SHOP TALK

IF I’D KNOWN THEN WHAT I KNOW NOW...

TONY BAGSHAW, owner, Deli Bloc, Kettering, Northamptonshire

Kafé Bloc had been going for eight years when the pandemic hit and overnight we were told to close our doors. We got all our existing suppliers on board and bought large sacks of flour, rice and pasta, fruit, veg, meat and even toilet roll. The following day we reopened as a grocery store. When we were able to reopen the café, we knew it would be impossible to run both the store and café in the space we had. Fortunately, a retail unit two doors along became available and we signed a lease on that. Deli Bloc was born.

My vision was to create an old-fashioned shop crammed with goodies, from local cheeses and homemade pies to chutneys and jams – very different to the staples we were selling during lockdown. The reality is that the deli has become more of an extension to the café than I expected. A lot of people come in for the hot sausage rolls and sandwiches we make every morning.

Last year, the building next door to the deli came up for sale, so we bought that and moved the café into it, knocking down walls between the two buildings to amalgamate the two sides of the business. This enabled us to put in a bigger kitchen and accommodate more seating.

We operate as one entity. The deli is almost a stockholding area for the café. If I need a truckle of cheese for the kitchen, I just grab one from the deli. This means we rarely run out of anything.

One of the tricks is to design the café menu for commonality of ingredients. We try to ensure that each ingredient we buy has multiple uses and is used in several dishes.

The café generates two-thirds of our turnover, and the deli a third, which corresponds to the space they occupy. The two parts of the business produce a similar net profit. The higher labour costs of running the café are balanced with higher margins, while on the deli side, margins are lower but so is the cost of labour.

Staffing has been a challenge in recent years. We have a higher staff turnover than we used to, due to people leaving the industry. I started off in the kitchen doing all the cooking and now, 10 years later, I am back there again. We have eight or nine employees on the books at any one time, which equates to four or five full-timers.

Considering the current climate, the business is performing well. The café continues to grow month on month and the deli is ticking over nicely, although many people have reverted to their old shopping habits.

My plan for the future is to try and take a holiday. Before I go though, I want to make sure everything is running as it should be.

CONFESSIONS OF A DELI OWNER

ANONYMOUS TALES FROM BEHIND THE COUNTER

I THINK I have a case of Sensitive Shelves. You might say, “there is a cream for that.” Jokes aside, the reality is that not all shelves are created equal.

Those at, or just below, eye level are the best. Those down by your feet are under-performers, even though baskets on the floor can work. Shelves up high are bad but anything is better than hiding product in the stock room. Tables for customers to browse from are good, but they don’t hold many lines. Counter tops shift stuff fast, but only lower value items. The display unit near the door is not as good as you’d think because most customers have not had the chance to pick up a basket. I’m not sure I agree with the concept of “Hot Spots” but I could walk you round my shop whispering “warmer, warmer, colder, colder” as you pass every shelf inch.

Several years ago, I did a complete rearrange. Moved the deli counter and everything. The plan was to get my café customers to behave more like my deli customers, and vice versa.

I know this is true for lots of deli-cafés, but the customers just seem to split at the door. We can attract two different types of people, or the same people in two different moods.

MODEL RETAILING

Shelves at, or just below, eye level are the best. Those down by your feet are underperformers.

In my head, I visualised my new lay-out encouraging diners to pick up something on the way out or people stopping for a coffee while they’re in buying cheese. And I was mostly correct. It has increased my average spend.

However, the one error I made was to think that shelving in the café space would get people looking around while they slurp their cappuccino’s and say, “Hey, I fancy that jar of strawberry & Champagne jam”. It didn’t work. Any benefit was offset by dust, sell-by dates and damage. Did I mention children’s sticky fingers?

Now, we mostly keep it up high around café customers. That is, as mentioned, better than the stock room (surely anywhere is better?).

When it comes to analysing the performance of my shelves, I like the shorthand of the 80:20 rule. In effect, 20% of the shelving does 80% of the work. This is not something I am pleased with. It’s more of a failure (this is a confessional, after all) but I have learnt to cherish that 20%. Those are my special places. I would call them my work horses more than hot spots.

All are near the counter, and all are between tummy and shoulder. Clear line of sight. These facias need restocking like the sweet bowl at a kids’ party.

But you can make an error with even the best shelves. I had a lovely team member who liked to arrange stock like it was a jenga puzzle. Pull out the wrong cheese straw and it all came tumbling down. Customers get nervous about that, so make sure it’s not a challenge to pick something out.

So, love them, polish them and only lavish your best stock on them. After all, they’re the most sensitive of all.

SOLVING EVERYDAY SHOPKEEPING DILEMMAS. IN MINIATURE.

You know, I’d love to come with you to that trade show, but I’m just too busy here. And the staff really need me. Or, do they? Wow, sounds like you found loads of new suppliers at that show… Oh yeah, no, we were really swamped. Ish.

