Setting up a coffee business, where to buy materials?

Statusquo73

Hi All,

Thank you for stopping by and reading my thread.

I am opening a coffee shop in 3 months. I am looking to buy materials.

Any of you can advise me a good company or good website to buy materials for coffee shops including furnitures?

I am checking the Donedeal all the times but not great choices on there.

Thank you so much in advance.

Bandara

Hello

You have your location etc sorted ?

Sorry but your post is quite alarming. Your opening in a very very tough business to make any money in, and your questions are incredibly basic and worryingly simple. Nothing wrong with that of course, but I would be very concerned that you don’t know what you are doing and thus end up making mistakes that you won’t be able to recover from

Could you advise your experience, and journey to date, and what stage you are at now ?

Statusquo73

Bandara wrote: »

Hello

You have your location etc sorted ?

Sorry but your post is quite alarming. Your opening in a very very tough business to make any money in, and your questions are incredibly basic and worryingly simple. Nothing wrong with that of course, but I would be very concerned that you don’t know what you are doing and thus end up making mistakes that you won’t be able to recover from

Could you advise your experience, and journey to date, and what stage you are at now ?

Hi Bandara

Thank you for the honesty and your feedback.

I am opening coffee in Cork.
Location,design,builders are sorted. To be honest my issue was the high prices of materials in the market.
It seems to me a bit high.

I have worked in coffee shop for many years but not in Ireland
Contract will be signed this week and then I have 3 months rent free.

uck51js9zml2yt

Statusquo73 wrote: »

Hi Bandara

Thank you for the honesty and your feedback.

I am opening coffee in Cork.
Location,design,builders are sorted. To be honest my issue was the high prices of materials in the market.
It seems to me a bit high.

I have worked in coffee shop for many years but not in Ireland
Contract will be signed this week and then I have 3 months rent free.

So you are going to waste 3 months of free rental?
Do yourself a favour,dont sign any contracts and give up on the dream.
It's evident you don't know what you are doing.

You've done no proper planning.

joeguevara

Statusquo73 wrote: »

Hi Bandara

Thank you for the honesty and your feedback.

I am opening coffee in Cork.
Location,design,builders are sorted. To be honest my issue was the high prices of materials in the market.
It seems to me a bit high.

I have worked in coffee shop for many years but not in Ireland
Contract will be signed this week and then I have 3 months rent free.

If you haven’t signed any contracts or if you can get out without losing too much money my advice would be to do that. Then if you want to continue manage a coffee shop in Ireland to learn what to do and what not to do in Ireland. If you have only come to the conclusion that coffee materials are a bit high so close to opening it means you either don’t have a business plan or it’s flawed. 90% of coffee shops close within 12 months. Don’t rush in and become a statistic.

jimmii

Statusquo73 wrote: »

Hi Bandara

Thank you for the honesty and your feedback.

I am opening coffee in Cork.
Location,design,builders are sorted. To be honest my issue was the high prices of materials in the market.
It seems to me a bit high.

I have worked in coffee shop for many years but not in Ireland
Contract will be signed this week and then I have 3 months rent free.

You've worked in coffee shops or run the business of a coffee shop? There is a massive difference between the two. While a coffee shop in one country might seem like a coffee shop in any country it's really not I really hope you have someone who has both experience of the trade in Ireland and has experience of actually running the business.

As mentioned already that rent free period shouldn't be time spent figuring this out the day you get the keys you should be in there 24 hours a day to get the doors open as soon as you possibly can and really take advantage of those three months by building yourself a customer base.

Bandara

OP we are really not being harsh or negative here. Despite what it reads like.

You are most likely going to lose everything and be left with debts and judgments against you.

Step back, regroup and stop everything. You need to approach this again with a clear head and an honest approach.

Are you ready for this, and have you the skills built up to take this leap? Are your finances and knowledge at a level to be able to do yourself justice and survive past month three ?

Good luck with whatever you choose. I and the others here will help if we can, but at the moment your too at sea to be guided.

Statusquo73

Thank you so much for all of you for the feedbacks and suggestions.

I understand your points. I have an import and export business in Ireland last 5 years. More or less I know how to run a business.
For coffee business I will have an experience group of people working in there.

I just wanted to know if you guys sometime hear some companies that sell materials for good prices than market prices.
I think many Irish companies dont advertise their business very well.
If you check companies like nsibett,corcorans,newequipments etc. have equipments but same identical materials,chairs or tables are almost half price in UK.

Anyway thank you again for the advise. I am not rushing for the openning the business but I will open it. If even I know that I might loose all. The biggest risk is not taking the risk.

I appreciate your comments guys.

Eric Cartman

lease a coffee machine from ucc coffee solutions, get your cups and general supplies in somewhere like musgraves, theres different roastaries to get coffee from, baobab in celbridge, kildare is a decent one. I believe theres also a good one in wicklow.

contact a local bakery about perhaps pastries and other craic.

duploelabs

Eric Cartman wrote: »

lease a coffee machine from ucc coffee solutions, get your cups and general supplies in somewhere like musgraves, theres different roastaries to get coffee from, baobab in celbridge, kildare is a decent one. I believe theres also a good one in wicklow.

contact a local bakery about perhaps pastries and other craic.

Musgraves are woefully overpriced. To the tune of 180%. Avoid like the plague

Bandara

Eric Cartman wrote: »

lease a coffee machine from ucc coffee solutions, get your cups and general supplies in somewhere like musgraves, theres different roastaries to get coffee from, baobab in celbridge, kildare is a decent one. I believe theres also a good one in wicklow.

contact a local bakery about perhaps pastries and other craic.

Don’t lease anything. Get your machine and grinder, knock box training etc free from a supplier. All your cups etc don’t pay More than 50% of asking price. (Bogof)

Menus should be done foc also.

There are so many things you are doing totally wrong op. Furniture can be bought in Ikea or in Derry’s

You need to decide what your business is and what it needs and stop reading brochures about what you ‘should do’. Sorry I’m not having a go I’m just finding your head in the sandness frustrating and I feel for you and what is going to happen.

Staff don’t care. They will not make this business work no matter how much expertise. You are the success or failure of the business. And you are not fighting hard.

Anything specific ask here, we will help, duploe and other here’s are very experienced and doing this a long time.

Your not asking the right questions.

You can open a cafe for 10k or for 250k

If I may be blunt. You need to stop nodding your head, and start shaking your fists !

Barrelat75

It might be worth calling into other coffee shops in areas other than where you plan on opening and asking them for advise.
You will find I'm sure that people who have started and are operating successfully are willing to offer advise.

duploelabs

Barrelat75 wrote: »

It might be worth calling into other coffee shops in areas other than where you plan on opening and asking them for advise.
You will find I'm sure that people who have started and are operating successfully are willing to offer advise.

Advice is one thing, but it's editorialised and it cannot compare with practical working experience

markymark21

Auctions are a good place to look as they regularly will be selling furniture from cafes/ restaurants which have gone bust

However like everyone else if you are asking these questions 3 months out you need to reevaluate as you should have all these questions well answered if you have followed due diligence on your business plan

Perhaps find an existing cafe for lease on daft.ie so you're not starting from scratch could be an option if you wanna jump in head first.

If you've never actually worked in a cafe though I'd start there though! Hospitality can be a brutal game if you don't know what you're doing and even people that do know what they are doing and are experienced regularly fail as business owners.