Norwich coffee company Kofra has not let coronavirus grind things to a halt, with the owner now gearing up to open a new shop in Trowse on the outskirts of the city.
The new branch is located next to the River Green Café in The Street and Kofra is letting the space previously used by the vegetarian restaurant as its teaching kitchen.
Restaurant owner Chris Avey was no longer using it due to the pandemic and approached Kofra managing director José De León Guzmán as he was looking for an established brand to run a coffee shop.
Mr Guzmán jumped at the opportunity as he had wanted to open in the village for some time. His business model is to go into neighbourhoods and become part of the community.
The coffee shop will open on Friday, April 2 and will offer a range of coffees and other hot and cold drinks, bottles of wine, cakes and coffee beans, which Mr Guzmán roasts himself.
The Trowse branch will also boast seating on the terrace, with customers hopefully able to sit outside from April 12.
General manager of the Trowse Kofra coffee shop Simeon Jankowski with the coffee beans that are roasted at the flagship Upper St Giles Street branch.
Mr Guzmán, 43, said: "Trowse has been a dream for a long time and I would drive around looking for places for a coffee shop but never found one.
"Then Chris from the River Green Cafe got in touch to see if I wanted to share the space and it seems a crazy thing to do in the pandemic, but it is such a lovely community and it was screaming for a coffee shop."
The other three Kofra branches are located in Upper St Giles Street in the city centre, Onley Street in NR2 and Bell Road in NR3, which opened last July.
Mr Guzman, originally from Guatemala, will celebrate the seventh anniversary of Kofra this April and despite the challenges over the last 12 months, it has been very positive.
He added: "We are a small company so adapted quickly and moved online and did click-and-collect for takeaways.
"It really has been great and all the credit goes to my team."
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