Boba Shop Case Study: Pearl Lemon Boba

Our second major project was building and designing Pearl Lemon Boba (located in Fulham). This bubble tea shop had to be built 100% from scratch. This would include legal forms, finding contractors, designing menus and the shop, marketing and more.

Pearl Lemon Boba was built and launched two months after Pearl Lemon Cafe, so they have a very shared foundational story.

As our first ever cafe build, there was plenty of learning opportunities along the way with things both done very right and with room to improve- making Pearl Lemon Cafe the best team that could help with a coffee consulting project; we have seen it all and then some.

The owners were from the UK (Deepak) and Southern France (Axel). Their goal was to have a lemon-based theme, especially colour-wise and pictures and in dispensers to fit the overall Pearl Lemon Brand Image.

The Scope of Work

With a budget of £20,000, the Pearl Lemon Boba bubble tea shop project had to be done affordably but as high-end as possible. This cost would include designing the cafe, purchasing equipment and initial supplies.

The goal was to have a boba shop that embodied the bright lemon yellow Pearl Lemon as a company keeps while maintaining a chill space where people could grab a milk tea or sit at the cafe

The fundamental idea is it’s a reflection of the Pearl Lemon company ethos >

Young, vibrant, energetic and full of energy and life

This location was brought to us by the landlords and is across the hall from the main cafe.

This project included the following:

Finding a location
Negotiating rental price
Getting the food hygiene rating
Applying for a food business to be registered in Fulham
Setting up supplier relationships
Placing initial orders
Equipment research and ordering
Finding contractors to paint and help make the space pretty
Marketing
Delivery platform set-up
And more…

Costing the Ingredients and Equipment

Finding our equipment and ingredient suppliers was one of the more difficult parts of the initial business setup.

This involved extensive research to find the best products at the best price to avoid burning through the budget too fast. As Pearl Lemon Boba evolved, we went through numerous suppliers before we found the best fit for us. We wanted vegan options, gluten free, not loaded with sugar and articifical nasties.

Boba Testing

Something our team quickly found out during testing is that many boba places are essentially giving you sugary milk or syrupy water. Milk teas lacked flavour and packed a mean sugar punch or fruit teas tasted like sweetened flavoured water. This was something we wanted to avoid. We didn’t want our customers to feel as disappointed as we did when sampling the competition.

We used this as our inspiration for our bubble tea menu design.

We knew we wanted lower sugar, sweetness without feeling like candy, flavour and REAL ingredients. We also wanted all flavours of milk tea to be vegetarian friendly with an ability to make it vegan and all fruit tea to automatically be vegan.

From here testing and hunting began. We had to find boba pearls, popping pearls, mixes and syrups that all fit our desires.

We went through 6 different brands of tapioca pearls before we found ones that didn’t break in transit, held its shape and had a great texture. Our popping pearls we found on test 2, the first one was just shrively and stuck to teeth and didn’t have that fresh pop we wanted. We went through at least 3 brands of boba powder before finding the right fit- many were high sugar or even when shaken had an odd sediment feeling (even though we had an automatic shaker). Last but not least was our fruit tea syrups- it took a few tries but we finally found ones that tasted like the actual fruit, had actual fruit juice and didn’t make us feel like we were going to go in a diabetic coma.

All in all it was a long two months of sampling the competition and going through kilogram after kilogram of product before we were ready to take the raw product and build a recipe from it.

Designing the Menu

Designing our menu was one of the most immersive parts of the setup.We wanted something classic and familiar but a few unique offerings that would set us apart. Below is our most popular drink

Menu design also included looking at local produce and shops to push affordability and sustainability and support local. We decided to build a menu full of familiar classics and unique flavours. Things like brown sugar boba, thai tea, mango and strawberry were a must, but matcha, blue calm and lemon were our unique spins.

We spent a great deal of time placing demo orders simply for testing and figuring out what the perfect recipe would be.

