I am so happy to share with you this Founder Friday episode that takes a hard look at what is possible when you want to offer excellence at scale in a cafe setting. I am joined by the founder of the iconic and standard setting company, WatchHouse, Roland Horne.
Roland founded WatchHouse in 2014 after extensive experience running small-to-medium-size businesses, including luxury aquarium design consultancy Aquarium Architecture. He holds directorships with property development funds Verum Domus and Coutts & Partners and has a MSc in Economic History from the London School of Economics. Roland is currently pursuing his Executive MBA at the University of Oxford. Over the past seven years WatchHouse has grown from one cafe on London’s iconic Bermondsey Street to ten sites, and in August celebrated the one-year anniversary of the WatchHouse Roastery at 36 Maltby Street. A CEO with formative experience outside the speciality coffee sector, Roland has a unique and ambitious perspective on the sustainable expansion of the brand throughout the London and beyond.
In today’s conversation we get to hear the story behind WatchHouse and how Roland has grown this brand through values and a desire to keep integrity of service and quality front and center. I think you will get a great deal from this chat.
We discuss:
- From luxury aquariums to coffee
- Defining modern coffee and evolving
- Focusing on your unique value proposition
- Why you need to focus on the MLP
- Big concept in an initially small space
- Making hard financial decisions and listening to customers
- Beginning to roast
- Scaling and customizing for the community
- Living wage and following through on delivering value
- Getting better as you get bigger
- Staff structures
- Overcoming the assumption that big is bad
- Providing spaces for Happiness
Links:
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