How coffee roasters and drinks suppliers win new café and bar accounts

New cafés and bars choose their coffee, beer and spirits before they open, usually from whoever reaches them first. By opening night the machine is installed, the bar list is printed and the supplier accounts are set up. Changing them later means breaking a contract or returning a machine, so most venues stay put for a year or more. A roaster or drinks wholesaler needs to be in the room during the fit-out.

When the decision gets made

Registration falls just before the decision closes, which makes the council register the most useful early signal for this segment.

Who you're talking to

• Independents decide on the spot. In an independent café or bar, the owner chooses the coffee and the bar list, usually after tasting and talking terms. In a chain, head office has already decided. Skip chains unless you supply them nationally.
• Machine deals tie the coffee to the kit. Many roasters lend or lease the espresso machine against a minimum monthly coffee order, so the machine decision and the coffee decision are one conversation. Be ready to talk about both.
• Pubs may not choose their beer. A pub let by a pub company is often tied to buying its beer, and sometimes other drinks, through the landlord. In England and Wales, tenants of the largest pub companies have Pubs Code rights that can change that, but on day one a tied pub's beer is usually decided. Free houses, bars and restaurants are open.
• Alcohol needs a licence. In England and Wales a venue selling alcohol needs a premises licence, and the application is advertised publicly. A bar or restaurant applying for one is about to build a drinks list.

Where new sites show up

• The council food register. Almost every new café, bar and restaurant appears here at least 28 days before trading, which is the earliest public record. It isn't a list of what's new, though: it's split across more than 350 councils and mixes cafés with care homes and childminders. Our guide on finding newly opened restaurants explains why it's hard to use directly.
• Licensing notices. These only cover venues that sell alcohol, and each council publishes separately.
• Instagram and "coming soon" signs. They usually appear only in the last week or two, when the decisions are mostly made.
• Equipment engineers and fitters. They hear about new sites first, but only the ones they work on.

What OpenSoon gives you

OpenSoon checks every UK council register daily. Every Monday it sends the venues that registered, opened or closed that week. For drinks and coffee suppliers, the useful fields are:

• Venue type, and cuisine where we can tell it, so you can tell a café from a cocktail bar.
• Alcohol-led venues, flagged from the register and the venue's name.
• Independent or chain, so you skip venues that buy centrally.
• Stage and estimated opening, so you know who is still choosing.

See what the file contains for drinks and coffee suppliers.

How to approach a new venue

In person works best for this segment. Visit during the fit-out with something to taste: a bag of your house blend, a sample case, or a short tasting at your roastery. Owners choose coffee and drinks with their mouths, not from a brochure.

By post, a short note to the venue's address works when you can't visit straight away:

Congratulations on your new [café or bar] on [street]. Before you sign up for coffee [or drinks], I'd like to bring you a tasting: our house espresso, two filter coffees and our machine terms. We roast in [town] and deliver twice a week. Call me on [number], or I'll drop by during the week of [date].

By phone, once you have a number. Check it against both the TPS and the CTPS first.

By email, only to limited companies and LLPs, or to anyone who has given consent. That's the PECR rule for marketing emails.

Three mistakes

1. Arriving after the machine is in. Once a competitor's machine is plumbed in, you're asking the owner to undo a decision. Get there during the fit-out.
2. Pitching tied pubs and chains. Their beer and coffee are usually decided elsewhere. Check whether a pub is tied before you plan the visit.
3. Leading with price. A new owner is choosing a product that customers will taste every day, and they want reliable delivery and help training staff. Lead with the tasting and the service, then talk terms.