Northamptonshire coffee shop company opens ‘UK's first independent drive thru’

A Northamptonshire-based coffee shop company has opened what they believe to be ‘the UK’s first ever independent drive thru’.

Bewiched Coffee, which has 13 shops including in Northampton, Wellingborough, Kettering and Rushden Lakes, has opened a drive thru unit in Moulton Park.

The purpose built premises in Darnell Way opened on Monday (May 31) and includes 55 indoor seats, plus drive thru technology with an order point, an integrated headphone system and car timing loops.

The two men behind the company both went to Moulton School and have built the business from the ground up in just 10 years, when they pumped redundancy money into the first shop in Wellingborough.

Richard Wagg, co-founder and operations manager at Bewiched said it was ‘a great day in the history of the company’ and that work begins to create an operation that ‘surpasses customer expectations’.

Matt Fountain, co-founder and managing director added: “Since starting this business in 2010, I have had a dream to open a drive thru unit, to now have the first one open is amazing.

“So much planning, training and testing has taken place on this project and there is no doubt a challenging time ahead as we manage the drive thru and sit in customers combined.

“But we are up for that challenge and intend to make this drive thru industry leading.

“The fit out on this site is amazing, we wanted to create a contemporary, aspirational space with a finish that matched the nationals.

“Although I am biased, I think it actually surpasses some of our larger competitors' finishes in this drive thru market.

“None of the national drive thru coffee operators can guarantee freshly roasted coffee, ours (as with all our stores) of course will be.

“We have two more drive thru units signed and are seeking opportunities nationally.”

The drive thru is open 6am to 8pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 6pm on Sundays and bank holidays.