Company
Cyprus
Ireland
Polska
Sverige
Türkiye
UAE
UK
US
Our Story
How it all began
Our story goes back around 20 years, to our founder Gerry Ford. Armed with a passion for coffee, he had a vision to create traditional Italian cafés across Europe; places that would serve very high quality coffee and serve as neighbourhood meeting spots.
We started off simply trying to make a few local independent coffee houses work. And they did! We never aspired to be a big company; in fact, even today we see ourselves as a start-up. We have grown one coffee, one customer and one store at a time – always trying to be the best at what we do.
We have reinvested in the business to stay true to Gerry’s original vision and we’ve done this resilience and determination.
Quality and Consistency
Making great coffee takes some doing. So, we built our own Roastery and created a unique award-winning coffee blend (we regularly work on developing new and interesting blends too). And, importantly, we set up our espresso training school – where all our Baristas master the art of coffee making.
This has led to our family owned and operated business opening more than 800 coffee houses across Europe.
“Since 1997, we have grown one coffee, one customer and one store at a time – always trying to be the best at what we do.”
– Gerry Ford, Founder and CEO
Accolades
We are proud to be recognised for the quality of our coffee and service. Here is a selection of our awards:
2002- 2009: Ranked ‘best coffee quality’ and ‘best coffee house brand’ – Allegra Report
2009 – 2011: The Masters of Coffee Barista Champions: 2009 – 2011, 1st Place
2013: Voted ‘Best Tasting Coffee on the High Street’
–Independent Consumer Magazine
2013: Voted ‘The best independent coffee shop brand’ – Food Business Awards
2015: Award winner in category: Cafe Retailer of the Year
2015: National Coffee Olympics, 1st and 3rd Place
2016: Coffee Shop Retailer of the Year – CEE Retail Awards
2017: Best Store & Best Menu – Sweets & Coffee Awards
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
Our story goes back around 20 years, to our founder Gerry Ford. Armed with a passion for coffee, he had a vision to create traditional Italian cafés across Europe; places that served very high quality coffee and acted as a meeting spot for the neighborhood.
We started off simply trying to make a few local independent coffee houses work. And they did! We never aspired to be a big company; in fact, even today we see ourselves as a start-up. We have grown one coffee, one customer and one store at a time – always trying to be the best at what we do.
We have reinvested all of our money back into the business to try to improve it and we have carried on with resilience and determination.
QUALITY AND CONSISTENCY
Making great coffee takes some doing. So, we built our own Roastery and created a unique award-winning coffee blend (we regularly work on developing new and interesting blends too). And, importantly, we set up our espresso training school – where all our Baristas master the art of coffee making.
This has led to our family owned and operated business opening more than 800 coffee houses across Europe, recognised for serving ‘the best espresso this side of Milan’. Every day we try to live up to that praise.