There’s an app – perhaps you’ve got it – called coffice. Tap in your location and, bingo, up come a list of funky independent coffee shops were you can work at a table for the price of a flat white and a Danish.
Coffee and work have always gone together. Coffee shops are the original co-working space. Since the 17th century, when coffee houses were the birthplace of businesses such as Lloyds insurance, right up to the 21st century’s barista-led operations, coffee is the preferred hot drink of sociable strivers.
Today the relationship could hardly be closer. Not only are there dozens of apps pointing workers to friendly coffee shops, but office space providers are working up coffee bar concepts, and coffee bars are tapping into the freelance office-worker pool. The boundaries between the place where staff enjoy their morning latte and the place they work seem to be dissolving as quickly as the froth on a cappuccino.
Or are they? A closer inspection suggests some locations are more caffeinated than others – and trends in work/caffeine interaction suggest a lot more work than coffee drinking is going on. Like that little espresso that packs a big punch, all is not what it seems.
Serviced office provider Regus is in the vanguard of the coffee/work crossover. The business was founded in 1989 after entrepreneur Mark Dixon noticed freelancers coming and going at a Brussels coffee shop. Today the business is growing a 40-strong chain of Express outlets that could easily morph into espresso outlets.
Richard Morris, Regus’s UK chief executive, explains: “We see demand for something more professional. Our research shows that only 12% of the people who work from coffee shops would chose to do so if they had an alternative.
“People can access the Express for as little as £1.50 a day – and it won’t be as crowded or noisy as a coffee bar that isn’t ly meant to accommodate people for more than 20 minutes.”
The Express outlets – from 2,000-5,000 sq ft, with meeting rooms attached – offer self-service coffee (for now) but Regus business centres, such as the latest at Oxford Street, W1, have fully staffed coffee bars. It avoids what Morris calls the “tiny, uncomfortable tables” which make working in some of the branded coffee chains a physical challenge.
Morris says a range of clever workspace/coffee hybrids could work – if operators can find ways to generate extra revenue, as Regus does. Otherwise, he warns, it is “fraught with risk” for coffee bars that choose to diversify.
Risks of the kind Morris describes – and an understandable desire to stop staff drifting off to coffee bars over the road – have inspired many employers to install their own coffee shops.
Workplace coffee shops have a problem of design schizophrenia, designed to look and feel like independent coffee shops while remaining firmly part of the office environment. If it goes wrong, a concept that tries to channel artisan-roasted fairtrade will end up tasting like own-brand instant – a laughing stock staff will avoid. Creating the cool, free-wheeling, coffee shop vibe requires a lot of artifice, say those in the know.
It’s all about queues, says Tim Hardingham, design director at Realys. Create the right kind of crowded coffee shop feel – including the authentic queue – and good things begin to percolate.
Hardingham’s workplace coffee shop designs include a replica 17th century coffee house for a Fenchurch Street insurer and plenty of more modern cafés.
“I still work in independent coffee shops, although a lot less than I used to,” says Hardingham. “They have become too noisy and less welcoming, more about getting customers in and out now than dwell time. I sense they don’t want people to linger. But in the past coffee shops were the embryonic co-working space. Office occupiers see the benefit of recreat ing that kind of social and café space in their workplace.”
Yet how can workplaces replicate the authentic coffee shop feel without killing the atmosphere? “It’s tricky. The best you could do is a poor replica,” says Hardingham. “To succeed they have to offer great coffee and great service, and something different. That might be rock-solid Wi-Fi connections, more connectivity, and so on, so people don’t feel they have to be at their desk to be at work – although they probably have to be in the office building.”
Hardingham says that distinctive design can help – a different floor surface, different lighting – and so can creating a sense of expectation. “A short queue is good – people stand and talk to one another. We find 35 seconds is about right for people to create connections. It all helps – part of the theatre and the ritual of getting a coffee.”
