Workshop Coffee launches staff training academy to attract luxury hotels

Specialty coffee roaster Workshop Coffee has launched a flagship training academy in London’s Belgravia as it sets its sights on 100 hotel partnerships over the next few years.

 

Since becoming Claridge’s coffee provider in 2017, Workshop Coffee has cemented its stature within the luxury hotel market, partnering with close to 40 properties, including the Langham, London; Raffles London at the OWO, and 1 Hotel Mayfair.

 

As well as supplying coffee across the hotels’ F&B outlets and in-room dining facilities, Workshop behaves as a third-party coffee operator, training staff on how to clean and use La Marzocco coffee machines and dial in the grinder, among other key tasks.

 

Its training programme also includes an SCA-accredited (Specialty Coffee Association) element on request.

 

Hotel staff will be invited to practise on various coffee machine equipment at the newly opened Workshop Academy, which is located beneath its café, launched at the start of February.

 

The Café and Academy is led by head barista and lead trainer Slava Babych, former World Cezve Ibrik Champion, and general manager José Cortes, formerly of the Fat Duck Group.

 

Founder James Dickson told The Caterer: “I’d like to think we can get to 100 hotels in the UK within the next two to three years. We’re really trying to orientate ourselves around the four-star, five-star hotel market. The uptake of Workshop in hotels is huge and the consumer demand and decision-making demand is there from the GMs and the directors of F&B.”

 

He also revealed ambitions to grow the business’ single-server, RTD range for hotel minibars to “five or six” different products in response to growing demand from American travellers and Gen Z.

 

“We now have the amazing, phenomenal setup where we can really support our partners by having an incredibly accessible Academy in London. We just want to continue to grow the B2B side of the business. I think we are naturally transitioning into a British luxury brand, given who we supply and given how we want to continue to look after them,” he added.

 

Workshop Coffee also works with a select number of restaurants, including Fortitude Bakehouse in London’s Mayfair, Public House Group and JKS Restaurants.

 

London-based Workshop Coffee was founded by Dickson in 2011 as a single café in Clerkenwell before expanding across the city and into wholesale.

 

The Belgravia site marks Workshop Coffee’s return to its café business following the closure of its Fitzrovia outpost in summer 2024.