Caffè Nero
 | |
| Company type | Public Limited Company (LSE: CFN) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Coffee Shops |
| Founded | United Kingdom, 1997 |
| Headquarters | 2nd Floor, 3 Neal Street, London, WC2H 9PU, United Kingdom |
Key people | Gerry Ford, Chairman and CEO Paul Ettinger, Commercial Director Benedictine Price, Financial Director Jonathan Hart, Managing Director |
| Products | Coffee Frappelatte Espresso Caffè Latte Mocha |
| Revenue |  £43.4 million GBX (2005) |
| Website | www.caffenero.com |
Caffè Nero (Italian for black coffee) or Caffè Nero Group Plc is a British coffee shop chain. It was established in 1997 and currently runs more than 270 shops nationwide.
Caffé Nero As a Site of Psychogeographic Praxis
On July 27th 2007, a date marking the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Situationist International, a group of psychogeographers gathered as part of the Identikit Manchester Project. The project involved visiting every Caffé Nero in Manchester City Centre. A total of 9 were visited. The group included affiliates of the Materialist Psychogeographic Affiliation, the Bored in the City Collective, Urbis and Manchester Metropolitan University. The project was simple, but the subject was immense. Participants had no instructions other than each visit to a Caffé Nero would last approximately 10 minutes. This effectively gave participants the freedom to examine the cafe from what ever angle they wanted.
For instance, one participant examined the layout of each cafe. If Caffé Nero is a repeated space, how different is each space? Are all designed the same? Do the designs only change to adapt to a specific site or do they change deliberately to give some semlabnce of difference to the coffee chain?
Another particpant examined the role of bodies: What people use Caffé Nero? Who has the cultural capital to use the space correctly? How are people portrayed in publicity material?
Another participant examined Caffé Nero as a site of "hidden work". The coffee making is the "performed" work, but what about the cleaning, stocking, washing up and other unsightly work? This involved the participant examining "Staff-Only" Areas.
On one hand the project was the examination of local issues - Manchester has transformed itself from a city of industrial decline to a model of Neo-Liberal Urbanism. This process has resulted in the proliferation of chain bars and cafes, repeated commercial spaces throughout a spacially small centre.
Yet it is also a global issue. Cafe culture is prevalent in the western world. While historically a culture of bohemianism, cafe culture is now framed by capitalist ideology. We have now seen the irresistable rise of the chain cafe. A Starbucks seemingly appears on every street corner. The modern cafe provides a lense through which to examine contemporary life.
Why Cafe Nero? The answer was quite simple. Starbucks is just too obvious. Psychogeographers are anything but obvious. Caffé Nero is also a dominant national brand, rather than a global brand. This made it quite interesting as it creates its own myth, tracing its origins to Italy, when in fact it has always remained a British company. This only exemplifies the importance of myth making in branding.
It is worth mentioning, for the benefit of those who did not attend the Identikit Manchester Project, some of the findings:
Participants had expected to see differences appear between each Caffé Nero in Manchester as the walk progressed. However, by the end, although differences occurred, the overriding feeling was one of being bludgeoned by the whirr of espresso machines, leather furniture, blue walls and light jazz background music. Sameness won out and caffeine was exchanged for Nurofen. One participant discovered that toilet access, especially in Caffé Neroes situated in older buildings, also provided access to the backrooms of the buildings. On Oxford Rd. one participant found his way to the cellar where full access to the building's electrics was located. On Cross street the participant discovered a Caffé Nero training centre located two stories above the cafe. His friend kindly slipped his job application form under the training centre door. A propane tank was found in this same staircore. Interestingly, a door leading to the neighbouring Subway was also found - two chain stores linked, not at the front, but at the back. Back Stage and Front Stage where important sites of the cafe. One participant noticed that the images, banners and posters displayed in the cafe portrayed face-to-face community. Whether older Italian men playing cards, thirtysomething Italian women gossiping or a younger man getting his haircut, these images seemed at odds with the actual social relations being formed in Caffé Nero. Caffé Nero was actually a place where it is accpeted and almost expected that you are alone. People read the paper, use their laptop, text on the phone etc. This is a site of virtual community. To say that this is any less legitimate than face-to-face communication would be to follow the propaganda provided by the cafe itself. Cafe users were more often white and between the ages of 20 - 50. Rarely did participants see a family. Teenagers, the elderly and families do not view Caffé Nero as their space. Caffé Nero is undergoing a "McDonaldsification" in the sense that it has reached saturation point, which coincides with a general decline in standards throughout the chain. Tables are not cleaned, toilets are often filthy. Debris is scattered about. Care and attention to detail are left behind in the clamour for expansion. Starbucks reached this point long ago . . . It took a while for participants to get used to not buying anything. Simply sitting in the space left an uncomfortable feeling as buying coffee is part of the Caffé Nero routine. To alleviate this, participants often grabbed a free cup of water or sat at a table with the detritus left by a previous customer. On occasion, when pushed by staff, a participant would "take an espresso for the team". Participants noted that cafe culture is not new to British life. However, its current incarnation, fuelled by chain establishments, is bound to gentrification and "regeneration". Caffeine is the fuel of the city by day, alcohol is the fuel of the city by night.
Identikit Manchester Project and the Transformation of Caffé Nero
The Identikit Manchester Project transformed the role of Caffé Nero. Formerly a chain cafe, Caffé Nero is now a site of social examination. The Identikit Manchester Project initiated a change of function. Once solely a profit making, space dominating enterprise, Caffé Nero is now a site of social critique where contemporary life is laid bare for willing researchers. This a change that the CEO of Caffé Nero, Dr. Gerry Ford, could never have forseen.
Products
Along with traditional espresso based drinks, Caffè Nero stores also sell frappé latte (an iced latte) fruit booster (an iced fruit drink) and Hot Chocolate Milano, an extra sweet and thick hot chocolate drink. In summer 2006 Caffe Nero relaunched their iced drink range, the feature product being a range of premium milkshakes called Frappe-Milkshakes. The chain also has its own line of soup dishes, called Real Soup. Although Caffè Nero does not use Fairtrade labelling for their coffee and is not Fair trade Certified, the chain claims that it does trade fair, and purchases its coffee at premium prices for a better deal with the producers.[1]
The company has a reward scheme for customers. Each time a 'home-made' product is purchased, the customer's loyalty card is stamped. Once a card has nine stamps, the bearer is entitled to a free 'home-made' drink.
Spelling
There should be a grave accent over the "e" in Caffè Nero, but it is sometimes erroneously written with an acute accent, or with no accent at all.
The square "O" in the logo can sometimes be mistaken for a "D", giving the impression that the company is called "Caffè Nerd". A spoof website has popped up to accommodate this misconception - http://www.caffenerd.com.
Commercial success
Starting in London, the chain has expanded to over 290 branches throughout Britain. It is planning to expand to 450 over the next six years, and is also looking to take the brand abroad. As a result of the chain's rapid expansion, Caffè Nero has been named the twentieth fastest growing company in Europe in the 2004 Europe's 500. The chain continues to expand its product range, including a range of premium coffee based drinks.
References
- ^ "Fair Trade Coffee". Retrieved 2006-11-13.
External links
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