Blank Street is differentiating itself in the UK market through specific design trade-offs, in its mission to redefine the coffee chain experience.
“At the very beginning I thought that redefining meant making everything about the experience 20% better”, UK MD Ignacio Llado told an audience at the Allegra European Coffee Symposium in Barcelona.
Co-founders Issam Freiha and Vinay Menda launched the speciality coffee concept in New York in 2020. It opened its first UK sites in London’s Fitzrovia and Shoreditch in June 2022.
“Through this journey, what I now believe is that we are trying to redefine the coffee chain by identifying and making very specific trade-offs.
“Understanding what you think you can gain from doing one thing, and what you leave on the table by not doing another”, he explained.
Llado describes a process of choosing a business direction “very consciously” and giving it ”ten times the energy” whilst de-prioritising other avenues.
Blank Street currently operates 22 stores across central London, with a footprint of on average 350 sq ft or less.
The brand aims to drive conversion, rather than retention, in its distinctive store design.
Whilst “third place”, larger sites create more customer touch points and can help quickly build brand affinity, it can be harder to drive value, according to Llado.
“With the grab-and-go model, you can design the experience to be more frictionless, fast, and also cut down on some of the operating costs from a staffing and rental point of view”.
Seeking accessible, high traffic locations, he said even more important is “finding the right real estate.”
“For us it is looking for beautiful facades that are unique.
“We focus on the counter, the lighting. We don’t try to build bathrooms, we don’t put in any plugs, we don’t invest in Wi-Fi.”
Designing a customer service experience around connection, rather than transaction, Llado said, “we truly believe we want to become a daily ritual.
“Human experience had to be at the heart of what we were doing.”
“You’re probably leaving a lot of money on the table in terms of order value. But we believe the gain is better brand affinity, better NPS (net promoter score)”
For this reason, Blank Street counters are designed as the “stage” for its baristas.
“We keep them as clean as possible, there are no promotions, no snack bar.
“We don’t invest in that as an opportunity for upselling.”
The brand’s automated drink machines are another example of its investment in “simplifying the operation and making it as seamless as possible”.
“We try to make Blank Street a three-minute experience that is still memorable.”
The decision to create a novelty, signature focused menu came with its own negotiation.
“One option was to go with tradition, build a purity anchored menu, a simple set of coffees.
“Theres a lot to gain from that - purity and simplicity, and it’s easier to signal quality”.
However, Llado was keen to build specialty coffee into the mass market, “by doing something different - not taking ourselves too seriously”.
“The overall philosophy was about breaking with tradition and demystifying certain premium and often inaccessible products and making them more fun.”
The brand has become known for menu items such as the Iced Blueberry Matcha Latte, a colourful take on what is now a coffee shop staple.
Such signature drinks have helped the brand “define a Blank Street category”.
A year ago, even less than 10% of sales were a signature drink, now sitting at around 40-50%.
“I want to make sure the message is that the Blank Street way is not the only way.
“There is enough room to take different trade-offs, and I couldn’t be more excited to see other people doing that.”
