A Fife entrepreneur who risked £200,000 setting up her own speciality coffee-roasting company has seen the investment pay off in spectacular fashion.
Lynsey Harley launched Modern Standard Coffee in 2015.
The Glenrothes venture now has 25 staff and annual turnover of more than £3.5 million.
Her ambitions for the company’s development do not end there.
Five years from now, she is expecting to see more major growth right across the business.
After finishing university in 2008, Lynsey headed to London and became a barista, moving on to be a barista trainer and then a coffee development manager.
She added: “It was in 2012 when I had the idea for Modern Standard.
“I could see that speciality coffee was booming, but the opportunity was in the middle between the commercial roasters who could do volume but not quality, and the small roasters who could do quality and not volume.
“It just looked so obvious to me that a successful business would emerge in the middle of that space.
“I didn’t have any money, so I put together a business plan, borrowed some money from my parents and my in-laws, raised some investment and just cracked on with renting a warehouse and buying equipment.
“Looking back it was very risky, but I was in a fortunate position of having no dependents at that time.
“My partner Hannah is a lawyer so she was able to support our household, allowing me to focus on the businesses and seeing if I could make a success of it.
“Speciality coffee tastes nicer than commodity coffee – it has more sweetness, more complex flavours and less bitterness.”
The initial investment in Modern Standard was £200,000.
Moving from London to Glenrothes
Lynsey said the firm’s warehouse in Tilbury, Essex was “bursting at the seams”.
That prompted a discussion about moving back to Fife.
She added: “We needed something so much bigger, but our issue was Brexit – all the warehouses in and around us were snapped up for storage.
“My mum suggested moving back to Glenrothes.
“At first I dismissed the idea – why would I move 450 miles north, and my staff wouldn’t move either.
“But the more I looked at the warehouses, the price, it was a no brainer.
“I sold it to them on the basis that Scotland was beautiful, the air was nicer and the house prices were affordable.
“After a weekend trip, the key staff all agreed.”
Lynsey said linking up with coffee suppliers does involve a lot of travel.
“I was fortunate enough to travel a lot with previous jobs, so I had a good network of trusted farmers and exporters, but we have expanded beyond that over the years.
“We mainly use WhatsApp to communicate with our farming partners – they will send us photos and videos of the harvest and keep us updated on how much coffee they have and the quality. Though it does involve many early-morning and late-night calls, as they are eight to 10 hours behind us.
“We work directly with around 14 producers in eight countries, so we have a nice spread of coffees to use.”
The ‘heartwarming’ reception for Fife firm
Lynsey said her company now roasts more than 2,000kg of coffee every day for its numerous customers who include Tesco.
In addition to the Glenrothes roastery, the firm has a London office and an Edinburgh cafe.
Lynsey said the performance to date of Modern Standard has exceeded expectations.
She added: “When you start up, you really have no idea how it’s going to go. I don’t often stop and look at what I’ve put together, I’m driven and head-down in my approach.
“Looking up admiring the view is not my style.
“But I recently have started to do it more, and to see the feedback from customers and the happiness among the team.
“The reception we’ve had locally both in Glenrothes and Edinburgh – it’s been truly heartwarming.”
