Jack Foster and Mark Slinger have built their business into a major supplier to many of Merseyside's top cafes, bars and restaurants Two schoolfriends who grew up on the same street joined their respective skills to create one of the region's leading coffee brands. Within the space of a decade, what began as a small roastery has flourished into a major supplier to many of Merseyside's top cafes, bars and restaurants. This company of which I speak is Crosby Coffee, whose logo, if you live at an address with an 'L' postcode, you have probably seen plastered on to the windows of several food and drink establishments in your area.
The brand is far from finished in its expansion, with a vision to "become a leading UK coffee business" and plans to open two more shops in the next year. Crosby Coffee has humble origins, beginning with the childhood friendship of its owners, Jack Foster and Mark Slinger. The pair grew up on the same street in Crosby and attended the same school, going on to choose different career paths which would fuse perfectly to create the brand they've built.
Speaking to the ECHO , Jack said: "My background is in hospitality, I travelled the country as a freelance hospitality manager which is where I first fell in love with speciality coffee. Travelling to other cities I was able to discover new shops and roasters all of the time and was amazed that no one in Liverpool was offering something of a similar standard. In 2014 I decided to open my own roastery to showcase speciality coffee to the North West whilst continuing to work freelance whilst building the business up.
"Mark's background is in property. Originally a building surveyor, he also amassed several properties of his own and set up his own estate agents. Mark would often work from the coffee roastery and we would chat about future plans and ideas for Crosby Coffee.
"After many discussions, we agreed to build the brand together. Mark would look after building the company and financial decisions. I looked after the operational side and green coffee sourcing.
We still stick to these roles today." Crosby Coffee puts emphasis on educating others in the art of coffee. Its official company vision is: "To become a leading UK coffee business recognised for high-quality products, exceptional service, and sustainable practices.
We aim to enhance public knowledge of speciality coffee, positively impact our communities, and create local employment opportunities through our expanding network of coffee shops and educational initiatives." Elaborating on this, Jack said: "Our ethos has always been to educate our local communities and our staff. We knew specialty coffee was on the rise but it was hard to find places within Liverpool that would truly teach you about coffee and be willing to spend time with a consumer who was interested in learning more about coffee.
"We used to send all of our staff to London for various coffee training, although now we are capable of supplying the same level of training in-house. This has allowed us to deliver even more in-depth training to our teams as well as our wholesale partners." He added: "One of the main things I wanted to bring to Liverpool was inclusivity for the coffee community.
We set up the Liverpool Coffee Collective last year as a way of arranging free coffee events throughout the city to help educate the coffee community and inspire Liverpool hospitality folk to want to learn more about speciality coffee. "We have had a few months break from the LCC but we are about to start launching a list of monthly events. Off the back of the LCC we helped set up Liverpool's first Coffee Festival which we held at Black Lodge Brewery.
The festival was a huge success and we are about to release next year's date and tickets too." Maybe Jack could educate us about how a top coffee brand creates its superior blends. Well, he said: "The process is a lengthy one.
We start by having an end product or goal profile and work backwards from there; what is it we are looking for? What body or mouthfeel do we want? Do we want a sweet, floral, or chocolatey taste? "We would then work on a base coffee for the blend via a cupping of samples working on the body and base flavour we were looking for. We would then cup a range of sample coffees for a second or third coffee picking our favourites to blend with the base coffee. The blending process will then happen and we will cup multiple options that will consist of different ratios of the coffees selected.
"If we are not happy with any of these bowls, we will attempt the first process again and swap out coffees until we have a profile to work with. The next step is to roast the new blend on multiple different profiles so that we can cup the coffee again and see which roast will work best. We then try brewing the blend we are most happy with over various brewing methods to ensure we are consistently happy with the results.
" Crosby Coffee supplies a wide range of businesses from cafes, restaurants, bars and hotels to leisure centres, gyms and educational premises. They include Edge Hill University, Liverpool University, Derek's, Finch Farm, Bold Street Coffee, Nord, Rose Lane Coffee, Kiosk Coffee, The Watering Can, Duke Street Market, Formby Leisure Centre, Southport Market, Pastille Bakery, Lush, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and BOXPARK. Of course, the business also has its own coffee shops, with its original site on Oxford Road, Waterloo still serving as a popular venue to the local community and beyond since opening in 2017.
Jack says the company has "lots planned for the next six months." He added: "We moved into our new roastery building (a three-storey warehouse which was formerly a cotton mill) just two months ago and we have settled in nicely. We have a new larger roaster and some other roastery equipment arriving with us before the end of the year which is to increase our capacity but also fine-tune our quality control and consistency.
"We will be opening our Hightown shop around October all being well. The shop is looking stunning - a bit different to our current shops but genuinely beautiful inside and out. In early 2025 we are planning on opening our fourth coffee shop, a bit different again and we are really, really excited about this one.
But I can't tell you where this one is just yet." For more information on Crosby Coffee, its locations and online shop, visit their website by clicking here ..
