Ottawa’s Bridgehead Coffee and the hometown advantage.
BRIDGEHEAD COFFEE STAKES ITS SUCCESS ON STAYING LOCAL AND STICKING TO ITS ROOTS
Securing a “bridgehead” in war means to conquer ground in an enemy’s territory. Bridgehead Inc., a small Ottawa- based coffee shop business, continues to capture ground of its own in a competitive local café environment.
The number of Bridgehead Coffee locations will double in the city in the next three years, said Tracey Clark, owner of the coffee chain.
“Our strategy was, well let’s put a Bridgehead as a community anchor in every single one of the old city of Ottawa neighbourhoods,” she said.
The company, which prides itself on fair trade coffee, in-house roasting and food preparation, has 16 cafés scattered around Ottawa, with one opening every year since 2000. Now, there are plans to rollout cafés in surrounding Ottawa suburbs such as Orleans, Kanata and Barrhaven, in the next two years, with six set to open in 2016, Clark said.
But the specialty coffee market hasn’t proven an easy one to grow in, with the market dominated by Starbucks and fast- food chains such as McDonald’s pushing into the specialty coffee business. Homegrown gourmet coffee franchises such as Second Cup and Timothy’s World Coffee have faced an uphill battle against Starbucks, which now dominates the Canadian market with more than 1,400 stores.
Second Cup rebranded in winter 2014 to go with a more upscale look that incorporates sleeker signage to pull patrons away from the white and green Starbucks cups, after a continued period of sales decline.
Bridgehead locations also provide that contemporary coffee shop feel with plenty of exposed brick, dark woods and hanging low- lights. But to compete like Second Cup and Timothy’s, outside the Ottawa market, is not in Bridgehead’s plan, yet.
Its history differs from those brands. Bridgehead Trading was founded by United Church ministers and activists in 1981 to support Nicaraguan coffee farmers during a U.S. trade embargo. In the 1990s, the business faltered under the ownership of Oxfam Canada, and in 2000 Clark took the opportunity to transform the company while maintaining its core value of commitment to fair trade and community. The seeds of running a fair trade business were planted in her mind during a trip to Nicaragua in 1987. Today, that commitment has Bridgehead sourcing coffee from small-scale growers from Bolivia to Rwanda.
“It’s standing for something. We had a strong sense of vision and a strong sense of values right from the get go,” she said.
Clark, who often cycles to the Bridgehead locations, said community culture also comes through in Bridgehead’s commitment to Ottawa neighbourhoods. “A lot of times people like to think of the coffee market as being saturated, congested, and it is,” Clark said. “For us it was important to compete on product, experience, and to make really solid choices in terms of locations.”
One in partic ular, which opened in 2012 on Anderson Street in Ottawa’s Little Italy, houses corporate offices a stairway away, giving coffee drinkers on the ground floor a glimpse into the glass offices. The hum of the company’s coffee roaster is a sign the company has taken direct control of how its coffee tastes, allowing for experiments in flavour and freshness.
The roastery is partially supported by funds from the Ottawa community through a program where customers purchased gift cards. These cards were between $ 250 and $ 1,000 and the money would be given back to customers via “Bridgehead dollars” every six months for three years.
This is the only location that re- ceived this kind of funding because of the administrative work involved. Family and friends initially funded Bridgehead and those same groups continue to control the company, along with some new investors. “In late 2013, several smaller shareholders exited and a local group of investors became partners in the business,” she said.
Bridgehead also underwent a menu expansion in 2015, adding craft beer and wine as well as food from quinoa salads with roasted squash, to chocolate pecan squares, all prepared in-house by a team of 40 cooks. Increasing specialty items such as in- house brewed Kombucha, coupled with a model that favours slow growth has been key to its success. “It has to be smart. It can’t just be growth for growth’s sake,” Clark said.
Which is why there are no plans to move further afield yet. Bridgehead needs to ensure it can retain its close ties to communities and the vertical integration of its food products, Clark said.
While the current economic climate presents some problems, including the low dollar making it more expensive to bring the beans to the roastery, Clark said these costs have not affected the plans for growth.
Although Bridgehead is a small business, it’s had a place in the market for a long- time, Michael Mulvey, marketing professor at the University of Ottawa said. “You could say they do have a bridgehead’ already, established long before competitors came on the scene,” said Mulvey, whose research centres on brands and their connection to customers.
Bridgehead was a social enterprise before the term really became known, defining itself based on its fair trade commitment as well as gaining a following of clients who care about coffee and where it comes from, he said.
Its success in the next few years will be predicated on whether it can stick to its core values of authenticity. “If they start to try to become something that they’re not, that’s when they are going to be putting some risk into the equation,” he said.
PEOPLE LIKE TO THINK OF THE MARKET AS BEING SATURATED, AND IT IS.