London’s Biggest Speciality Coffee Chain Continues Expansion

London speciality coffee chain Department of Coffee and Social Affairs plans to extend its reach over the capital’s coffee offering. The coffee company — which also roasts coffee and has recently acquired several fellow speciality coffee businesses — has seven new sites in the pipeline, according to MCA.

Completion on all seven openings would take the brand’s total estate to 26 shops, the first of which opened on London’s Leather Lane in 2010. Expansion has recently focussed on two key streams. The brand has expanded into markets outside of London, with stores opening in Bristol, Manchester, and Chicago, while purchasing Tap Coffee, whose four sites — particularly those in Soho — were benchmarks for the London speciality coffee movement under the stewardship of Sang Ho Park, Rob Dunne and Vic Frankowski.

Department of Coffee’s expansion from early adopters to market establishment is in marked contrast to the recent fortunes of other longstanding London coffee shops: Timberyard, which adopted a cafe/co-working space model to good effect, is now in administration, with its Soho site sold and taken over by the Daisy Green Collection February last year.