Cafes - how many cups of coffee per day?

CafeStuff

Hi there
I'm looking into opening a cafe (town approx 3,000 people, busy with tourists for 6 months of year, weekends quite busy with day trippers, many cafes already in existence) and am trying to do costings, etc. When it comes to projecting sales, etc, I'm a bit in the dark.
I have been told that a particular cafe in the town used to sell approx 10-15kg of coffee per week. With 55-60 cups of coffee per kg, that's 550-900 cups per week.
The cafe in question, though charming, is very small and tends to be relatively quiet, so these figures were much higher than I expected. After all, let's say an average of roughly 100 cups per 8-hour day - that works out at one cup every five minutes. Of course, the figures would likely be skewed, with a disproportionate amount of cups being sold at lunch/weekends, etc, but the figure still sounds high to me.
I'd love to know what cafe owners, or anyone with knowledge of the business, would think of such figures.
Thanks in advance for replies.

Berty

6 kg of Coffee per week is good trade. Anything more than that is very good.

You have to think whether or not you are going to serve a single or double shot of Espresso per cup. The margins on Coffee are high but there is no sense in getting greedy.

You will normally only find one member of staff operating the Espresso machine so bear in mind there is no sense getting a 3 group machine(example) because you wont need it. A Coffee should take around 45 second from grind to extraction.

I have working in the foodservice industry for years. Its hard work but hot drinks are the way to go. Serve quality products and serve them well and you will have people coming back for more.

CafeStuff

6kg? That's disappointing to hear.
Some websites give different figures regarding cups per kilo (70 - 140, as opposed to the 55-60 figure I was given), so it's possible the original estimate I was given is not as far out of sync with your figures as first appears. Would you have a rough estimate as to how many cups sold per day is the norm/good? Do you think that 700 cups per week is rare?
If less, how do cafes make money? Take rent/rates of 15k per annum, add staff costs of 15k per annum (low), elec, accountants fees, running costs, wastage, IRMA, insurance, etc, and you're probably looking at running costs of close on 1,000 per week.
I've been looking at a coffeehouse model, offering scones/croissants/desserts also, with perhaps a very small sandwich menu, but the focus would preferably be on the coffee, hence my need to get accurate figures re. coffee sales.

starbelgrade

Berty wrote: »

6 kg of Coffee per week is good trade.

I drink about half that every day.

Berty

70-140 is an unrealistic figure because of waste and mistakes. Shave off 10-15 cups per day to be safe.

11cent to 22cent cost price per cup for an espresso. Sell an Americano for €1.80. Easy money. Add in a double wall cup for 8-10cent incl lid.