Selling coffee in the new forest
Every time I look in upon someone belonging to the Coffee Publicity Association, it's with a feeling of adventure, as there are so many interesting stories attached to the selling of coffee! The latest that I've come to know about has a very rural setting the tale behind the Aroma Tea and Coffee company, which operates from Pilley Hill, Lymington, in Hampshire.
To get there I went through pictureque Lymington itself, one of the oldest boroughs in England, with a charter dating back to 1150 ; down the old wide high street where the stage coaches form London used to clatter to set down their passengers at the ancient inn, getting a glimpse of steep cobbled Quay Street, of the river winding away between the salt marshes, alive with craft ; and beyond, the green shoulder of the Isle of Wight. Crossing the river by the toll bridge, I drove up Pilley Hill, to find a bungalow on the brow, with the name of the company on its wooden garden gate.
It was drenching with rain. I splashed through the puddles to the door and inside a tiny, cosy lean-to addition to the bungalow I found Cyril Compton, who for five years now has seen his business growing all the time, and runs it from this tiny head quarters fourteen feet long by seven wide! Shelves for stock, lags and tins, were neatly arranged round the walls; at the far end stood his green New Gentury coffee roaster, nearer the door a couple of grinders, and the scales. Just otuside was the wooden garage housing the A .30 van, in which he makes his daily delivery of freshly roaster coffee. " I travel about 200 miles a week" he told rne, "and I roast each morning just the amount needed for that day's orders. Each customer gets their own favourite blend--about thirty different ones according to individual tastes some seem to like it so fine that it's almost pulverized, others so coarse that the result is almost a collection of half beans! A number have roasted beans, and grind at home."
"It's really this personal attention that I am able to give to every customer that has built up the business. I've advertised very little it's nearly all been on personal recommendation. I've found too, that a lot of people who used not to bother with coffee, and just stuck to tea, have become enthusiastic coffee drinkers now that they find they can get a freshly roaster supply brought their door each week.
" He showed me the aluminium tins, 1 lb and '/2 lb, in which he made his deliveries of standing orders. Each bore the name of a customer, and was interchangeable with the one which would be collected on his next call. "Cheaper than bags, for regulars" he told me. "But if only I could get plastic containers in the same sizes, this would be even cheaper, and the sealing of the plastic cover is so excellent that the gas generated in the newly ground coffee, slightly bows the lid and when the customers take it off, the aroma gets literally thrown at them!" He showed me the '/ lb sizes. like small jam pots, and said that he hoped that demand for larger ones would soon cause the manufactures to make them, as they were certainly the answer to retailing ground coffee in superb condition.
(To be continued)
