Licensed Café & Coffee Shop Located In Wootton Wawen

Licensed Café & Coffee Shop Located In Wootton Wawen
Facebook Rating 4.9 – Google Rating 4.5 – TripAdvisor - “Travellers Choice 2021”
Ref 2690

Location
This delightful Cafe & Coffee Shop is located in the highly desirable village of Wootton Wawen directly adjacent to and overlooking the busy A34. The café is situated within Yew Tree Farm Shopping Village which is set in the heart of the glorious Warwickshire countryside between the historical and picturesque towns of Stratford-Upon-Avon and Henley-in-Arden. Still a part-working farm, the courtyard and some previous farm buildings have been converted into 16 complementary independent commercial retail units with seating and plenty of free parking which attract high levels of footfall to the centre, especially during and after the COVID-19 pandemic as it’s an out of town, outdoor and roomy shopping destination.

Asking Price £69,950 plus SAV (£2,000)

Business Description
Veritas Business Sales are delighted to offer for sale this well respected Cafe & Coffee which has been in the careful hands of our client since February 2020. Reluctantly the business is being offered for sale due to a change in the family’s circumstances and other family commitments following a recent bereavement.
Since owning the business my client has invested regularly in new equipment along with fixtures & fittings which are all owned and bought outright unless otherwise specified. All hardware is included within the sale price which is a huge plus for any new purchaser as additional funds will not need to be spent for some time. In addition to this the current owner has recently invested in brand new solid wood crossback chairs and tables, and replacement furniture has been purchased for up on the cosy and very popular mezzanine level, under the stairs as well as new seating for the highly popular log fire area. New lined curtains have also been installed to maximise heat retention. The landlords have recently upgraded all of the radiators and cleaned and repaired the log burner as well as having the chimney swept on a regular basis. Also 6 brand new garden picnic benches were added in the Summer, as well as the existing benches receiving a fresh coat of paint to complement the high-quality outdoor cream parasols, each of which is complete with new bases.
Additional investments include installation of a new air conditioning unit in the storeroom / prep kitchen, two new BUFFALO induction hobs, new deep fat fryer, a new upright drawer freezer, new FOH display fridge, new ice machine less than a year ago, significant additions to the decor and ambience in the main seating area, various new kitchen items upgraded as well as undertaking additional staff training. The coffee machine and boiler PSSR testing have been done recently also. This means that all FOH coffee equipment will be running at top quality straight away and would not need attention again for 6 months.
The till system runs Square for restaurants (£69 per month) and this includes one iPad Pro and 2 iPad minis (The 2 x iPad minis have card processing facilities built into the case so they can be used easily for table service or outside service. They all connect remotely to the main system and printers, so you don’t need to go back to the till to print an order or take payment. This makes the system easily adaptable to offer either table service, counter service or a combination of the two.
The system has many other capabilities, including shift scheduling and time tracking for members of staff, making payroll simpler to run and labour costs easy to track. My client spent considerable time researching the options before selecting this system to use. The system is also 100% transferable to the new owners.
The café enjoys a strong, secure Wi-Fi connection and offers diners the same safe and secure connection automatically by logging in with their email address and subscribing to the mailing list. The café can then email all of its Wi-Fi users on a regular basis with special offers and news. The mailing list currently has 1700 subscribers. This is a very cost effective and simple way to market The Cowshed on a regular basis by email to a very targeted audience for very little cost with great potential returns, to a constantly expanding local user base. The Cowshed’s website also collects email subscribers to the mailing list.
The current owner has invested in an innovative device-based system to cope with busy times, enabling the customer to explore the other shops on the site. When their table or takeaway order is ready the cafe staff then “bleep” the customer to let them know. This helps to mitigate wait times, maximise trade and increase customer satisfaction.
The café has its own recently developed website, which is modern and easy to navigate. This is included in the sale. Also since opening, the current owner has been very active on social media, increasing the business’s following and engagement on multiple platforms.
The current owner has instilled their values of excellent customer service and attention to detail into the business’s daily operations. As a result of this there is also an evident increase in positive customer feedback on TripAdvisor and Google reviews since the current owner’s takeover in February 2020. In fact there has not been a single TripAdvisor review with fewer than 4 stars since then, and there have been glowing reviews.

The Cowshed is overseen by the owner but operated mainly by a team of 2 full time and 3 part time contracted members of staff with 14 additional zero hours staff. It has an annual projected turnover of circa £360,000 incl. VAT although this is difficult to pinpoint exactly as the current owner has had COVID closures and staff isolation periods to deal with.
They serve a fine range of specialist coffees, teas, homemade scones, cakes, soups, sandwiches, toasties, cooked breakfasts, jacket potatoes and various other breakfast goods and lunch items. All fayre is freshly prepared to order on site using only the finest locally sourced produce and can be enjoyed with a selection of soft drinks, beers or wines.
There is opportunity to push the business further by introducing a revised and more exciting menu with a fresh design, which my client has prepared very recently, so a new owner would be able to utilize and amend this menu should they wish to. The business could also be built upon by extending opening hours and utilizing the mailing list further for additional mail-outs to further fill the off peak times with deals and offers.

