Member Article

York Emporium unveils new image as platform for continuing national growth

A new corporate identity and name change has been unveiled by independent artisan coffee roaster, York Emporium, to mark dramatic expansion, which has seen annual turnover leap from £20,000 to £1.3m in only seven years, and prepare for the next stage in its development.

Staff approached the director, Laurence Beardmore, suggesting that the company’s growth, which includes annually producing and selling almost 100 tonnes of coffee throughout the UK, merited a new, more distinctive, corporate identity to reflect York Emporium’s approach to quality.

The new design, to feature on all signage, a new e-commerce website, stationary and labelling, features a logo of a coffee bean inside a shining star and changes the company’s name to from York Coffee Emporium to York Emporium, in preparation for more product launches. The design, which replaces a bright green corporate colour with a dark blue, was developed in-house with a final version by York-based graphic designer, James Falkingham.

Other recent expansions include moving to 4,300 sq ft premises at York Business Park, growing from two staff to 11, investing in the latest roasting and packing technology, and expanding to produce a huge range of 33 different single-origin coffees. The business has also developed e-commerce customers nationwide, from Scotland to Cornwall and Northern Ireland, with more than 150,000 visitors in the last year.

Among major recent contracts have been supplying a special coffee blend and expresso machines to Castle Howard and to provide a full range of services, to a new partnership between Thornbridge Brewery, Bakewell, and craft beer distributor and pub company, Pivovar, York, to launch ten new pubs across the UK in the next five years.

Director, Laurence Beardmore, who acquired the company in 2011, says: “We really like the new design, especially as it was suggested, created and developed almost entirely in-house by our fantastic team which is bringing its own ideas to our development.

“It was a lovely experience, taken at our own pace and a wonderful example of the next generation buying into the brand and developing an exciting vision for the company’s future

“Our former corporate identity had served its purpose. It was looking tired and our e-commerce site, which has also been redeveloped with the new logo, was getting a bit clunky for a fast-changing market driven by customers who are coffee connoisseurs and demand top-quality blends.

“Market testing confirms that the new design has far wider appeal, including younger people, which is crucial as we continue to grow against greater competition.”

The company, which had only a handful of clients in 2011, now supports more than 250 businesses customers, including cafes, pubs, restaurants, hotels and businesses, mainly in Yorkshire but throughout the UK, providing them with specially-blended coffees dispensing machines, training and maintenance, all bespoke to individual customers.

Laurence Beardmore, a qualified Q Grader, the coffee industry equivalent of a professional sommelier wine taster, adds: “We’ve got some fantastic new products and services launching soon. We are years ahead of where I thought we would be at this stage. I’m now confident we can make York Emporium successful beyond our original target market of York and North Yorkshire.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mike Clarke Communications .