Part of the boba menu design also included putting a focus on quality as well. Most boba products have instructions, but we felt we could do better. We played with cook time for the pearls, how much to make per batch and more. We also tested how much boba powder made for the perfect taste and colour without being over bearing. Based on our reviews it worked.

We also couldn’t forget adding milk alternatives. So aside the standard skim milk and 2%, we also opted for oat, soy, coconut and almond milk. This was to keep the menu allergen friendly and more inclusive. We also didn’t charge extra for milk alternatives like most other shops. Even though some shops charge an extra .50 per cup, we felt it would be better to just include it in the price. This way no customer felt taxed due to an allergy or intolerance. This also lead to alot of happy people.

Progress

While our Procurement Director was sourcing items for the INSIDE of the cafe, we got contractors to start on the design. We partnered with the same contractors for this boba shop project, making this bit easier than the last.

The flooring was put in, the walls painted, and the shelves put up. We tried to stay as local as possible- going to ikea for alot of the internal items and other local shops. Outside, the shutter was painted, and banners were put up. We had a local artist take care of our shutters outside- he was great. He worked fast and in the end it looked amazing.

Ultimately, we got a beautifully designed cafe with bright yellow that stood out from the rest of the street.

We hired a designer to get stickers up on the windows, to paint the shutters, paint our logos on the walls and design our awning. Meanwhile, back on the operations side of set-up was hiring and buying.

Hiring and Training

When we started building and designing Pearl Lemon Boba, we knew that hiring the right team would be crucial to providing exceptional customer service. We placed advertisements with the purpose of HR monitoring and directing candidates to Deepak and Axel. We were looking for individuals who had a lively and vibrant personality, as this was a non-negotiable requirement for us.

Initially, we faced challenges retaining employees. Some individuals who already held multiple jobs would fail to show up after a few days and demonstrated a lack of interest in the position. However, we didn’t let this discourage us. Instead, we re-evaluated our hiring process and focused on finding candidates who were committed to the job.

Training was also a significant undertaking for us. We had to start from scratch with 100% of our team members. Many of our staff opted to work across both sides of the business, which allowed for seamless transition between locations or a single staff member assigned to each side.

On the bubble tea side of the business, we had to develop our own set of manuals and procedures due to the distinct equipment used compared to the cafe side. This included online courses covering topics such as opening/closing procedures, shop management, customer service, and more. Supporting documents, including video training, recipes, and ingredient cards, were also provided to assist the staff in addressing any queries they may encounter.

Our video training modules were specifically designed to teach the team how to create various drinks, master making the perfectly mixed milk tea, serve takeaway beverages, and attend to customers staying in the cafe. The trainings also placed significant emphasis on customer service, covering aspects like soliciting reviews and fostering a lively atmosphere. Furthermore, the videos comprehensively documented all the recipes, ensuring that regardless of individual preferences, the team could learn and master all the necessary skills to become the best in their field.

To streamline operations, we implemented the Square system due to its seamless synchronization and user-friendly interface. The platform offered a secure environment, ease of use and customization, and reasonably priced equipment bundles that catered to our needs. Overall, our dedication to assembling a skilled and energetic team and providing comprehensive training has been instrumental in the success of Pearl Lemon Boba.

The Legal Stuff

Legal “stuff” was a long, detailed process to go through. It was mission-critical not to miss anything to avoid delays in our grand opening or risking the potential of being shut down.Pearl Lemon Boba had the benefit of sharing a building with our cafe so we just had to take a few hours per food license “task” to adjust and add things on where needed.The first was applying for a food license. This meant:

at least one person needed a level 3 food hygiene certification (this took 5 hours per person) A Manager needs to have level 3, but the rest of the staff don’t technically need one as its assumed they are taught. We got a staff member per location to have a level 3 and then all other staff had a level 2.
We needed to have public liability insurance (this meant hunting and getting quotes) We had a tough time with this as we did catering as well, so we needed close to 1 million in coverage for public liability due to serving food.
We had to build a fire safety analysis (to prove we were safe) This was a surprisingly tough document to build as we had to show everything was up to code and everything was fully mapped out.

