Business Fund to give her a heart transplant with a new, modern VW engine. “When ready, she will be attending lots of locations across the county with our events trailer - which is basically a Hathats on Wheels - to again serve our coffee and drinks.”