Interview
W
ith news of another recession in our midst, there is just one thing us Brits simply can’t cut back on - a steaming hot cup of coffee. Since the turn of the century and the boom in business
across the Western world, the coffee market has gone from strength to strength - every stockbroker, truck driver or working mother needed that caffeine fix. In the 1990’s Starbucks was opening a new store every workday, and by 2015 the coffee industry is set to hit the £976 million mark. So what is it about the humble coffee bean that has amassed such huge business opportunity?
I sit down with Martyn Dawes, Founder of Coffee Nation, to address how he made his fortune in the coffee landscape. Selling his self-service drinks company for £23m in 2008, Martyn and I discuss his rise to entrepreneurial fame, his Coffee Nation journey, the reasoning behind his exit and his current projects and future plans.
Intrigued as to how a man from a working class background with a fairly unremarkable upbringing could go on to such phenomenal business success, I ask Martyn where he found that early determination to succeed. “It was only in sixth form college that I decided I didn’t want to follow the crowd. I dropped out of A levels and went to work with my father at an aerospace company. I was also adopted, which I think gave me a bit of a chip on my shoulder to take a different path in life. Many times, I just thought it would be nice to have a job. I didn’t think of myself as an entrepreneur, I didn’t even know what entrepreneurship was, and it was only when I got into working on Coffee Nation and it developed that I thought ‘wow, this could be something.’”
Martyn’s early employment success doesn’t quite equate to a simple formula of teen boy with a good work ethic to creating the third space between poor quality vending machines and high street coffee bars. How did Martyn gain the confidence to leave two successful companies, first in aerospace, then a stint at Massey Ferguson, a tractor manufacturer, to heading up his own? “There was this young manager in my first job and he stood out and broke the mould. He did what had to be done to get results and was very inspirational. Within the company, management was outdated, technology was outdated and he came in with a different approach. He spotted me and said ‘we’ve got this contract with an aircraft engine manufacturer and we are going to lose it unless we do
37 entrepreneurcountry
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