Coffee Business Management
Articles
Articles
Exploring & explaining the trends shaping coffee
Get up-to-speed on key issues and topics, in less time than it takes to drink a coffee
Research, legislative and indsutry updates summarised for coffee people.
Tips for coffee people and businesses
Proposals for tackling industry challenges
Perspectives and opinion from across the community
Archive of all articles from across United Baristas
Ideas
One page summaries of key information on important topics from across United Baristas.
Collections
Coffee businesses are people businesses. Managing people is a learnt set of skills. This collection compiles tips for hiring and managing coffee people.
Coffee is both contributes to global warming and is impacted by climate change. This collection compiles articles exploring causes and impacts from crop to cup.
Working in coffee is dynamic, engaging and full of possibilities. This collection compiles articles to help people navigate life and work in coffee.
Running a coffee shop can be challenging, but is ultimately a rewarding job. This collection compiles articles for managers and owners.
Coffee’s scale, reach and connections enables us to play an important role in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals.
Explore articles from across United Baristas by theme.
Series
Exploring how the industry can better communicate speciality coffee’s distinct and vibrant flavours.
Exploring how specialty coffee can cut its carbon emissions, from crop to cup. We want to understand how the industry can play its part in reaching net zero.
Exploring how coffee become more sustainable. We want to understand how specialty coffee can better align itself with the Sustainable Development Goals.
What is coffee’s carbon footprint? What are the most significant contributors? We want to understand the industry’s emissions from crop to cup.
Mini-series exploring the challenges specialty chains face as they grow. We want to understand why some coffee shop businesses survive when others fail.
Follow the development of topics across articles with Series.
News
Latest news from United Baristas.
Ideas into action
Let’s meet for coffee at Ensemble
United Baristas is transforming a coffee shop in King's Cross, London. It'll host our events and be a testbed for ideas.
Collection
The industry’s golden anniversary highlights the need for better market data
Specialty coffee has succeeded, so what’s next for the industry?
50 years on, specialty coffee’s founding ambitions have been realised. As the industry identifies new goals, it stands at a crossroads. Better market data would illuminate the path forward.
Audio
Inflation abates, but cup prices will continue to rise
The inevitable £5 Flat White
The prospect of a Flat White costing £5 has caused much frothy comment across industry and media.
Scaling Specialty Chains - Part 3
Specialty Coffee Chains: Small is beautiful, but can big be better?
In the final article of this mini-series we share reflections from people that have scaled specialty coffee chains, plus add some ideas of our own.
Audio
Latest Articles
Ideas into action
Let’s meet for coffee at Ensemble
United Baristas is transforming a coffee shop in King's Cross, London. It'll host our events and be a testbed for ideas.
Tasty, tasty coffee
Introducing the Coffee Tasting Framework
United Baristas wants to kickstart a community-wide conversation on how we can better communicate coffee’s distinctive flavours. Better tasting notes are fundamental for the industry’s viable future. More accurate communication can empower consumers and support specialty coffee’s price premium.
Scaling Specialty Chains - Part 2
Specialty Coffee Chains: The profitability chasm
The profitability chasm starts when headquarters’ costs become greater than the profit generated by the shops. Many operators experience the edge of the chasm at three or four sites.
Audio
Cut first, then offset
Offsetting is for wimps
Announcing an offset scheme is a public confession your business lacks a better plan.
Audio
Cup prices must go up
Increasing coffee prices makes sense
Why increasing coffee cup prices is necessary. Plus United Baristas explains how to successfully implement a price rise.
Audio
It’s going to be a marathon not a sprint
United Baristas founder Tim Ridley looks at how coffee businesses can survive, and even thrive, as lockdown lifts in the latest issue of Boughton's Coffee House.
Sam Mason
Can coffee shops spearhead the lifting of lockdown?
This week a proposal suggesting coffee shops should be amongst the first businesses to be allowed to re-open as lockdown restriction lift was tabled in Parliament. Sam Mason, Association Coffee, explains why it won't be viable for many coffee shops.
We’ve made progress on wages, but there’s still much more work to be done
Analysis comparing wage, revenue, and inflation over the past two years shows the coffee industry is paying its staff more by raising prices
Audio
Running a Sustainable Coffee Shop
Originally presented at Caffè Culture 2019, this Keynote explores financial and environmental sustainability with a focus on propositions and carbon emissions
Coffee Tasting
Coffee Tasting Framework
Identify & communicate each coffee's distinctive flavours
Discover how to identify a coffee's defining characteristic, understand why some coffees are tastier than others, and recognise the coffee drinkers that will find it appealing.