Independent coffee company 92 Degrees started with a single coffee shop and roastery in Liverpool in 2014 and now employs 100 people across 11 sites. Tony McDonough reports
Independent Liverpool coffee brand 92 Degrees will open more UK sites after securing a £1.4m cash injection.
92 Degrees was established in 2014 by chief executive and co-founder Jack Brewitt. It was then a single coffee shop and roastery in Liverpool city centre. Now it employs more than 100 people across 11 sites across the UK from Edinburgh to London.
Jack Brewitt was seeking £920,000 but managed to secure 52% above this. The money will be used to open a further eight sites in locations including Scotland, Manchester, Liverpool and London.
He told LBN: “This investment has come from angel and private investors across the UK. One specifically is from the coffee industry, who sees the brand pushing to improve the coffee shop and roastery sector as a whole. Senior members of the 92 team also contributed to the funding round.”
The firm also offers its own series of coffee products online and a monthly in-person subscription service. This has helped to double the scale of the business over the last six months alone.
Jack added: “We’ve literally roasted billions of beans and sold them across the world to rapidly become known as a nationally recognised independent coffee company. This investment will really help us to accelerate the growth that we have been witnessing over the last three years.
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“We are a community united by our love for all things coffee, working with and fighting for each other at every opportunity as we progress towards our shared goals. Since day one, 92 Degrees’ motivation has been to bring our experience to as many communities as possible.
“This company values and supports the communities that we are part of, and we have learned that recruiting and developing local talent in parallel to championing local suppliers is a winning combination.”
Jack added the business has targeted doubling its store locations each year for the next two years. It is on track to close 2022 with at least 15 outlets. He said: “We are already actively seeking and negotiating sites for 2023.
“We will be increasing to 30 stores and working to unify our online and in-person experience. Furthermore, we are developing a very similar experience for our partner businesses via our trade division.”