Responding to the rapid growth in the UK coffee shop market, leading buying group Caterforce is set to launch a new coffee brand from October 2019.
Roast 440 has been designed with independent coffee shops, cafes, pubs, restaurants and hotels in mind and is available exclusively through Caterforce members.
The new range includes five varieties of coffee beans and three varieties of filter coffee to suit every taste, including single origin and Rainforest Alliance options. Each high-quality blend has been carefully selected and balanced, using the finest coffee beans for each application.
In 2016, the UK had over 22,000 coffee shops and by 2018 this had grown to 24,000, an increase of +9%. These coffee shops consume 2.3 billion cups of coffee per year, which in 1kg bags equates to 460,000,000 bags.
Claire Williams, Group Marketing Manager at Caterforce, said: “The UK coffee market is growing rapidly, and consumers expect a great cup of coffee anytime, anywhere.
“We have partnered with an expert roaster whose experts are painstaking about every aspect of coffee; the origin of the beans, the roasting process, and the blends they create. That's why our customers can be confident Roast 440 will deliver a great cup of coffee every time.”
Claire added: “Launching Roast 440 represents an opportunity to establish a coffee brand, unique to Caterforce. It enables us to offer exclusivity at competitive prices in the right sizes, pack formats and blends for our customers. Our members are already selling into coffee shops and cafes, with products such as cakes, breads and sandwich fillings, so it’s a great addition to our offering.”
Attracting loyal customers is about much more than what goes into the cup, Claire explains: “With so many coffee shops out there, our customers need to stand out, so we've also created a distinctive and stylish range of marketing materials, uniforms, crockery and point of sale displays. Everything it takes to turn great coffee into great business.
“We've also partnered with Pure Leaf as our preferred tea partner as they offer a premium range of tea which complements our coffee brand, and the Italian maestros at Cimbali to offer a wide range of professional grade coffee machines. There's a Cimbali model to suit every type of business, handle varying volume of coffee and they also look amazing.”
Established in 1991, Caterforce is one of the UK’s biggest foodservice buying and marketing groups, with a combined turnover of over £500 million. It’s made up of seven members strategically located around the UK.
Roast 440 is the Group’s third own brand label, following the successful Chefs’ Selections brand and Caterforce Professional cleaning range. There are now more than 350 Chefs’ Selections products available and in 2018 the brand generated an annual turnover in excess of £50m.