Hemel coffee shop plans to open for delivery by end of May

A coffee shop in The Marlowes is looking forward to welcoming customers back when it is allowed to re-open following weeks of closure in lockdown.

Tiki's Coffee, based in The Marlowes Shopping Centre closed on Friday, March 20, but has recently started a new business making brownies to deliver to customers.

Amy Michie decided not to do a takeaway option at first, she said: "I decided that with my own, my staff and customers best interests in mind that we wouldn’t do any takeaway for the time being as the whole point of lockdown was to reduce contact as far as possible.

"Even as a business owner that’s hemorrhaging money peoples health comes first."

Amy, who is also a farmer with a beef suckler herd, has spent the last few weeks with her cows who were due to give birth in March and April.

She has now set up a new part of her business and is selling brownies, Black Cow Brownies

She said: "This so far has been a success and is helping to ease the major downtime that Tiki’s and it’s mobile partner Black Cow Coffee is having.

"Coronavirus has massively affected the business because we had zero income basically apart from the Brownie sales which went live on May 7.

"As an independent it can be really hard at the best of times to make ends meet and keep things moving. Throw in a pandemic and well who knows what will happen.

"I do believe that Tiki’s and Black Cow Coffee with the help of Black Cow Brownies can come back from this stronger than before.

"Moving forward we are hoping to be open within the next two weeks as takeaway only.

"My awesome staff are itching to come back to work and we would love to see our amazing customers that have supported Tiki’s for the past nine years. A big shout out to them!

"As far as being able to hang out in Tiki’s I have no idea when that will be able to happen, we will have to wait until the government give us the nod.

"Luckily Tiki’s is quite a spacious place and so following the social distancing guidelines shouldn’t be a problem.

"We will have a screen up to protect my staff and mark out on the floor the 2m distance spots and have a one way system for customers in and out of the shop."

For more information about Tikis Coffee and Black Cow Coffee visit: www.facebook.com/TikisCoffee and www.facebook.com/CoffeeBlackCow.