He is not a big fan of small coffee-consuming areas dotted around office buildings. Not only are drains and hygiene a problem, but it is a soulless hangover from the coffee vending machine era. “Workplaces are much better off with one busy coffee shop – the kind of thing that gets staff moving around the building and mixing with people from other teams in unscripted conversations,” he says.
Dani Salamon, associate at workplace designer MoreySmith, has worked on coffee bars for Coca-Cola and ASOS and recently advised Primark on the new workplace café at its 125,000 sq ft Dublin headquarters. She says success is all about upbeat moods.
“It has got to feel mobile, inspirational, relaxed, collaborative. We try to encourage a heart space, a buzzy area, easy to get to and with plenty of choice when you get there, so staff don’t feel the need to go elsewhere. But it needs to be big enough – if they have trouble finding a seat it will fail,” she says.
Don’t fake the appearance of an independent coffee shop, Salamon advises. “It is important they are seen as alternative working places,” she says. “So not walled off, not separate, they must not stick out and they must tie in with the rest of the office. So maybe give the coffee shop a tiled floor – and think about the flow of people, the lighting and the furniture, so it feels cohesive with the rest of the office.”
Give the place a talking point – a big screen, maybe – and then make sure your coffee is first-class. “The catering has to be amazing if you want staff to use it,” says Salamon. “We encourage office occupiers to marry up with independent operators that know how to do this. People have high expectations and office bosses have to recognise that. And it is the key to getting people to use them – it is not a prison, you cannot stop people leaving the building. Offer something they cannot get outside so it does not feel like coffee provided by Big Brother.”
As caffeine addicts will know, coffee is a serious business. In today’s workplace – and in coffee shops full of workers – that seriousness is moving to a whole new level.
Drink up and go
Renting a prime window table for eight hours for the price of a skinny latte? Some of the big chains aren’t keen. But the smaller chains and independents do not seem so worried. For them, dwell time is less important than creating the right kind of atmosphere – and cool, busy workers can help.
Hannah Wolsey, managing director at the Urban Coffee Company, presides over a worker-friendly chain of three stores in Birmingham and Coventry. “We like to pride ourselves on being a great place to meet, work, hang out in general and we like to use the phrase ‘urban village hall’ when describing ourselves,” she says. “We are relaxed about customers staying all day. Don’t get me wrong, we still need the takeaway trade too, but we have never been a place that just wants to roll people in and out as quickly as possible.”
Urban Coffee’s emporia serve about 250-300 people a day, of whom about 60% drink on the premises. “We probably only have four or five customers that stay all day and most are only here two to three days per week,” says Wolsey.
How to make your own coffee bar
● Don’t make it too big. You want it small so it feels crowded, busy, exciting. Around 500 sq ft will do for a 10,000-15,000 sq ft office with 100-150 staff.
● The lighting must be different from the rest of the office. Whether it is darker, lighter, or natural light does not matter. So long as it is not the same as everywhere else.
● Temperature. This is a coffee bar, not a workplace at a constant temperature. Imagine the street door is opening and closing – it can get cooler, in summer it might get a lot hotter. Don’t worry, nobody is meant to be sitting there all day.
● Make the floor look different to the rest of the office.
● Do not skimp on the quality of the coffee. Staff will sneak outside to real coffee shops if you compromise. They will also say you are a cheapskate.
● Check your rates liability and your lease, says Andrew Marshall, partner at building consultancy Powell Williams. A café operated by an external caterer could be considered as space otherwise assigned, which could void the tenant’s lease. Watch out in case the Valuation Office comes knocking with a bill for increased business rates.
Tomorrow’s coffee?
Manchester could be about to trial a new concept in coffee-meets-digital workplaces. In 2012, an unnamed major technology consortium acquired options on 20 Manchester city centre sites totalling 180,000 sq ft.
Project Tomorrow – or Project Digital, as it was also known – has gone quiet since. However, EG has been told it is still alive, albeit deadly secret. Edwards & Co and Sheila Baird Group are advising.
Some suspect the mostly ground-floor locations in business districts will merge coffee bar style with the latest digital platforms, although how that will be done is still anybody’s guess.
