Hey Hot Potatoes,

Welcome to the latest edition of the Hot Potato Newsletter!

You know the end of the year is approaching when the Christmas decorations start appearing. Is it just me, or is October a little early?!

This week we’re looking at how JENKI is turning matcha into a growing hospitality empire, why bakeries are giving traditional coffee shops a run for their money, and why I think the hospitality industry needs more collaboration and less competition.

In today's email: JENKI's Matcha Playbook, The Rise of Bakery Coffee & Why Collaboration Beats Competition

Read Time: Approx 4-5 mins

Five hospitality stories worth knowing from the last fortnight.

Sources: Propel Info, MCA Insight, Restaurant Online

KFC is expanding its Kwench concept into 58 Scottish restaurants, offering matcha, iced coffees, boba refreshers and shakes. Dedicated drinks counters form part of a wider £38m investment.

The bigger picture → KFC sees speciality drinks as another growth opportunity, putting fast-food chains in competition with coffee shops… although there is probably a perception issue!

Quince Bakery founder Anna Higham opened Clementine directly opposite her original Islington bakery, having used crowdfunding to help fund the new café.

Why it’s interesting → A brilliant example of how independent hospitality businesses can turn customer loyalty into funding for expansion.

British steakhouse group Hawksmoor reported £109.8m in turnover for 2025, up 9.4%, while operating profit rose from £1.4m to £5.4m. Growth was supported by existing restaurants and international expansion.

The bigger picture → Hawksmoor shows how a British hospitality brand can grow overseas while keeping a distinctive identity. It's an encouraging example of profitable growth at scale.

Chef and social media personality Thomas Straker has opened his first international restaurant in Manhattan, bringing his London concept to New York.

Why it's interesting → Straker shows how building a social media audience can create opportunities for international expansion

Hospitality businesses are partnering with the government to offer up to 100,000 opportunities for 18–24-year-olds outside work or education.

The bigger picture → With operators facing recruitment challenges and young people struggling to find work, this could benefit both sides. The real test will be whether placements lead to jobs.

How did a London market stall become one of the capital's most recognisable matcha brands?

Back in 2020, husband-and-wife duo Claudia and Otto Boyer launched JENKI after spotting a gap in London's market for high-quality matcha. They started as a small market stall, which eventually became their first permanent matcha bar in Spitalfields in 2021.

Fast forward to today, and JENKI has just opened its eighth location in Liverpool Street, with ambitions to become Europe's largest dedicated matcha bar operator.

Numbers That Tell The Story:
👉 8 UK sites
👉 Founded in 2020
👉 Target of 11 locations by the end of this year

Here's why it works:
🥪 Focusing squarely on matcha - Rather than trying to compete with coffee shops on everything, JENKI has built its identity around matcha. Interestingly, the founders revealed that removing coffee from the menu resulted in an 80% increase in sales at their Spitalfields site.

📱 Measured approach to expansion - JENKI uses data modelling to identify potential locations, combining footfall, customer demand and local demographics. Its sites are concentrated in London's busiest retail, commuter and lifestyle destinations.

🚶 The right opportunity at the right time - There were few established players in the space, but they believed in the concept and stuck with it as demand grew.

💰 Building beyond the matcha bar - JENKI also sells matcha powders, preparation kits and subscriptions online, allowing customers to bring the brand into their homes and creating revenue streams beyond physical stores.

The playbook → Find an underserved niche, become synonymous with it, build an experience around the product and then expand into new locations and revenue streams.

Coffee shops have a new competitor on their hands, and it's coming from a familiar corner of hospitality: bakeries and sandwich shops.

According to a report from Lincoln and York, coffee sales in bakeries are on the rise. To put that into perspective, last year:
👉 £1.19bn in sales - up 15.4% on previous year
👉 480m coffees sold - up 7.7% on previous year
👉 18.8m shoppers - up 7.5% on previous year

It makes sense, many bakeries traditionally focused almost entirely on food. That's changing, with more bakeries now serving high-quality speciality coffee that rivals traditional coffee shops.

Combine that with the continued popularity of affordable treats, particularly as consumers become more selective with their spending, and bakeries are in a strong position.

In my opinion, this is a positive development for the industry. Competition encourages better products and customers now have more places to enjoy a great coffee.

The question is, could bakeries eventually become the biggest competitors to traditional coffee shops?

The industry needs to focus more on collaboration and less on competition.

I was in Tynemouth a couple of weeks ago, around 20 minutes from Newcastle, and my visit happened to coincide with North Tyneside Restaurant Week.

The concept is simple - restaurants across the area offer special menus for £15, £20 or £25, encouraging people to try somewhere new whilst giving local hospitality businesses a boost.

It turns out Newcastle was actually the first UK city to launch its own Restaurant Week back in 2011, inspired by New York City, and the numbers are pretty impressive!

During Newcastle's most recent Restaurant Week in August, over 130 restaurants participated, attracting more than 60,000 diners and generating £1.2m in menu sales alone.

I think there's a big opportunity here.

Rather than constantly fighting for a bigger slice of the pie, perhaps there's an opportunity for hospitality businesses to make the pie bigger together.

I'd love to see more towns and cities across the UK embracing this approach. Restaurant Weeks, neighbourhood food trails, collaborative menus and local events could all help bring more people through the doors.

That's a wrap for this edition of Hot Potato!

As always, I'd love to know what you thought. Whether it's a story I've missed, a brand I should feature or something you disagree with, just hit reply.

Your recommendations help shape what comes next, so keep them coming!

Until next time!

Bon appétit,

Max Shipman, Founder, Hot Potato

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