Five minutes with… KaBa Coffee owner Sid Adair
Located at the ‘top of the town’ on Church Street, KaBa Coffee is one of Tandragee’s freshest new business ventures.
It opened earlier this year and is already proving a hit with the locals – with owner Sid Adair keen to do things a bit differently.
Armagh I sat down with Sid to discuss the ins and outs of starting a new coffee shop in a rural community, and the approach he takes to making customers happy.
Why did you decide to open a coffee shop?
In my last job I saw a coffee shop that opened up in a very small town that had absolutely nothing in it. I said ‘he hasn’t a hope, there’s no way that’s going to kick off’. But I watched him go from one person in the morning to maybe 15. That’s when I realised that coffee might be a good thing to get into.
Why did you decide to open in Tandragee?
There’s absolutely nothing at the top end of Tandragee. The town was dead. Tandragee needed a good coffee shop and because this premises was available it seemed to be a spot that was not just 100% but 110%. We have a primary school, a secondary school and we have a certain amount of parking, so it seemed to be an ideal spot.
What are you most proud of in your career?
I’m actually proud of the town for supporting me. I have a lot of people that come in on a regular basis and I have a lot of people that come in from different churches that come in because it’s a Christian coffee shop. Because they’re talking about it in the churches, I’m getting a lot of people that are coming in that you don’t realise are believers. The Lord’s leading them in.
What is your favourite thing about your job?
For me, my favourite thing about the job is being able to talk to people. I enjoy people coming in and supplying them with a good quality coffee and good quality food.
What is the biggest challenge in your job?
The biggest challenge is trying to keep people happy. 90% of the people that come in the door you get one chance to make sure you give the right impression. If you get it wrong, you find that you’ve lost the customer. You have to try and go out of your way to keep customers happy – even if you’re closed, and somebody knocks on the door. If you can give them what they want, then give it to them.
What is the most helpful advice that you have been given?
The best piece of advice I got was to always do it with heart. Whatever standard you have, always try and give it a bit more because if you don’t, you’ll lose out. I find because we’re in a rushing environment, people want it yesterday, people don’t want to wait. So, you have to try and get things out quicker but get it out where it’s the same standard.
If you could choose anything else to do, what would it be?
I don’t think I’d change anything. Maybe more into ice cream? People seem to want more ice cream!
What do you think your best quality is?
I like to try and give people what they want and give them a good quality of service. For me, everybody has their downfalls and it’s trying to get that downfall out of the road where you can move forward and put the past behind you.
What do you like doing outside of work?
Definitely church would be a big one. I enjoy fellowship with church and spending a bit of time on the tractor getting the head showered. The other thing would be trying to get a balance in life between work and family, which is very hard because the hours are long, but if you don’t put the hours in your business will not work.
What is your favourite food?
I love a good meat dish. My favourite food would be a good takeaway of fish, chips, a battered sausage and a portion of curry sauce.
What is your favourite book?
My favourite book is the Holy Bible. You can’t fault it in any way. It helps you in all the things that you do.
What are you currently watching?
I’m actually not watching anything at the minute. I don’t bother with TV because a lot of programmes now have a lot of swear words in them which takes the fun out of it. When you look at the classic comedies like Laurel and Hardy and all those old comedy films, you laughed your heart out. You gave yourself stitches. Now, TV seems to have lost that fun.
If you were to watch a band/singer live, who would it be?
I like Van Morrison. He’s good to watch. He puts on a good show and his music’s good and it’s easy to listen to.
Dead or alive, who would you most want to meet and why?
That’s a hard one. There are so many people you would like to meet. I’d probably say royalty? There are that many people about that you would like to have a conversation with, but it depends what frame of mind you’re in at that time. There’s always someone you’ll want to meet, but at a different time of life.