Coffee<\/a>, which supplies Yemeni coffee beans to independent cafes across the world, including the UK.<\/p>\n\u201cWe sell their coffee to cafes across five continents, fuelling employment for an entire chain of people that spans the seas and reaches into local high streets and neighbourhoods around the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite Geus\u2019s enthusiasm, Sheba has been struggling under the weight of increased energy bills and a soaring cost of living.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoffee is a luxury and people are cutting back,\u201d he said. \u201cTo survive at this point in our business journey, we need to expand \u2013 to employ more people \u2013 but we can\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He might have been able, however, had Andy Burnham\u2019s 20% cut to business rates bills embraced cafes and restaurants. But to Geus\u2019s frustration, the targeted package, worth roughly \u00a3100m a year, will only support specific high street sectors: pubs, social clubs and live music venues across England.<\/p>\n
Taking effect from next April, it will save a typical pub an estimated \u00a31,100 next year, a figure that would have helped Geus\u2019s business \u201cgrow and survive\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBurnham says he wants to support high streets but independent cafes are more than retail businesses; they are workplaces, meeting places and important parts of their local communities,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cSupporting pubs while excluding cafes risks creating an artificial distinction between businesses facing many of the same commercial pressures.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hakan Elbir, founder of the deaf-run Dialogue Cafe, an inclusive social enterprise based at the University of East London that supports deaf and hard of hearing baristas, is also frustrated.<\/p>\n
Hakan Elbir at the Dialogue Cafe, which supports deaf and hard of hearing baristas. Photograph: Jill Mead\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been trying to hold down our prices \u2013 despite the rise in the cost of coffee beans, which came on top of all the other price hikes we\u2019ve had to absorb \u2013 because any increase will push footfall down even further,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut this incentive to our competitors is definitely going to affect us in a bad way. Our customers will now prefer to go to the pub for their hot drinks because they\u2019ll be able to undercut our prices. It\u2019s not fair.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elbir said he is particularly disappointed because, listening to Burnham\u2019s speeches since he became prime minister, he had been anticipating receiving help.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel that he has missed an important point,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are helping the government employ disabled people. We\u2019re saving them money \u2013 but instead of rewarding us, they put more barriers in our way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elbir also argues that Burnham\u2019s exclusive focus on venues that sell alcohol is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of where people want their community hubs to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur cafe actually does have an alcohol licence but predominantly and increasingly, people prefer to buy coffee or tea,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Burnham wants to help communities, he needs to look at what communities really want, rather than what he thinks they want, and focus his support there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ferdinand Geus is proud of the positive, global impact his small speciality coffee business is having. \u201cAround 3,000…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-709620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}