Symposium Coffee opens 10th branch in the north-east
Scotland
Symposium Coffee director Paul Haggath said the new café is “a big celebration” as it
marks the firm’s 10th location a goal that had been in mind since the business
started up in 2005.
He
added “Portsoy is an absolutely beautiful and lovely village, and the
café is in the perfect location on the main street.
“While
travelling from each shop myself and my wife Wendy are always on the lookout
for new locations. We saw the Portsoy building in March, contacted the landlord
and signed the lease in April.”
The
category B listed building’s former banking hall and adjacent offices have been
transformed into an open plan café featuring a food preparation space,
servery and seating area.
It
was a tough year for Symposium Coffee before the new café comes along as Paul
revealed the corona virus pandemic had a “massive impact” on the business.
A former north-east bank's premises are set for a new lease of life as a café by Symposium Coffee
According
to Paul the first lockdown was carried out to then eight locations and any
perishable food that they had were donated to charitable causes to ensure
nothing went to waste and they had 56 employees that they had to ensure they
looked after.
Paul
and Wendy’s daughters Ellie, 20, and Olivia, 17, helped out by allowing
customers to collect their orders from the Peterhead Asda site however as time
went on one member of staff was permitted to work from each location.
Paul
said: “Furlough was massive for us and helped us to retain all of our staff, we
have taken on a further ten members of staff since lockdown was lifted.
“Our
micro roastery in Peterhead, Viewmount Roastery, opened two years ago and
helped to push our online sales.”