4. We had to build a HACCP (this over 50-page document was built to show we can handle any issue or potential hazard from mould to spoilage to fire or flood) This took close to a week to fully build and that was with a template guiding us. If there could be a contaminant we had to list what it was, how it could happen and how to provent and handle the situation- from chemicals to glass to illness and everything inbetween.

5. Prove we have a waste and rubbish contract. This was simple and most of the time was spent finding the best price for the best service. But again lucky for us, same building but different units, so they got to share one contract.

We had the huge benefit of working with someone at the council, and we could make light modifications to our first application and have it cover the second location because it was in the same building.

Delivery Platforms

Other legal items that came next were registering our logo as a trademark so no one could pretend to be us, going through alcohol license courses and tests (this one was another two-week process) and getting a premises license to serve alcohol.

Setting up Pearl Lemon Boba on delivery platforms was a crucial part of our marketing strategy. As a new business, we knew that we couldn’t solely rely on foot traffic to bring people in. This meant that we had to rely on delivery platforms to get us visibility online. We chose Deliveroo and Just Eats as our delivery partner platforms.

The initial application process for each platform was relatively straightforward. We had to fill in general questions like name, contact information, and restaurant information. However, the real challenge came when we had to turn our menu into a spreadsheet to show price, description, item name, and any modifiers. This took a few days to build, but once it was done, it was done.

Our menu took longer to build because there were so many options and modifiers that we had to be sure everyone could customize their drink how they pleased. For example, in the cafe, we had a latte; people got one of two sizes, hot or cold, and a milk type. Boba had three sweetness levels, three ice levels, two cup sizes, a topping to choose from, and additional modifiers like adding espresso. These slight differences made it so we spent an extra two days to get it built out.

Once our menu was complete, we sent it as a package to each respective account manager assigned to us. The delivery platforms maintained an ongoing project through year one- experimenting with ads and offers, changing descriptions and photos, and making bundle deals. We invested much time and energy into this portion of the project to gain as many new and recurring customers as possible.

We found that there was a very particular formula to having the perfect restaurant listing on these platforms. We spent easily 80 hours per platform after we went live fine-tuning and developing our “secret sauce”. Descriptions had to be a particular way, pricing had to be set just right, images were factored in, reviews were taken into account, and more. It was a true challenge.

However, the effort paid off in the end. By setting up Pearl Lemon Boba on delivery platforms, we were able to reach a wider audience and gain more visibility online. This helped us attract new customers and retain existing ones. Overall, setting up on delivery platforms was an important part of our marketing strategy, and we are glad that we invested the time and energy into it.

Inventory and Stock Management

One of the biggest research projects we had to undertake was figuring out what equipment we needed and what consumables we needed.

The further we got, the more we realised we needed more. We knew we needed an ice machine but ended up needing so much more we had to get one that was able to go under the counter.

Once we figured out all the large equipment, it was onto the small “here and there” things. This included temp logs, various storage containers, spoons and other washable items for staff to use, backup pumps for syrups and more.The list ended up feeling endless, but we did it.

From Amazon, to Nisbets, to Ikea- we got everything we needed to have a fully functioning cafe that kept everything temp safe and stored safe.

To give you a feel for what we had to purchase:

Ice maker (initially something small because not many people ever wanted ice)
Under the counter ice maker (a heatwave hit and our smaller machine could no longer handle what was needed)
Fridge (all of our milks and one for all of our bottled water)
Freezer (for ice and longer term storage)
Blender (for smoothies and blended drinks)
Cupboards
Chairs
Cleaning supplies
Mop
Boba shaker
Boba Sealer
Cups/lids/straws
And more…way more

Then there was the consumables:

Starting with supplier relationships (we wanted the best prices so Lydia had to undergo a heavy negotiation process)

Milk suppliers
Boba pearls
Boba powder
Boba syrups
Teas
To go supplies for drinks
Juices
And more
Once we established everything we needed and had. We built a purchasing spreadsheet to start while we honed in on who was best.

