Wild Bean Café is looking to offer an inviting ambiance to customers who want to linger longer or need the convenience of grab-and-go foods.
“The Wild Bean Café brand has a long-standing reputation for our signature coffee. This revamp is part of our ongoing focus on reaching customers with a consistent and competitive convenience offering, in line with their evolving needs,” says Nokwanda Khumalo, general manager of mobility and convenience at bpSA.
“Already, a fuel station offers more than petrol and diesel; it is becoming a convenience space for motorists. In the future, forecourts will become a destination for customers seeking a pleasant shopping or dining experience – and may buy fuel while they are there.”
The first revamped Wild Bean Café recently opened in Johannesburg at bp Montecasino, with bp Radiokop expected to follow soon. “Both of these will be pilot stores, and the new format will be tweaked and improved based on customer feedback. Over the coming years, we will continue to respond to customer needs across all Wild Bean Café stores in South Africa by refreshing to deliver more aromatic coffee, a diverse menu and a more immersive experience for customers,” says Khumalo.
The first change to strike customers will be the more appealing look and feel of each store, echoing a modern café experience. Because there’s no “one size fits all” among South Africans, three basic interior designs have been created, with a flexibility to tailor each store to the different needs of customers.
Some of the stores will be bigger and offer comfortable seating while others will be smaller, with an emphasis on take-away service. The menu will closely reflect the customer preference in each segment.
“Safety, including food safety, comes first in all we do – and its importance was echoed by customers surveyed during the conceptualization phase. We’ve prioritized safety in the design of the store and equipment in order to deliver a safe and high-quality customer experience,” she says.
With the help of food specialists, the menu is designed to be comprehensive and appetizing, with optimal temperatures and shelf-life. In future, the menu will allow for more customized choices, in line with feedback from customers who said they wanted more variety.
“We are retaining and enhancing customer favourites on the menu. For example, popular hot foods like stews and curries are here to stay and our best-selling Portuguese chicken wing flavour will now be extended to drumsticks. Pies, where we outsell the rest of the forecourt market, will continue to feature strongly. Our coffee is getting creamier, with improved formulation, and we are adding new flavour options such as chai,” she concludes.
