Johns of Instow Opens Café

Sue Johns, co-owner said, “The deli is one of the largest growth areas in our business, especially with the opportunity to extend our range of homemade produce in our deli kitchens and the wonderful array of local produce that we have available to us. Space had been too tight but with the expansion we are now proud to be able to stock an even wider range of homemade and local produce.

“We decided to open a café alongside our Instow shop for a whole number of reasons! Primarily, we have successfully run our award winning deli and café alongside each other in our Appledore location for four years so have a model that we have tested well. Secondly, Instow did not have a café and the demand for one from the local community and visitors to the area was very high. From the heart, we’ve both always wanted to have a café in the village to bring an even better shopping and eating experience to customers at Johns.

“Our deli and grocery is in effect our larder to service the café, meaning that customers really can try pretty much everything before they buy! We specialise in local and seasonal produce and use as many local ingredients in the items we make ourselves, for example our quiche special this month is using local seasonal asparagus with Cornish Gouda. Our deli platters are very popular which showcase the best in local smoked fish, cheeses and charcuterie. We are also licenced so local ales, ciders and wine all feature on the menu – the ales are incredibly popular.”

“I would recommend introducing a café element to your business if you have quality produce available to you and a unique USP to differentiate you from others. Running a café is incredibly hard work though, so we should highlight that too! From our experience we still find that the deli is more profitable, but that is partly due to the fact that customers buy what they have eaten in the café so you reach sales in both departments!”