Lewis’ taste of success is Japan boost
THE Rugby World Cup experience in Japan has had a positive spin-off with a difference for one Wales star.
It was a memorable campaign for tighthead Dillon Lewis, who played in all seven matches for Warren Gatland’s team.
But it has also worked out well for him off the field in terms of his business interests.
Together with fellow Cardiff prop Brad Thyer, Lewis runs a company called Fat Dragon Coffee. It’s an online business providing quality coffee to customers.
It’s been going well and now it’s had a further boost thanks to Lewis’ time out in the Far East, as Thyer explains.
“We have had a few orders from people in Japan recently,” he revealed.
“When Dillon was out there, he was in coffee shops, tagging online and talking to people. That’s him. “It’s a whole new market for us! “It was great to see him doing well out there and he was pretty good in terms of the business too.
“He was doing his fair bit on social media, which is kind of his baby. He loves to do that. He was able to do it in between training and then I was taking over everything back here. Business is going well. Touch wood, it’s so far so good.”
The budding entrepreneurs came up with the idea a couple of years ago after taking inspiration from how they and their Blues team-mates spend their down time.
“Brad and me sit next to each other in the changing room and we were coming in with these different ideas every morning for like two months,” explained Lewis.
“Then it sort of dawned on us how the boys go to Costa every day and spend ‘X’ amount on coffee and we just put two and two together.
“It was one of those things where it kind of clicked.
“It just so happened we both agreed on this coffee decision after months of sort of ‘Del Boy’ ideas.
“We didn’t know at the time whether we wanted to open up a shop or what we wanted to do.
“In the end, we decided to go online, with people ordering the coffee, which we then supply.
“We haven’t got time to man a shop. That’s where the online fits in well with us.
“You subscribe to however often you want the coffee and then we send it to you every two or three weeks.
“We must have tried about 50 different coffees before we actually agreed on the ones to go with.
“It was trial and error. There have been quite a lot of caffeine highs along the way!”
As for the name, Fat Dragon Coffee, that’s easily explained.
“Well, we are both on the bigger side, being in the front row!” says Lewis.
Outlining how the business operates, loosehead Thyer adds: “It’s good because we have got two different skill sets.
“I quite like the serious side of the business. I look at the numbers and things like that and then Dillon will say this fits into this market.
“Word-of-mouth sales and building relationships, that’s kind of his forte.”