Career change brews success as former care worker's coffee van proves a hit with Wolverhampton office workers
A former care worker is waking up and smelling the coffee as she forges a new career as a mobile barista.
A new mobile coffee van is doing the rounds in Wolverhampton, bringing hot drinks and snacks to the doors of busy office workers.
Emma Buckley is behind the new Really Awesome Coffee venture having taken on a franchise.
Having spent all her working life in adult social care since she was 16, Emma, now 37, said she wanted a change of direction and to get out and about meeting people.
After completing her training in April, she has been out on the road making her first deliveries and stop-offs - and already the venture has proved popular.
St George’s House in Wolverhampton, home of the Express & Star, is among the office complexes getting a daily visit from the Really Awesome Coffee van which arrives with a loud toot of the horn that would be impossible to miss.
Emma, from Perton, has already got 33 stop-offs on her list and hopes to add a few more.
She said: “It’s been really good. I’ve gone live in the last two weeks. We have a variety of different hot and cold drinks, food and sandwiches, sweets and snacks.”
On why she decided to become a franchisee barista, she said: “I’ve been doing adult social care since I was 16, I just wanted a change. I wanted to get out and about - a complete change. I just wanted to do something for myself.”
As well as buying drinks, snacks and lunch items from the van when it arrives on site, people can pre-order via an app.
The Really Awesome Coffee company is headquartered in Coventry and was started by entrepreneur Kevin Haswell, who came up with the idea after watching an episode of The Apprentice - seeing contestants set the task of making money by selling coffee from a van.
Some years after watching the show, the idea popped back into Kevin’s head and he hit on the idea of tapping into a loyal client base without having to compete with high street giants.
The business was established in 2010 and has since grown to around 100 franchises across the country which serve up gourmet hot drinks and deli-style food to local businesses, schools, hospitals and more.
To find out more visit reallyawesomecoffee.co.uk/book-a-coffee-van/wolverhampton.
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