Express move to cappuccinos

Kylemore Bakery, home of the currant bun and the cup of tea, is changing its image to include muffins and cappuccinos. There are 25 traditional Kylemore bakery shops throughout Ireland and the company has earmarked six of them to become Kylemore Express, complete with blond wood, plenty of glass and contemporary graphics.

"We're moving with the market," says Brian Hogan, the company's managing director. "Two years ago, we saw the trend towards coffee shops and we knew we were able to compete."

The new espresso bars offer several different types of coffee and a range of up-market sandwiches, as well as the cakes and pastries for which Kylemore is traditionally known.

The first shop to get the new makeover is the outlet at Upper Baggot Street in Dublin. Architect Hugh Wallace was responsible for the design and already planning permission has been posted at the other targeted outlets with the intention of completing the first six Kylemore Express £100,000 revamps over the next 18 months.

The bakery is one of Ireland's longest established and most recognisable brands. The first Kylemore Bakery opened in Talbot Street in 1920 and the company recently conducted research that showed that the brand has a massive 92 per cent awareness nationwide. Such a positive response gave the company the confidence to work on repositioning the brand. "We were also aware that the customer is changing, says Mr Hogan. "Young Irish people tend to be well travelled and when it comes to food, they are willing to try new things." Another factor in the move into the up-market coffee shop business was the recent restructuring of the company. DCC acquired 50 per cent of the Kylemore group earlier this year and they also own Robert Roberts coffee, a familiar name in Ireland's burgeoning cafe culture.

As well as the 25 bakery shops, which according to Mr Hogan are in every main town in Ireland, the company also has nine restaurants and it is envisioned that the new updated look will sit side by side with the much larger, traditional type restaurants. Both are together in the Liffey Valley centre and Mr Hogan says that the success of that formula is one that he would like to see repeated in other major shopping centres.

The company is currently looking for new outlets particularly in the Dublin 2 and 4 area where, despite ever-increasing supply, there is still a demand for sophisticated take-out coffee and sandwiches, especially in those areas where there is a high concentration of offices.

Now that the Kylemore Express formula has been proven to work, it is being offered as a franchise and two such franchises are expected to open outside Dublin in the coming months.

With every second new retail outlet apparently becoming a swanky designer coffee shop, the question is whether this new interest in freshly brewed java after decades of murky instant coffee is enough to sustain all the current activity. Brian Hogan agrees that this is a trend and that trends do change, which means that when it is over there will probably be too many coffee shops. However he is confident in the strength of his brand saying that "when the trend passes, there will only be three or four main brands left and we most certainly will be one of them".