The business enjoys a strong reputation within the local community and beyond and has such a high level of regular and repeat trade along with many new visitors.
The other independent shops on site of course spend time and energy promoting their businesses as well, which continually drives additional customers to visit the site, many of which pop in for a bite to eat whilst in the area. The Cowshed is not often short of customers, providing a superb opportunity to purchase an established, highly sought after ‘out of city’ business whose reputation has only improved over the last 12-18 months despite all of the difficulties COVID has presented. This provides a great base to build upon as we emerge from the pandemic, and as such early viewing is highly recommended as this gem is not to be missed.

Opening Hours
Monday – Sunday – 9:30am – 4:30pm

Leasehold
Term: 6 years
Remaining: 3 years 7 months
Rent: £14,900 pa
Business Rates: zero

Ground Floor
Restaurant area with 30 covers comprising: 9 new matching tables & 22 new matching chairs plus fireside seating and sofa seating under the stairs. Serve over sales counter with cake displays, fully owned EPOS till system running Square for Restaurants on iPads, receipt printer, espresso coffee machine (Expobar), water boiler (Marco), worktops, under counter storage shelving, 2 wall mounted shelves, under counter bottle fridge, countertop display fridge, water filtration system, 2 large wall mounted menu blackboards, three smaller drinks menu blackboards with wooden borders and log burner. Black Polar display fridge, new crockery and glassware including cups, saucers, cake plates, jugs and glasses which are all no more than 3-6 months old.
Storeroom with water tank, metal storage racking and Foster undercounter single door fridge (flexible rental)
Commercial Kitchen comprising: Merry Chef Eikon Combi Oven (under 12 month warranty with Welbilt on gold package), MerryChef Commercial Microwave (warranty also as above), 2 x Buffalo induction hobs (purchased new less than a year ago), stainless steel worktops, Full selection of brand new plates and bowls in varying sizes (purchased in the last 3-6 months), (Foster undercounter single door fridge (flexible rental), Blizzard chilled saladette unit (flexible rental), Foster two door under counter fridge (flexible rental), stainless steel table with 2 shelf pass complete with heat lamps, kitchen order ticket printer, 2 wall mounted metal shelves, stainless steel double sink with directional hose, wash basin and draining area, stainless steel hand wash basin, plate warmer (Victor), under counter freezer, stainless steel work benches, stainless steel work table with commercial tin opener, deep fat fryer, domestic microwave, Hobart commercial dishwasher, Lincat Salamander grill and extraction canopies (recently professionally cleaned in April 2022).
Hallway with shared toilet facilities for the centre.

First Floor
Upper restaurant area with seating for (8) - one extendable table with 4 chairs, and another solid wood table with 4 matching fabric tub chairs.
Storeroom comprising: washing machine (less than 1yr old), tumble dryer, sink & stainless steel sink drainer, wash basin, Crypto Peerless industrial mixer, 4 tier metal storage racking, combination oven (Turbofan) commercial oven - fits long gastro trays, 8-12 long gastro trays, under counter Beko fridge, cooling racks, 4 chest freezers (one is glass topped), x2 induction hobs (Buffalo), industrial meat slicer, Robot Coupe commercial food processor, stainless steel table with commercial tin opener, vacuum packing machine, metal storage trolley, blender, wall mounted storage shelves, Magimix food Processor, 2 further stainless steel tables, 2 door Foster upright stainless steel fridge (flexible rental), 2 door Hotpoint stainless steel freezer, upright single door drawer freezer, staff area with table & lockers.
Office containing a spacious desk, HP Laserjet printer purchased less than a year ago, safe, drawers, filing cabinet, shelf storage for folders etc.

External
Rear seating for (45+) comprising picnic benches, outdoor wicker furniture and cream gazebo that covers three tables. The garden has been regularly maintained including adding plants and flowers to create a beautiful outdoor dining environment.
At the front of the property there is seating for (25+) including picnic benches, tables and chairs and also a Tiki Hut which is loaned by the Garden Furniture Centre as a showpiece, which Cowshed Cafe customers can make use of. There is also patio decor i.e. flowers and plants, as well as 2 bike racks.
At the rear of the property there is vendors parking for (2) and ample free customer parking both in the courtyard area and in the main rear car park.

EPC Rating D