Martyn Dawes - Coffee Nation

Born in 1968. Dropped out at 6th form at age 17. His passion was in aviation but being colour blind denied him the opportunity to train as a pilot. He went ahead and got a job but after an year he was made redundant.

Martyn began a consultancy business in the UK. He helped small companies develop management systems. The company was successful and after 5 years he decided it was his time to practically launch.

Dawes took some money as capital from his consultancy business to launch out to a more engaging business. He didn't know exactly what he wanted... he considered a number of options like buying a clothing company, children's nurseries etc

One time he came across a newspaper article about a successful company stalking photocopies in corner shops. The idea of the business model trickled his thinking having exposure to many customers in different locations. 

One day while in NY standing outside a convenience store he noticed dozens of people buying take-away coffee. He figured out following the business model he could install instant coffee machines at various corner shops.

Well, it was not a walk in the park... first the sales were low because he installed wrong product in the wrong shops at wrong locations. He changed from small shops to large stores but still the product and location were wrong.

One day a customer's comment opened his eyes to a better way of doing it. He commented and said the product Dawes made was something he could easily make from his home/office, hence it was not necessary to keep spending money to buy it. Dawes arose to this challenge and installed espresso machines that would make real coffee beans with fresh milk... and that was his turning point.

His Coffee Nation Gournet Coffee stations grew to over 600 outlets in UK by 2000 before he finally sold the company.

Dawes says he was on several occasions tempted to give up but he kept to his Mantra of 'Never Give Up'.