About Juicy Beans Cafe

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Juicy Beans Café was opened on August 5th 2001, by Tim & Bernard Peters and on September 9th 2005 Juicy Beans Café was taken over by Peter James. The original site was an empty shell and was fitted out from scratch. The very first concept for the store was to offer fresh & healthy lunches at a fair price to the rapidly growing office market in and around the Civic followed by the best freshly roasted coffee in Newcastle with a variety of origins and blends.

Juicy Beans Café is located in a premium and very unique position central to the Newcastle City Council, Telstra, NIB, GIO, NRMA, Australian Tax office and many other local businesses.

Facing wheeler place, the outside dining area offers generous dining space with the Civic Theatre and Newcastle’s Town hall’s picturesque backdrop .

Servicing an immediate market of over 4500 employees Juicy Beans Café has steadily grown its local share of both dine-in, take away and catering business.

Selling well over 35kgs of coffee a week, Juicy Beans Café would be one of the highest coffee turn-over business operations in Newcastle in regards to coffee (retail and wholesale).

Peter James has made a decision to focus on not only supplying one blend of coffee to his clientele but six different blends (Plus Columbian Decaf). He also has six different varieties of origins ranging from South American to African.

All coffee sold in Juicy Beans Café is not only served in a cup or a mug but also wholesale for the coffee enthusiasts who have a coffee machine in their homes. Juicy Beans café has assorted coffee machines and plungers also included in their related wholesale products.

The ability to try coffees from around the world in Juicy Beans Café makes Juicy Beans Cafe’ unique.

Juicy Beans Café service a wide range of both government and private business in the immediate area with a popular catering menu. All Catering is delivered and prepared for all functions. Private and Corporate.

Retail products sell through the café at the point of sale and through a cabinet in the lounge. Products include coffee beans, tea, gift packs and cleaning products for home coffee equipment.

The Coffee Lounge

18 months ago, the tourism office moved out to the premises next door to the café leaving the existing property vacant. Juicy Beans took over this lease at a very competitive rate and presented it as Crema Coffee House.

At first glance it may appear to be a different business, but the locals all know it is a comfortable meeting place that is cool in summer and warm in winter.

It is not a requirement for the building to sign written as Crema, but was done by the owners to start promoting their brand of coffee.

Crema Coffee lounge enjoys the benefits of local business meetings with several groups booking it for monthly meetings. This feature of the lounge has not been externally promoted and carries great potential.

The lounge also houses an office and retail display area.

Private Functions

Juicy Beans Cafe is happy to rent out the coffee lounge for a variety of events. The lounge is not only a great place for office meetings, but also offers a fantastic atmosphere for birthday parties and other
celebrations.

We would love to be able to be a part of your next event, and as always offer our delicious catering services for you and your guests.

Live Music

Juicy Beans strives to fulfill all the needs of their customers, including entertainment. We are lucky enough to have the renowned Vincenzo Martinelli come to play for us.

With a huge array of guitar songs, the vibrant music is a welcome addition in everyone’s day. You can hear Vincenzo at the café every Thursday from 12:00 to 2:00pm, and if you enjoy him as much as we do, his CDs are always available for sale.

Marketing Programs

Customers by name – The main focus from day one was to get to know the regulars and what they drink. Establishing a strong base of regulars has seen Juicy Beans thrive through the peaks and troughs of this type of business.

Loyalty Card – this program has been running from the beginning and is now implemented under the guise of Crema Coffee (for branding purposes). Not many people were running loyalty cards in town when Juicy Beans started, now, it is almost essential and it is certainly incremental in the success of Juicy Beans.

The deal : buy nine coffees, get one free. (also run on lunches & juices)

Hot Cups – To date, Juicy Beans has sold over 1500 cups in about two years. The more recent hotcup sales also gain membership to the coffee club (discussed later). This has definitely assisted in building a strong base of regulars and building the Juicy Beans name locally.

The deal : $ 10 - gets you your cup (cost $ 7.50) and first coffee, large coffee at medium price (still able to use loyalty card).

Sugar Caddies – The sugar caddies on the tables have provision for promotional and general information to be inserted, keeping customers abreast of new products and events.

Menu Board windows – There are several promotional windows available on the menu boards allowing for changing specials to be rotated in these key visibility areas.

Crema Coffee

People come from all over Newcastle for Juicy Beans Café’s fresh Crema roasted coffee. Juicy Beans Café takes great pride in making good coffee. Angela Sutton (current store manager and barista) recently won Newcastle’s Best Barista (2004) using Crema Coffee (& training from Tim Peters).Now with new owner Peter James labeled as “Darby Streets coffee king” have Strong loyal customers and their technical expertise ensured this team to be a successful one.

Peter James will continue to offer training and support to the staff along with marketing support (loyalty cards, newsletters etc.) and offer an excellent price on the coffee to ensure the business’s success. The ongoing success of Juicy Beans Café is essential for Tim & Bernard’s move into full time coffee roasting and now with Peter James as the Operations Manager/Owner Tim and Bernard know that it is smells success as well as the coffee.

Staff

> Peter James-Operations Manager/Owner
> Maria-The Boss (Peter's Mum)
> Danielle-Head chef
> Blake-Barista
> Jess-Full time
> Shannon-Full time
> Roya-Casual
> Amber-Casual Jr.
> Georgia-Casual Jr.
> Jack-Casual Jr.
> Ashley-Casual Jr.
> Adam-Trainee

Juicy Beans Café have benefited from a low staff turnover, not typical of the industry. This has assisted in developing customer relationships.

There is still a great opportunity here to pick up more business. Juicy Beans Café has done minimal pro-active work in this area (although there are catering menus available at the store).

Theatre

Theatre business is only counted as cream. Although as the new owner has always said “we are here to service the Civic Cultural Precinct”, there is generally something on every week and Juicy Beans café is always open during events. There is a system based on ticket sales and the style of show to establish staffing levels.

Amief

This part of the Council (upstairs from the lounge) hold a no tie breakfast every month in the lounge and regular smaller meetings. They are responsible for the internet terminals and the artwork in the lounge. This is an important relationship we have with council for the long term.

Wheeler Place events

There are a number of events throughout the year that give that extra boost e.g. Anzac Day, Mattara, Music and artist performances such as livesites (paid for by Council) Friday night Wheeler Place events, expos etc. Juicy beans café is always open.

The opportunity to co-ordinate additional events in wheeler place has always been un-pursued opportunity

Future opportunities

With around fifteen years on the lease, the council’s development of the Civic area as Newcastle’s CBD and cultural precinct is the most exciting opportunity that exists. The council has proposed a link bridge to the newly developed Honeysuckle area on the foreshore as well as moving the library closer and holding more events in the square and around the area. The fate of the Newcastle rail line is now determined and will allow further development in the area in the coming years.

Menu development

The ongoing menu development has always improved Juicy Bean’s performance and kept the business up to date with trends developing in Sydney and Melbourne. Over the last 2 years many lines have been introduced, including : A wider range of fresh juices (including wheat grass), nougat, biscotti, a wide range of loose leaf teas, coffee syrups and vegetarian options in our lunch menu (and many more)and of course the variety of all our coffee origins and blends.

All these introductions both stimulate business and increase uniqueness.

© Copyright 2007 Juicy Beans All Rights Reserved.