Seasonal trade and business innovation
Last year, I had the joy of living in the seaside town of Portstewart on the North Coast of Ireland. The town boasts stunning beaches, world-class golf courses, and breathtaking views. Plus, it’s famous for having some of the best coffee shops - my personal favourite being Lost & Found. They have two locations, one in Portstewart and another in Coleraine, which are popular among locals and tourists alike. In fact, I would say Lost & Found is one of the Northern Ireland’s best-known coffee brands!
However, like many businesses in the coastal hospitality industry, Lost & Found faces a dip in business during the winter months. The busy summer months make up for this lull, but Dave Lynas is the kind of business leader who is always seeking to optimise. To tackle this issue, our team came up with a solution to make the most of the beautiful coffee shops during these slow times. Following an ideation session with the leadership team, we came up with a few options for venue hire. One aimed at evening events like parties (people had been asking if they could do this for a long time), one for corporates, and one for bespoke all-day events.
For the evening venue rental, we built an ‘AirBnB’ style booking system on the fully redesigned Lost & Found website that we provided. The main barrier to offering this product was the labour intensive process of back-and-forth communication with potential customers, who quite often didn’t follow through with their booking. With the online platform on the Lost & Found website, this problem was solved! People who really wanted to book, could book instantly, with the full availability laid out on a live calendar. Plus, they can pay online with the platform that we integrated with Lost & Found’s till system to keep everything slick. Nice.
For the corporates, we designed an offering where Lost & Found rents out the upstairs of the Coleraine location to businesses for off-site strategy days. This gives businesses a chance to escape the distractions of the office and focus on planning and brainstorming in an inspiring environment, with some of the best coffee and bakes in the country! No more stuffy hotel meeting rooms - coffee shops are the way forward. To test this offering, we invited our friends at DHD (a top-notch digital design agency based in Belfast) to use the upstairs space for a full day. The team was thrilled with the experience, praising the atmosphere and the opportunity to get away from the office.
Finally, we formalised an offering that Lost & Found had recently dabbled in. A couple had just used the Coleraine café for their stunning wedding! So, we showcased this use-case, to let people know that something like this is possible.
Lost and Found's mission is to curate a quality food offering that highlights local produce and serves it in their coastal spaces, along with some of the world's best coffee. This innovative use of their incredible space is a testament to that mission, and we can't wait to see it continue to evolve. They are now increasing revenue during slower months, whilst businesses and individuals can utilise a space that inspires creativity and collaboration. That’s a win-win if I ever I saw one!
If you’re interested in booking a space on the coast for your team, check it out here.
As a dedicated hospitality marketing team, we’re always keen to hear from owners and operators in the industry who are interested in creative solutions. If you’re interested in finding out more about what we do, let’s chat.