FFD says: It’s very easy to feel trapped in your shop. Often, owners convince themselves that, unless they’re on the floor, it will all go horribly wrong. But taking time away from the day-to-day running of the shop can actually be a really good thing. Trade shows and events are a good source of new products and ideas, and they’re often held mid-week. So, if you trust your staff to carry out tasks when you’re there, then trust them to keep the shop going while you go out and broaden your horizons.

CODE OF PRACTICE

Technical and regulatory advice from the Guild of Fine Food’s Assured Code of Practice for Deli Retailing

This month we take a look at... induction of new employees

New employees will need to understand their legal responsibilities from the outset. This can be achieved by completing an induction and training process, including the following food safety information:

• Cleaning Schedules and the COSHH manual

– Location and purpose of COSHH (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health) assessments. – Personal Protective Equipment if needed and how to wear it and what to do if damaged. – Contact times and dilution rates.

New employees will need to understand their legal responsibilities from the outset

• Housekeeping

– Ensuring exits and walkways are kept clear at all times. Correct disposal of refuse.

• Temperature Control

– The correct temperatures required for food safety, in line with the products produced.

• Personal Hygiene

– How to and what to wear regarding protective clothing, jewellery etc.

• Fitness To Work

– The requirment to report illnesses, the 48-hours rule, and return to work policy.

• Allergens

– What the allergens are, how to prevent cross-contamination and information to be given to customers.

• First Aid

– Name of person to ask for first aid and where the first aid kits are located.

• Deliveries and Stock Rotation

– How deliveries should be accepted and how foods are stock rotated.

• Cross-contamination

– How to handle food safely to reduce contamination and keeping work areas clean.

The guide is available in PDF format and is free for Guild members. For non-members, it costs £250+VAT. To request a copy of the Code of Practice, or for further information, email support@gff.co.uk

Producer’s View

COTSWOLD FLOUR MD BERTIE MATTHEWS OUTLINES WHY OUR DAILY BREAD SHOULD BE MORE SUSTAINABLE

Next time you pick up a highly processed supermarket loaf, check the label. “Preservative (Calcium Propionate), Emulsifiers (Mono- and Di-Acetyl Tartaric Acid), Flour Treatment Agent (Ascorbic Acid).” It’s about as environmentally friendly as a landfill site. Is it even bread?

The farmer who grew the cut-price wheat for that loaf required large amounts of fertiliser and chemicals to increase yield. The bread would not be so cheap if those yields weren’t miraculously high. But high yields come at the cost of degraded soil.

Commodity farming – both at home and abroad – means spraying fields full of chemicals and driving huge ploughs into the land every year. All this breaks up the microorganisms which support plant life in the soil. Why, then, are we surprised when harvests eventually begin to fail? If the top six inches of fertile soil continues to degrade, then how are we supposed to grow food, mill grain, bake bread?

Buying British and local can help in reducing food miles. It also creates a “circular economy” which helps us manage food production systems better, creating a stronger connection between consumers and producers. It supports local jobs and skills which in turn helps increase demand for sustainable, home-grown products.

The kind of bread produced in such a basic system is just flour, water, salt and maybe some introduced yeast. That’s it.

Nutritionally – grain for grain, gram for gram – good locally milled, regeneratively farmed flour can end up being much better value, too

Moreover, real bread made from real flour makes economic sense. You might be surprised to know that a loaf made from sustainably produced flour from one of England’s smaller mills costs less than the ingredients of its cutprice supermarket cousin. For the average 800g loaf: eight pence cheaper.

It’s a no-brainer. Politicians should be supporting more thoughtful, localised forms of food production, backed by grants, a legally recognised environmental rating system and adding farming to school curriculums.

Businesses should adopt sustainability as part of their strategy and producers should be incentivised with premiums for transitioning to a sustainable regenerative model. Some are already doing it.

The costs of not doing these things are far more frightening.

fwpmatthews.co.uk

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1 Swanky soft serve Synonymous with ice cream vans, the Mr. Whippy is being taken in a far more serious direction. There’s a slew of new swanky soft serve vendors now in operation such as Milt Train and Soft & Swirly. At Soft Serve Society you’ll find flavours like charcoal coconut and matcha alongside your traditional-yet-elevated vanilla. Meanwhile, the south coast coffee spot Ounce has been bringing affogatos to its take-out coffee lineup, knocking out soft serve infused with fresh pulled espresso.

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3 Carbonic maceration coffee Natural process coffees offer up those intense fruity flavours that sometimes verge on the funky and fermented. Now, that’s all being taken up a notch with the rise of the carbonic maceration process – using carbon dioxide to separate the coffee from the air instead of water. Carbonic maceration slows the breakdown of sugars, allowing the process to be extended by several days. The result is a complex, boozy flavoured cup. You’ll find great examples of this style from the likes of Caravan and Horsham Coffee Roaster.