Choco swooped in to save the day making ordering for us way easier as it put it all in one place- no log ins no spread sheets…no nonsense.

Prior to the app, Lydia and Axel worked in one giant shared sheet with a check box system. It seemed to be the best way to be cohesive with a 5 hour time gap. Lydia would include all information needed in the sheet. Such as product name, a description, where it was for, where it was from, the cost and the URL. Axel would then check the sheet when things needed to be ordered, check off a little box and write in how many packs. Lydia would check the sheet at her EOD and order for the next day or within 48 hours. As we got busier and expanded, this became hard to manage and other team members requesting items wouldn’t use the sheet. So choco was a definite life saver- it is on our

The internal team was quick to establish purchasing protocol with Lydia. After a few weeks of watching inventory, a rhythm was built so when there was a week left of an item, Lydia would order it so it would be delivered in about 72 hours and then there wouldnt be an excess of stock.

We did find that with so many materials to order, storage space in a small unit became a huge issue. We did what we could with cupboards, but especially when catering enquiries came in, we had to find a storage space to rent to hold various supplies.

We are still on some wait lists should something come up but storage is in short supply.

Marketing Efforts- Online and Offline

Marketing cannot be forgotten in our shop’s set-up.

We made offline and online efforts to ensure we hit the ground running. Marketing work began before a physical location was found. This was an absolute must to try to out rank the competition as we opened to try to convert as many people to become our loyal customers.

To achieve this, we developed a website, created social media accounts, and listed ourselves in directories. Once these foundations were laid, we initiated

SEO efforts to enhance our visibility on Google and establish an active online presence.

Marketing cannot be forgotten in our shop’s set-up.

To achieve this, we developed a website, created social media accounts, and listed ourselves in directories. Once these foundations were laid, we initiated

SEO efforts to enhance our visibility on Google and establish an active online presence.

Simultaneously, we undertook a local marketing campaign by distributing flyers across Fulham, aiming to increase our visibility within the community while our online strategy took effect. We strategically placed flyers in car parks, mailboxes, gyms, and bulletin boards to ensure our presence was noticeable. Additionally, we emphasized the importance of customer reviews and incentivized referrals through discounts.

Aside flyering, we also bought loyalty cards. Once we got them in we specifically trained our team to push people to take one home with them. They were a simple buy 9 get the 10th free stamp card. This worked phenomenally in creating repeat customers., and we had to order over 5000 loyalty cards in year one.

We also had QR codes at the register to scan for discounts and reviews. This was a simple and engaging way to get people to leave reviews while waiting for their drink to be ready.

Pearl Lemon Boba also placed stickers on the front to advertise milk tea and boba teas as well- this gave us a competitive edge as there was no competition nearby for this drink…this did lead to another location opening as a direct result.

The cross-sell opportunity

Fulham has no shortage of businesses and entrepreneurs – and given Pearl Lemon, as a company builds websites and ranks them on Google, it opens up a real sales opportunity.

…being able to identify such individuals and, where relevant, offer them our services.Having spent alot of time sitting in cafes – you get all manner of business owners that come in.

Furthermore, I confirmed this by asking a friend of mine at Coffee Underground – how many business owners she sees walk through the doors….

And she said dozens – which validates my plan.

Furthermore, there’s the coffee truck I visit on North End Road – Souter Bros. Daniel (one of the two brothers) told me his brother Stuart was away the last two days because he picked up some graphic design work from truck customers.

And that, in general – their coffee truck had been good for his design business.

Thus underlining that building websites for local businesses is going to be possible.

The product opportunity

There are many 6,7, and 8 figure coffee businesses we’ve never heard of out there that have built big businesses through the sale of their range of coffee beans and paraphernalia.Looking at the local market, it’s clear from the Souter Bros, Coffee Underground, and several other cafes – that one of the bigger aims of their local ‘in-person’ and ‘in-store’ presence is to sell their coffee beans.And having done a quick Google – identifying a brand (once we do taste and quality testing) seems straightforward enough:

There’s a big market for this type of model.

