A coffee shop founder says the pandemic has spurred him into offering a home-delivery grocery service which he intends to continue as lockdown measures continue to be eased.

Freddie Hewett has operated Stag Coffee in Ashford since 2016 - and last year added an outlet in Canterbury.

But when lockdown measures were introduced at the end of March, he had seen the direction of travel and pivoted his business to start offering a delivery service of essentials - the bulk of which are sourced from local suppliers.

He and his team have also branched out into making ready-meals, using local ingredients - something he hopes to now build upon going forward and, eventually, take nationwide.

At the peak of the crisis he was making 40 deliveries a day to homes in and around Ashford, Canterbury, Tenterden and Folkestone.

As social media spread news of his service, he even ended up doing runs as far as Sevenoaks.

The 28-year-old explains: "As long as we broke even that was the only aim really. We weren't looking to make any profits from it just to keep staff in jobs if they wanted it and trying to support the local community.

"We were doing 40 home deliveries a day in the first couple of weeks, but it has dwindled as other services become available.

"But we break even, and some weeks are better and some are not."

The firm applied, and received, a £25,000 grant from the government's package of support available to small businesses, allowing it to move from taking orders over Facebook Messenger to a more user-friendly online system as well as help service the bills which have continued to add up during the lockdown.

"Rather than the crisis accelerating our plans I think it's better described as making me do it. I've not been able to focus on it when the coffee shops are so busy, and there's always other things to do. But since they've been shut, it's given me the chance to be 100% focused on talking with suppliers, developing systems and things like that.

"We started the deliveries on the Monday lockdown started.

"We could see everything was closing down and sales were dire."

He says he hopes some of the goodwill generated by the service will translate into sales at the coffee shops once they reopen - but he doesn't expect things to return to levels seen before the pandemic for some time. He says Canterbury could be particularly hard hit by the impact.

He adds: "I don't see the high street really recovering to the levels it once was - and if does, not for another year.

"In Ashford, it could do, but in Canterbury when will tourism start again? It relies on tourism and the university students. It will be facing a real challenge. Potentially it could see more businesses cut their losses now rather than continue and keep going.

"Before, the market was able to support everyone, but when you take out two-thirds of your market and just focus on the local trade there will be places which stick it out, like ourselves, and others who decide not to."

Such has been his success, he's even been appointed an 'ask the expert' ambassador for QuickBooks - offering advice to small businesses struggling to survive during the health crisis.

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