'It’s been a rough ride’: Coffee boss speaks on business rebuild after devastating fire

Transcript

00:00In April, Hormozy Coffee was left in ashes after a devastating fire broke out in their unit at the

00:06Eurolink Industrial Estate. This resulted in the business losing a significant amount of equipment.

00:13Due to the severe damage, firefighters were unable to be certain of the cause of the fire,

00:18but believe it may have been the result of an electrical fault.

00:21We needed a space. We had to start ordering things again and we had nowhere for it to go.

00:27The business had been running for over 25 years and was set to lose around £500,000.

00:35But nearly four months on, and with help from the local community, the business is slowly building

00:41itself back up. Thankfully, firefighters were able to rescue some of the coffee shop's most

00:45expensive equipment. This included two roasters, which are an integral part of the day-to-day

00:51running of the roastery. After a bit of repair, they were back up and running.

00:56Financially, I don't think I would have been able to buy both of these roasters again. One,

01:02maybe. One, with all the support we had, one we could have pushed through, but both would

01:07have been difficult. So it would have been a decision of, do we continue with wholesale,

01:11do we continue with retail? Thankfully, we were able to continue with both.

01:15The business has also seen incredible support from the community. A GoFundMe was set up shortly

01:22after the fire, which ended up raising just under £10,000.

01:26Thanks to everyone, really. There's just so many people. I can't list everyone. But thanks

01:32to everyone. The community, I can't believe what they've done for us. We couldn't have done

01:37money without them.

01:38With large amounts of support from businesses and community alike, the roastery has been able

01:43to build itself back up to where it is today.

01:46I'm very happy to be back to roasting. This is what I love. And I'm just very grateful

01:53to be here still. Where we're going to be in a couple of years, I hope back to where we

01:59were. It's going to be a rough ride. It has been a rough ride already, but time, effort

02:07and a bit of luck. And I think we'll be back to where we were.

02:10Despite a rough road back to building up, Hormozy Coffee is slowly getting back to business

02:15as usual, whilst highlighting how a community can come together to help one another out.

02:21Etterley Reynolds for KMTV.