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A period of renewal and upgrades
We purposely decided not to do any work for the first couple of months of the year. With all of the team in South Africa at some stage and the events side of things being less frequent, it made sense to take a break. It also gave us an opportunity to get things done. So far this year we have:
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Had the coffee machine fully serviced.
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Had our grinder fully serviced.
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Had all our equipment PAT tested.
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Received our brilliant new takeaway cups from Twist Supplies.
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Written a sustainability policy.
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Given the trailer a paint, inside and out.
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Planned our spring and summer of events for 2025.
We're now ready to go for the large number of different events we're at throughout the next few months.
Ian Williams Blue Monday Treat
We love working with businesses who look after their people. Ian Williams Ltd, a property services company, based in Chipping Sodbury, wanted to give their staff a 'Blue Monday' treat. So they called us.
We set up the 'shack' right outside of their HQ reception and served up our delicious coffee, hot chocolate and cakes for around 60 people. It was a cold morning, only 3 degrees, so it was good for everyone to be able to have a hot drink to warm their hands.
We received a very warm welcome and definitely got the sense that everyone appreciated the gesture from the company and enjoyed their drinks and cakes.
Drone Light Shows
Our last events of year were the Christmas Carol Drone Light Shows at Gloucestershire County cricket ground in Bristol. We were there on three separate days. Thursday 19th & Friday 20th December and again on Monday 23rd December (Saturday 21st was postponed due to high winds).
We loved being amongst people in a festive mood and served up a large number of hot chocolates and festive cookies over the three days.
The drone light shows were spectacular and told the story of Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol. It was quite a sight to see the drones form different coloured shapes in the sky.
We so enjoyed trading a Gloucestershire County Cricket Club throughout 2024 and can't wait to be back there once the cricket season starts in the spring.
The Bristol Fitness Games
We had a brilliant day on 30th November at CommandoFit in Yatton who hosted their fitness competition. We set up right outside the gym serving up much needed coffee and cakes to competitors, staff and spectators.
It was very dark when we pulled up at 6.30am to set up. We received a very warm welcome from Joe Cottle the gym owner and the other completion staff. We also had great feedback from everyone in attendance.
Being in the trailer was definitely the best place to be as the demanding nature of the competition workouts was definitely only for the extremely fit.
We love being at events like this and there was a great vibe. We loved being part of it.
Some Trailer Upgrades
35 year old horse trailers require regular maintenance. During October and November, we've made sure that the 'Shack' runs in good working order and Max (Kayleigh's Dad) has been adding a few useful extras to make life easier for us and our awesome customers.
Maintenance
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We had the trailer serviced by HK Trailers.
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Two new prop stands to replace the old ones that were bent.
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A new electrical socket plug that connects to the towing car.
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A new spare tyre
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Resealing the box that holds the gas pipe and regulator.
Upgrades
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A new serving counter that allows us to have a drinks collection point by the ramp.
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New flooring under the sink area and in the area under the coffee machine.
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New shelving above the serving hatch and by the barista work area.
Annual service done
New prop stands
New shelving above the serving hatch
Annual service done
Our first indoor pop-up event
On 2nd October we did our first indoor pop-up event at the Spectrum Building in central Bristol. They had the perfect set up area in their reception area and having advertised our attendance in advance we had a steady stream of people throughout the day.
It was great for us to test our indoor set-up and use our Fracino Little Gem one-group machine to serve up our delicious coffee.
We received a warm welcome from the people who worked for the various businesses housed in the building. People really appreciated the opportunity to buy great coffee and were highly impressed by our array of mouth-watering cakes.
We really enjoyed the day and discussed with the building team the possibility of returning in December with our festive drinks menu and a wide selection of Christmas-related cakes.
UPDATE...we've been invited back on Tuesday 10th December.
England v Australia
What a day! We were at the England v Australia one day cricket international in Bristol on Sunday 29th September. There were 14000 spectators in the ground, more than twice the number of the biggest event we'd attended up to that point. We were fortunate at the beginning to get a 20 coffee order from the Aussie cricket team and a visit from Adam Zampa, Mitchell Marsh and Alex Carey!
Once people started to pour into the ground, things got super busy. The queues for every food vendor built up quickly and from around 9.30am, we had at least 30 people in our queue for the rest of the day.
There were four of us working hard and efficiently all day. We kept up the coffee quality with with some regular checks on weight and shot times and despite wait times of up to 35 minutes, we never got an order wrong and maintained a warm and friendly approach to every customer.
By the end of the day we had got through 120 litres of milk and sold out of around 240 cakes by 3pm. We sold 501 coffee drinks, 104 hot chocolates and 114 cups of speciality tea! It's safe to say that we were all pretty tired at the end and then had to pack away in the rain!
This showed us that we can all handle huge events and maintain the quality of our coffee and service when faced with long queues. We did feel for the people that had to wait as it was very cold for a cricket match, so we always made sure they got a smile and a great coffee and cake when they finally reached us. We also learned a few things about how to improve what we do for future busy events.
Glevum Windows Staff Recognition
We were privileged to be asked to provide coffee and cakes at Glevum Windows near Newnham-on-Severn in Gloucestershire. The MD, Mike Donaldson wanted to recognise the outstanding efforts of everyone at Glevum and coffee and cake seemed like a great way to do this.
We positioned ourselves in the car park at their HQ and all the team there loved being able to have our perfectly brewed coffee, speciality teas and hot chocolate, all paid for by the company!. We also served up a selection of delicious cakes such as Danish Pastries, Biscoff Rocky Road, Lemon Drizzle, Carrot Cake, Chocolate Brownies, and Sticky Toffee slices to name but a few. Any leftover cakes were left in the reception area for the staff to polish off later.
We had lots of great feedback on the quality of our coffee, cakes and friendly service. Everyone really appreciated Mike's gesture and we loved being part of it.
If you would like to do the same for your West Country based company, please get in touch and we'll make it happen.