The Coffee Summit meeting, to be held in London the day before this year’s Caffe Culture exhibition, will now include two presentations which go straight to the heart of major issues facing caterers who depend on beverages as a major part of their trade.
Chris Green of the Development Planning Partnership now joins the line-up of speakers, specifically to address some of the current difficulties of high-street beverage trading, such as the continuing rows between the trade and local authorities over change-of-use and of cafés deliberately opening without planning permission.
Also on the agenda are the continuing problems with councils who say they want a ‘café culture’ atmosphere in their towns, and then penalise cafés who dare to provide outside seating with demands for high fees for exterior furniture.
These timely subjects will be followed by a panel discussion, to debate the question ‘are there too many cafés on the high street?’
This now becomes a particularly timely debate, with more and more local councils complaining that an excess of cafés in main shopping areas is actually driving other traders out of business – indeed, the association which represents newsagents has now complained that coffee shops which provide free newspapers are partly responsible for the large number of business failures in the corner-shop sector.
Elsewhere at the Coffee Summit, there will be presentations and a debate on how the beverage sector can fare in the current economic climate, and how food-focussed catering operators can aspire to a ‘great’ beverage offering.
Full details can be found on the website of organiser Allegra Strategies.
By Ian Boughton