# Crown and Canvas (2 years old)



## DavecUK

Jakes been with the forum as an advertiser for just over a year now, and it's been great to see him move from strength to strength and get a lot of positive comments from members. I'm hoping his birthday blend might herald the beginnings of some special coffees just for forum members. I think there is a lot of room for our roasters to produce something a bit special (and probably expensive) for forum members on a regular basis. I am sure many of us would want to push the boat out a little sometimes and get something a little special....that's possibly just for us initially.

Jake opened his business about 3 months before the Pandemic hit, intending to focus on the wholesale market, of course that evaporated with the lockdown, as it did for so many roasters..Fortunately for us, Jake decided the speciality sector would still be buoyant and of course it was, with more people making speciality coffee at home than ever before. A good thing in my opinion.

Crown and Canvas is just a small business...Jake does all the coffee selection, cupping, roasting packing and distribution, plus all the website and marketing stuff and his Dad does the accounts. I know just how much work Jake has on his hands and at times I imagine it is exhausting, difficult to take a holiday too!

2 things made a big difference in becoming successful.



Keeping everything in house, exhausting, but it made the business agile and able to react quickly when the world changed


The CFUK community, which helped greatly with revenue and also the valuable feedback and engagement with the end customer


I asked Jake about future plans

Currently I'm working on a number of things, and though my focus is still aimed at working with more wholesale accounts, I'm also working on a cafe buildout project inside our roastery, so a few days a week people can come in, have a coffee and a cake and see our roastery in full, nothing hidden behind smoke and mirrors, though that wont be until the new year I imagine!

Other than that I'm hoping to hold some events at our roastery (once the fit out is completed) I'd love some more light hearted events, Latte art throwdowns - Social evenings with coffee - CFUK Community cuppings etc. Hoping to kick off the next year with a lot more in our back pocket than we did this last!

I'd love to see some of these events happen, and for people close enough, I think they would be great fun. I'd love to go myself if someone in my area can give me a lift....the problems with an electric car and long distances.

I sure Jakes positive experience with the CFUK community will help him in with the wholesale market as well, and he is able to supply many of the speciality cafés that have sprung up and continue to spring up.

Happy 2nd Birthday Crown & Canvas


----------

