Thriving start for Norwich ethical coffee shop 

Ethical coffee supplier Blue Bear, whose sole aim is to combat modern slavery, has opened a coffee and doughnut shop in the heart of Norwich to progress its “mission from God”. Tony Rothe reports.

Founder Bryn Frere-Smith explains, “Blue Bear Coffee Co. was registered as a social enterprise in September 2018 and for the last five years, we have existed predominantly as a supplier. The risk and expense involved in setting up a coffee shop always prevented us from taking that step, choosing instead to remain as an e-commerce business. And so far, it’s been an unquestionable success, with over £50,000 donated to anti-trafficking projects, and countless more impressions made on people wanting to lend their support to making slavery a thing of the past.
 
“However, at the beginning of July this year, we received the keys to an old jeweller’s shop in the historic area of Tombland, Norwich, opposite the Cathedral. We have a three-year lease on the place. The plan is to turn it into an espresso bar and coffee merchants, expanding our range of single origins to a point of ridiculousness, and serving the best take-out coffee and doughnuts in the east of England! It also, more importantly, gives us the opportunity to fly the flag for justice, bringing our mission into the community and communicating the global issue of modern slavery and human trafficking to every latte-buying customer we meet.”
 
Bryn clearly attributes the success of Blue Bear so far to God “This is God’s project not mine. God brought along my original business partner Josh Clarke, the relationship with the coffee supplier, Clifton, and all the different people he put around me to do the website. God orchestrated all of that – I could never have made that happen. I had not even been back in the UK a year and in less than nine months we had a great company that was up and running. That’s amazing and only the Lord’s provenance will allow that.”
 
The Blue Bear story starts back in 2014, however, when Bryn left his job with the police force and set up a security consultancy with a former colleague.  He then took a sabbatical and spent a year working for the International Justice Mission, travelling to Santo Domingo in 2017 to investigate the commercial sexual exploitation of children.
 
Bryn takes up the story: “I found myself fully embracing the colloquial culture of the country, and I soon created my own, imperfect literary saying. “Siempre para ti.” Meaning, “Forever for you.” It became my maxim, my motto. So much so that, at my leaving party, friends and colleagues decked out the meeting room to look like a coffee shop, with stencilled brown craft paper on the walls to appear as exposed brick, a display of different coffee brewing methods arranged on the table and our very own menu of hot drink options at the fictional coffee shop ‘Simpre para ti.'
 
“That was the other thing I was known for, my plan to open a coffee and doughnut shop. I talked about it to the point of nausea. The Blue Bear teddy bear fund was six months old by the time my contract finished. Named Blue Bear as the result of the rescue of a child from sexual exploitation and who only wanted her blue bear from her sad home. The Blue Bear Coffee shop idea was percolating long before I returned to the UK.
 
“Why now? The space is small, but fantastic, and when it came on the market, we had to make an offer. We were one of a dozen businesses applying for the tenancy, and thanks to the fact that we could show the landlord almost five years of profit (which we had donated), and a social mission, they chose us over all of the others!
 
“What’s the risk? Businesses are expensive. The rent, staff, materials, and equipment, all cost money, money that we have intentionally invested in the restoration of children and young people ill-affected by exploitation. We have not been stowing capital away for many years to fund this venture, so financially this is definitely something of a risk. To offset that risk, we will be taking the order fulfilment part of the business away from the roasters and preparing our online orders from the coffee shop. This should also allow for speedier deliveries, a reduction in plastic use and growth in our online offering.”
 
The Blue Bear Coffee Shop opened in Norwich on August 5, but Bryn is at pains to point out that they are an anti-slavery organisation that sells coffee, rather than a coffee business that gives some of its profits away. “We are thrilled to be stepping out in faith, bringing Blue Bear to the people, so please drop in and say hi any time you’re in Norwich.” 

Visit: bluebearcoffee.com
 
Read our previous story about Blue Bear Coffee here.
 
The photos of Bryn and the coffee shop are courtesy of Matthew Wheeler.