How CUPP improved efficiency and increased AOV by 9.7%

Background

The idea for CUPP dates back to 2009, when its founders were living in Taiwan and saw first-hand the phenomenal growth of bubble tea. Returning to the UK, CUPP was born in 2012 with a small kiosk in Bristol’s Cabot Circus shopping centre. Today, CUPP has 35 branches across the southwest of England and revenue exceeding £33 million in FY 2023.

Paul Tanner, CUPP’s Managing Director, is pivotal in driving this success. He has an extensive hospitality background, including stints at renowned establishments like Costa, the Hannah Group, and Warren’s Bakery.

“We’re not your bog standard kind of coffee shop,” says Paul. “The menu is very complex. People always think bubble tea will be very easy, but it’s not when it comes to the tech side of things.”

Challenges

Despite its impressive growth, CUPP faced significant challenges typical of a rapidly expanding business. According to Paul, maintaining the company’s core values amid this growth was paramount. “I’m really proud of our growth. When you grow quite quickly, it’s very easy to lose your core values, and I don’t think we’ve ever lost those values, both within our team and across the business.”

“The brand has never compromised. And I think that’s been our biggest success,” Paul explains.

Maintaining operational efficiency across numerous locations was another hurdle. “Being as young as we are and being a franchisor, we’re still in the early stages of growth,” says Paul. “We’re still getting the structure and learning processes along the way. We need to make sure everyone – our branches and our people – were singing from the same hymn sheet as far as processes go.”

Paul and the CUPP team faced challenges with its incumbent tech vendors – progress was too slow and fixes took too long.

Paul adds, “Talking to Vita Mojo team has really shown us that it’s about the ‘next thing’ – the next feature or fix – and what we’re doing to evolve the business further. And you don’t get that with many businesses. After speaking to Vita Mojo, we really thought, ‘We need to make a huge change now’.”

Solution

CUPP and Vita Mojo looked to replace the multiple layers of software integrations from multiple vendors and replace them with Vita Mojo’s order management system. With a 2-month discovery process followed by a 6-week build phase, the final system went live at the end of 2023.

CUPP’s Paul Tanner: “Being able to pull from one system is the best thing ever. It’s all controlled by one single system, from our own store menus to delivery providers like Deliveroo and Uber Eats, and we can update the menus all at once.”

CUPP’s employees were looking for a more consistent and reliable experience, with some elements of the previous order management platform proving unreliable. “I know it’s a relief for teams: just having something that works makes a big difference. Pushing menus and then not finding that it hasn’t loaded or moving something to ‘out of stock’ and it not happening just lead to frustration for us and disappointment for the customer.

Having it all in one space makes everything easier. What happens on Vita Mojo also happens across all of the third-party aggregators. With Vita Mojo, it just works.”

Results

The collaboration with Vita Mojo yielded remarkable results for CUPP. Vita Mojo’s expertise has helped CUPP streamline its operations and better manage its processes. This has played a crucial role in maintaining the company’s growth momentum.

• Higher AOV: CUPP’s average order value (AOV) has increased since using Vita Mojo by 9.7%
• 80% of orders are taken digitally: Vita Mojo’s digital-friendly platform allows CUPP to offer its customers an easy online and in-store digital ordering experience.
• Faster, more consistent customer service: Getting drinks into customers’ hands is faster than ever. ”Being able to move an employee away from the till to support the people making drinks in the kitchen has reduced the time it takes to get a drink to a customer. In other circumstances, it means a team member can now help explain the menu options to customers.”
• Improved team morale: “Vita Mojo also helps with team morale because you’re not feeling constantly bogged down on orders, upon orders. And then also you have that person to say, do you know what? Go and take a break. I’ll take over.”
• Improved operational efficiency: The centralised management system introduced by Vita Mojo improved operational efficiency across all locations and has helped CUPP be more productive with fewer people. “You can work with fewer people but also increase production. And actually, for us, that’s the biggest efficiency we’ve seen.”
• Scalable technology platform: Vita Mojo’s scalable solutions allow CUPP to manage its expanding operations and continue its growth trajectory without facing operational issues.

Paul is very optimistic about the impact of the partnership between CUPP and Vita Mojo: “Changing and adapting your processes takes time. It doesn’t happen overnight. Today, we’ve got those new processes locked in, and everybody’s on the same page. I feel good about the progress we’ve made.”