A quarter of a century on the coffee roller coaster, highlights and entrepreneurial insights with Karl Purdy, Coffeeangel

We chat with Karl Purdy, Founder and MD of Coffeeangel. Before launching Coffeeangel, Karl was an aspiring photojournalist. Returning to Belfast in 1995 (after 20 years in Canada) to cover the first IRA ceasefire, following an uncomfortable run-in with loyalist paramilitaries, Karl found himself opening Belfast (and Ireland’s) first specialty coffee shop in 1997.

Highlights and entrepreneurial insights with Karl Purdy, Coffeeangel

It was an unexpected and overnight success. Unbeknownst at the time, this little shop ultimately launched today’s Irish specialty coffee scene. Relocating to Dublin in 2000 and starting again from scratch, Karl opened a little, three-wheeled coffee cart on Howth’s East Pier in 2004. On its first day Coffeeangel served 150 coffees.

Seventeen years later Coffeeangel now has five locations across Dublin city centre, a thriving ecommerce & wholesale business. Having served well over one million cups of delicious coffee, Karl and the team at Coffeeangel remain laser-focused on providing a world class product, efficiently and consistently with genuinely Irish customer service at the heart of it all.

Lovely to chat with @SimonCocking of @Irish_TechNews! And coffee 'roller coaster' is certainly an apt description of the last 25 years… loved (and continue to love) it all ? https://t.co/bgjQts8WXJ

— Karl Purdy (@KarlPurdy) September 4, 2021

More about CoffeeAngel & founder Karl Purdy

If not for a couple of very scary and hostile Loyalist paramilitaries, there may never have been a Coffeeangel. My name is Karl Purdy and after a potentially violent altercation on a contentious bridge in East Belfast on the 12th of July 1995, I decided to reassess my prospects as a fledgeling photojournalist and my return to Northern Ireland.

I packed my cameras away for – what was supposed to be – a “few months” and returned to work in the safety and familiarity of the bar, restaurant and cafe scene that paid my way through journalism college in Canada. It was during those months back in the service industry that I realised a few things;

I loved the hustle and bustle of the catering business. The Belfast of the late ’90s was entirely devoid of a hip and buzzing coffee scene, I was the person that was going to change that.

Reflecting on my upbringing in Canada I was convinced that success in Belfast was all but certain. I found the ideal location, counted footfall, assessed the demographics and calculated the money needed to open. Shortly thereafter, I presented an extremely thorough 50 page business plan to a bank manager close to Belfast’s Queens University. Following my long-winded and enthusiastic pitch, she announced “that she had absolutely no faith in my business idea – a shop that only sells coffee? In Belfast?” I was devastated. But in the next breath she kindly said that while she had no faith in the concept, she had total faith in me and would authorise my loan request.

Fortunately, her faith was well founded and this little coffee shop was an overnight success – many would consider this little shop at the catalyst that helped to define the Irish coffee culture of today. Less than 24 months after opening I received an unsolicited offer for many times more than my initial loan request. I accepted and in 2000 relocated to Dublin, opened a restaurant and proceeded to lose everything.

The Coffeeangel of today was founded on the ashes of that failed restaurant, the painful lessons learned and a need to focus, heal and again succeed. Broke I again borrowed some money, this time from a compassionate relative, and purchased a converted, three-wheeled coffee cart and returned to my first love – the world of coffee. There was no grand plan, no vision or strategy for worldwide domination, but I was determined to succeed and committed to providing the best coffee and service that I could manage.

Howth, Co. Dublin 20041

Over the years I and others have represented Ireland on the world stage as Irish Barista Champions, we have won some coveted awards and had some incredible baristas stand behind our machines. And most importantly, we have been blessed with the support of many, many wonderful people. The Coffeeangel of today has most certainly grown but “we” – because Coffeeangel is now made up of many incredible individuals – will never lose site of the simple values that have helped us get this far. Smile. Be polite, courteous and efficient (saying please and thank you will never go out of fashion). Enjoy what you do, be passionate and always aim higher. Source beautiful, best-of-season beans. and brew the best cup of coffee you can.

Our journey continues.

– Karl Purdy

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