When Lynsey Harley was struggling to find larger London premises for her growing Modern Standard Coffee firm her mum came up with a solution.
That was to move the business and all its staff staff to Fife.
At first Lynsey thought the idea was strange, impossible, impractical…
But the more she thought about it, the more moving back to her hometown of Glenrothes made sense.
Modern Standard Coffee is one of the UK’s fastest-growing speciality coffee roasters.
Having won contracts to sell to Sainsbury’s, VISA, Channel 4 and Amazon’s UK headquarters, it needed more space.
Lynsey relocated the business – one of the UK’s fastest-growing speciality coffee roasters – in early 2020.
“Everything was snapped up so quickly,” Lynsey said of the shortage of options.
“My mum said ’why don’t you move back to Glenrothes?’ and I thought it was a strange idea initially.
“I gave it some thought and decided she was talking sense, so I spoke to an agent and got the ball rolling.”
‘I sold it to them on a better quality of life’
There followed the job of tempting the firm’s staff with a move to Fife.
In the end, four staff signed up, with three members of staff unable to relocate.
Lynsey admits those were difficult conversations: “Some people couldn’t move because of family commitments.
“That was hard, but they understood. I gave them enough notice so they could go and find jobs elsewhere.”
The staff who did make the move have settled in well, she said.
She sold the idea of relocating nearly 500 miles on the basis of cheaper house prices in Fife.
Lynsey added: “Buying a place in London is so expensive. Some of my staff were probably never going to break that rental cycle.
“I said to them the quality of life here is good and you can buy a house for £100,000.”
She also explained the differences between their new surroundings and London life.
Lynsey said: “There’s hillwalking half an hour away, the sea is half an hour away. The air quality is 1,000% better.
“People in London are quite harsh. When we moved, I said to the staff that people are friendly and they all say it now ‘the people are so nice here’.
“I sold it to them on the quality of life and the ability to make roots somewhere.
“I brought them all up for a weekend three months before we committed to moving and showed them around St Andrews, the East Neuk and into Edinburgh. They loved it.”
‘Covid was a challenge’ for Modern Standard Coffee staff
Home comforts have been reassuring to everyone over the past 18 months, with lockdowns restricting the amount of time we’ve all spent with loved ones.
For the Modern Standard staff, that was even more of a challenge, having relocated to a new home.
In stepped Lynsey’s parents, Ann and Drew.
“Covid was a challenge because the staff didn’t have their family close by,” Lynsey said.
“A few of them are Eastern European – they had family in London and they lost the ability to go and visit someone close to them.
“They took it in their stride and made their own little bubble. They turned to my parents, who acted like parents to everyone.
“My mum became the source of all local knowledge and she’s mothered everyone.”
Modern Standard opened its first coffee shop in Edinburgh last December, and Lynsey hopes a second – in the kingdom – will follow.
“We’re winning loads of wholesale business off the back of opening the café in Edinburgh. We’re trying to promote ourselves in the local area.
“We want to bring great coffee to the people of Fife and Scotland.”