Member Article

High street success brewing for entrepreneur

~A northeast coffee entrepreneur who started with a kilo of beans in 2004 is aiming to be the fourth largest coffee brand on the High Street.

Shane Saunders, the self-styled Head Honcho of Mangobean, started his coffee wholesalers in South London in 2004 – but now has his sights set on being serious competition for the likes of Starbucks and Costa Coffee, with the help of the Nutty Irishman and the Ginger Ninja!

“In London, so many of the coffee shops felt pompous and pretentious. They were focussed on the coffee and its provenance, but had forgotten about creating a fun atmosphere, somewhere people really wanted to go. I thought the focus should be on both.”

Following the recession in 2008 and seeing what the High Street was missing, he decided to build a new coffee shop format that was affordable, fun, and innovative.

“We decided to take a leap of faith and expand from just being a wholesaler to create a brand-new coffee shop experience. The high street has become boring and there is definitely room for more distinctive coffee brands in the UK.

The first Mangobean store opened in North London in 2014 and was quickly followed by more stores in the south, north west and the north east.

In 2015, Shane decided to leave London and move Mangobean up north – his wife, a Doctor is originally from Sunderland.

“It’s been an exciting time and we’ve opened 15 Mangobean coffee shops as well as concessions in Blackpool Hospital and Cardinal Newman College where we replaced Costa Coffee - and there’s two more franchises in Southend and Manchester due to open before Christmas. We’d like to be the fourth largest coffee brand on the high street one day. Our strategy is to make Mangobean stores a coffee wonderland and the most affordable franchise on the high street for our business partners.

“One of our master franchisees is from Darlington and opened their first Mangobean there in 2016 and he plans to open 50 stores within the next decade!

“We don’t want to be like the big chains where every coffee shop looks and feels the same. We want our coffee shops to have fun personalities but with their own different and quirky designs. We have lots of fun in our marketing to make sure everything about them is a fun experience.

“We offer bribery instead of loyalty cards, and each store hands out some drink free super hero cards to reward people who help their community from the local firemen to the postman.

“Each coffee wonderland as we like to think of them is different and has unique zones such as the love nest or nerds corner. At one time, we even had a no traffic warden zone – we tolerate them now but insist they must pay cash!

“It makes me smile to think of a couple of builders enjoying a latte and eating a bacon sarnie in the loves nest in Darlington or someone sitting in the dog house in Manchester. There’s even a disco in the toilets in the Team Valley!

“All our stores have some things in common, they all roast our unique blend of beans on site and our Michelin Star pastry chef Nigel Smith creates all our wonderful sandwiches and baked cakes.

“We’ve even tried to make ordering a coffee more fun too with our cocktails menu and brews with names such as the Ginger Ninja, Nutty Irishman or my personal favourite the Tracey Jane, which is a black americano with a splash of raspberry – named after my mother who is also bold with a hint of sweetness!”

The company moved to Newcastle in 2015 and employs a team of 10 people in its Walker Road head office: “We loved the urban and creative feel of Hoults Yard in Newcastle so snapped up the offices there immediately, and we are expanding to add a wholesale distribution unit and more head office jobs here in 2017.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Julie Kemp .