Simply put, we have just created a new brand that is going to transform the way people experience coffee in the UK for the better.
Simply put, we have just created a new brand that is going to transform the way people experience coffee in the UK for the better.
Who are Harris+Hoole?
Are they the original Mr. Harris and Mr. Hoole? Sorry to say the answer is ‘no’, they’re not. The real Harris+Hoole are gone, long gone.
We took the name from a passage in Pepys Diary in 1664. When Mr. Pepys happened to pass a great London Coffee house and saw Harris and Hoole having a good old chin wag over a coffee.
So there you go. We reckon that it’s pretty cool that 400 years on people are still being brought together by great coffee. It’s a tradition they are proud to be part of, and if Mr. Pepys were around today we very much hope he’d pop in for a cup.
The Vision
‘In these times of sameness and acceptance of the average, we are driven by our belief in everyone’s right to a better coffee experience. We believe in truly great coffee.
Fantastic tasting, professionally crafted, high quality, ethically sourced coffee.
And what’s more, we believe it should be available to everyone. Not just the connoisseurs or city dwellers – everyone should know what great coffee can taste like. Everyone deserves better coffee.
This is at the heart of who we are, we’ll never directly say it – but will demonstrate it in everything that we do.
What’s inside the cup is only half the story, what’s outside the cup is just as important. We are not a commoditised chain, we are a group of independents, of individuals with our own local passions and interests. They will each share the same passion for great coffee, but the experience of each individual shop will be uniquely different and relevant to the local community.
Our managers are in charge, it’s their coffee shop – not Harris+Hoole’s. They know their customers better than anyone else. That means they choose the menu, they choose the décor, they run their twitter. They run the show and our customers need to see that.’
What Harris+Hoole isn’t
They are the opposite of faceless, omnipresent corporations that pretend to care about you, but only really care about your wallet. So it’s important they never behave like them:
Ads won’t look like traditional ads.
Cafés won’t look like chains.
Every café will be different.
What Harris+Hoole is
They love coffee. They love people. They love the real, honest, hard-working people who drink their coffee. And that’s why they want to put the people and their communities at the heart of everything they do.
Every piece of communication, both internally and externally will be real – above all else they want you to be yourself. They will embrace the individuality of everyone who touches their brand. From their skilled baristas, to the numbers bods and lab technicians behind the scenes, everyone will be encouraged to be themselves, relax and get on with their joint mission of bringing great coffee to the people.
This ‘be yourself’ attitude will appear differently depending on where the coffee shop is based.
For example the local lingo used on flyers and twitter may reflect local accents, with a bread roll being referred to as a ‘cob’ in Leicester, a ‘bap’ in Scotland or a ‘batch’ in Coventry.
They’ll act more like your local pub, than your local Starbucks. They’ll aim to hire great local characters to become the spokespeople for each cafe.