Company chosen to run café at Hereford business complex

A company has been chosen to run the café in the Hereford’s Shell Store business complex – and it will be open to passing customers.

The Coffee Cart Company, based in the city, already operates the kiosk café at the Old Market, as well as providing ‘pop-up’ coffee bars for temporary events.

Created from a derelict wartime munitions factory in Rotherwas, south-east of the city, the Herefordshire Council-owned “business incubation and networking centre” opened in summer 2021 following a £7.3 million refurbishment.

It currently has 13 commercial tenants, and can occupy up to 40.

The council describes the 130-square-metre café as “at the heart of” the restored building.

Its tender asked for the café business to “welcome clientele drawn beyond the tenants and occupants of the Shell Store itself”.

The operator is also “welcome to open for wider business and professional events, in keeping with its setting in a business environment”, the tender said.

According to the council’s decision, the Coffee Cart Company “were appointed due to their experience of successfully managing similar enterprises, the strength of their business plan, and the commercial return to the council”.

The lease payment to the council will equate to 10 per cent of the cafés monthly sales, and this will continue if management of the building changes hands.