And given the Pearl Lemon brand with lemons is relatively strong – this can extend to other products such as cups, t-shirts or otherwise.

Ranking Locally

Developing a comprehensive local marketing matrix proved to be immensely advantageous in surpassing our competitors. We employed various strategies to achieve this feat, starting with the placement of an eye-catching A-board on the sidewalk, ensuring it was visible to pedestrians both on our street and across from us.

In addition, we conducted extensive research on local businesses and schools, forging partnerships with them for special events. We also embraced numerous loyalty platforms, both virtual and physical, enabling us to extend our reach far beyond what our competitors could achieve.

To enhance our local ranking, we actively engaged with associations and clubs, thereby spreading our name far and wide. Platforms such as Glassdoor, Nextdoor, Yell, Yelp, and others played a pivotal role in granting us exceptional visibility, leading to the rapid growth of a dedicated customer base.

Furthermore, local public relations played a significant role in our successful launch. We pursued maximum visibility by securing coverage in local newspapers, print media, and a multitude of online publications.

Reviews, Reviews, Reviews

Deliberate efforts were made to gather reviews on various platforms such as Facebook, Google My Business, Yell/Yelp, TrustPilot, and more. This concerted endeavor resulted in hundreds of five-star reviews spread across multiple platforms.

Our online marketing strategy extended beyond obtaining reviews. We also formulated a specific approach to responding to reviews. By adopting this “industry secret” technique, we not only fostered customer engagement but also bolstered our ranking in local searches.

Our response to reviews was not just a simple “thank you.” We took the time to craft personalized responses that addressed each customer’s concerns or compliments. This helped build a connection with our customers and showed them that we genuinely cared about their experience.

We also made it a point to respond to negative reviews in a timely and professional manner. We acknowledged the customer’s concerns and offered to make things right. This approach helped us turn negative experiences into positive ones and showed potential customers that we were committed to providing excellent service.

In addition to responding to reviews, we also used them as a tool for improvement. We analyzed the feedback we received and made changes to our menu, service, and overall experience to address any concerns or suggestions.

Overall, our approach to acquiring and responding to reviews was a crucial part of our marketing strategy. It helped us establish ourselves as a top-tier business in the highly competitive food and beverage space and allowed us to attract new customers while retaining existing ones.

Shopify and E-commerce

Something unique we started to develop early on was our Shopify store. Shop.pearllemoncafe.com was developed to sell our coffee and ship it to customers plus other retail items we sold in store.There was more than this though. We got our design team heavily involved with Lydia on this project. So while she spent a week building the website and ensuring the checkout worked and it was functional; the design team started working on a variety of merchandise. This merchandise was to include t-shirts, tote bags and mugs. Each “section” we decided would have up to 10 different designs or slogans that would be repeated acrossed all item types. This way if someone really liked “death before decaff” they could get a mug, tote and matching t-shirt to fully express their support of caffeine.

Additionally this store was designed to sell any item that could match with our food & beverage locations. This would later include Pearl Lemon Boba and How Matcha.

After a month of designing and a week of website building, the store was ready for orders and was added to our various sites to buy directly from.

We also had the pleasure of ordering samples and having a fun photo shoot to document the project.

Bubble Tea Training

Equally as exciting as launching our ecommerce store, our online marketing efforts and reputation quickly led to other business owners coming to us for bubble tea training. We ended up having close to 10 clients in 6 months. We build training videos and courses from scratch, got kits put together and had them come into the cafe for training days.

This was a great team effort between Deepak, Axel and Lydia. Each of them recorded hours of videos and built documents to have a fully comprehensive training programme.

Deepak recorded videos on introductions to the business, marketing, finding locations and more indepth bits on marketing matrices.

Axel recorded videos on menu refinement, recipe building and how to prepare drinks to order for both in store and for pickup.

