something fast; it’s over to you mate. ‘I was 19 at the time. Within 18 months, we were awarded preferred supplier status.”
With a new found confidence that came with the naïveté of youth teamed with a boost from the mentorship of his manager, Martyn moved to London and started a consultancy business. It was whilst running this business that Martyn had a light bulb moment for what became Coffee Nation after reading an article on an American photocopying business. “They put photocopiers in newsagents and drug stores and they split the revenue with the shopkeeper. It brought people through the door because if a customer used the photocopier they would buy something else. The photocopier company would maintain the equipment and generated a little bit of revenue from lots of different locations. I thought that was a lovely model, unlike consultancy where you have to get out of bed to earn a fee and losing one or two clients would be painful. With this, there was lots of small assets out there making money and I didn’t have to be with them all the time.” By chance Martyn had
“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.”
developed a business model before he even had a product and it was whilst on a trip to America looking for business ideas to bring back to the UK that he saw takeaway coffee in convenience stores. “It was coffee out of a filter jug, nothing special, it wasn’t Starbucks and of course coffee bar chains such as
Starbucks were growing very
quickly. But I wasn’t attracted to that, it had shops, labour, lots of people, equipment, real estate and I just thought it seemed very complicated. Takeaway coffee from c-stores was like a dollar a cup and I thought that
38 entrepreneurcountry
was the product I could put into newsagents back in the UK. That was another light bulb moment.”
The idea was in place. “I
started
out with a folder knocking on UK newsagents doors. I researched the market and planned equipment and the product - it was instant coffee, powdered milk and it didn’t work very well at all. Corner shops were the wrong location and people weren’t going to buy a cup of coffee in a grubby newsagent. I then went from corner shops to chains such as Spar and sold more there, around 100 cups a week. However, it still wasn’t enough to make a really exciting business.” Martyn then went through the toughest stage of the business’ development - it was 1998 and he was running out of money, had exceeded his overdraft and was desperately trying to convince his bank manager to believe in him for a little bit longer. He had only one employee and had to let him go, with his only life line being a supportive accountant. Whilst visiting one of the Spar locations, a customer walked in and changed everything. “He came to me and said ‘if you want me to buy this product at this location it has to be something that will really excite me, otherwise I’ll just put the kettle on back in the office.’ This was my eureka moment - it was talking to someone who wasn’t buying my product that gave me the answer I was yearning for. My mistake was thinking instant coffee would be adequate for a convenience store. When I made it real espresso, fresh milk and replaced the instant machines with real espresso coffee machines, volumes went up. I was charging 50% more for the drink and we were doing 1000 cups a month.
The equipment did cost a lot more and that was a bold move but I had to say ‘I don’t care - instant coffee isn’t working.’ Conventional thinking would say ‘you’re putting in more expensive kit, how are you going to make that profitable?’ But if you get the product right you sell more and you can charge more.”
Despite this success, Martyn was still aware that he was in the wrong locations. “With corner shops a lot of people just go there to top up their groceries and they’re not transient type locations. In America you see a lot of petrol stations and convenience stores with a huge footfall of people who are driving or
on route
and takeaway coffee and food are core parts of their business.” Martyn developed the product further and secured trials with Texaco and Welcome Break on motorways and
Martyn had a bulb moment what became Nation after re article on an A photocopying
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