Lydia recorded videos on setting up with suppliers, legal forms and anything else that had to do with procurement, purchasing, accounting and legal st

Hurdles and Obstacles

Suppliers and Equipment:

During the shop set-up, dealing with suppliers and acquiring necessary equipment proved to be the most significant challenge. We encountered issues such as the need to return and reorder large equipment, leading to delays and temporary reliance on local sources for certain items, like ice.

It took a few weeks to find a supplier that offered as many vegan options as we wanted. We wanted all people to enjoy drinks, so this meant vegetarian, vegan and more. We also opted for this because it meant there would be less nasty things in the mixes and things we opted to use. We wanted healthier options than what people could get from competitors.

One supplier, in particular, created difficulties in terms of support and ordering whenever equipment exchanges or servicing were required. Their lack of responsiveness caused disruptions and frustrations.

Another supplier initially appeared successful and offered competitive prices, but after placing two orders, they unexpectedly went out of business. This forced us to completely revamp our ordering process, resulting in higher expenses as we struggled to find another supplier offering the same affordability. The mysterious nature of their pricing left us uncertain about their business practices, but it significantly increased the cost of our purchases by 1.5-2.5 times.

Additionally, upon acquiring our ice machine, we realized that extensive modifications were necessary, requiring the hiring of builders to ensure proper fitting and functionality. This involved cutting into shelving, rearranging equipment, and troubleshooting issues with the machine, occasionally leading to minor complications.

Suppliers and Equipment:

The Heat Wave:

In the summer of 2022, an unexpected heat wave posed challenges for our shop’s setup. As the shop was not designed with sufficient cooling measures, given its open nature, we had to rely on strategically positioned fans and make use of available outlets to mitigate the heat. However, due to the heat wave, one of our ice machines broke, resulting in the temporary need to purchase ice locally in large quantities until the machine was replaced.

Deliveroo:While we appreciated a free photography session provided by Deliveroo, the resulting photos turned out to be of poor quality. As a result, after six months, we decided to completely redo all the photos for delivery platforms, recognizing the importance of having appealing visuals for our customers.

We were not a fan of the above.

Developing our “secret sauce” also took weeks of research and work. While they had guides and plenty of guides out there, there simply wasn’t something fully comprehensive regarding what makes a perfect store on the platform.

Lydia eventually ended up cracking the code, but it was definitely a headache while we were working on figuring it out.

Securing the Premises:

Due to the high demand for the space, we faced immense pressure to secure the premises swiftly. To demonstrate our commitment, we negotiated the rental terms by paying six months’ rent upfront, showing good faith in the process.

Upon securing the premises and initiating the licensing process, we discovered an additional requirement for another sink in a confined space to comply with the building codes. Despite the challenges posed by limited space, we managed to meet this requirement, ensuring full adherence to regulations.Furthermore, there was a significant time constraint to open the shop within a three-week timeframe, adding to the urgency and intensity of the preparations.

Premise Challenges:

As winter approached, we encountered significant structural issues that resulted in water leaks. Regrettably, resolving these issues took an extended period, causing delays and inconveniences.In addition, extensive customization work was necessary for fixtures and fittings. Our contractor had to modify new shelves purchased from IKEA to ensure a proper fit. This led to a highly customized location that required tailored solutions to accommodate our specific needs. Our main contractor also proved unreliable as he had to find a ride every time he had to ocme to the cafe which was less than ideal.

The Outcome

Pearl Lemon Boba exceeded our expectations in terms of its aesthetic appeal and overall success. Once the business became established, we witnessed consistent monthly growth of at least 13%. Notably, our growth on the Deliveroo platform surpassed even higher levels month after month.

Shortly after opening, we had the opportunity to cater a bubble tea event for the premiere of “Thor: Love and Thunder,” further showcasing the popularity and demand for our offerings.

However, we made the decision to sell the location to prioritize other projects. The new owners expressed their utmost satisfaction with the shop’s setup, which included an existing customer base and well-established supplier relationships.