Portland's Frontline Coffee raises £25,000 for emergency services
What started with a second-hand coffee roaster in a warehouse is now a popular community café
A firefighter run and owned café on Portland is fuelling locals with coffee and cake while donating 100% of their profits to frontline charities.
Frontline Coffee, founded by Tom Taylor and Matt Broxton, started in 2018 with a second-hand coffee roaster in a warehouse.
Working in the industry, they wanted to find a better alternative to the instant stuff found in fire stations.
Tom Taylor spoke to Greatest Hits Radio Dorset about how successful the business has become.
"We were so busy that we got a unit on Portland back in January to fulfil our orders online and while we were there, we thought we might as well open the doors and sell a few cups of coffee.
"It exploded with the local community and they really got behind us, started buying coffee and sharing things on social media."
PROFITS GO TO CHARITY
100% of sales from the house roasted coffee go to frontline charities and so far £25,000 has gone to multiple ones across the county.
These include the RNLI, NHS, Task ambulance staff, firefighters charity and Dorset MIND.
Tom says their mission is to support them financially, through awareness of the services they offer.
"The RNLI has their own coffee and 100% of that sale goes to them.
"You can also buy our house ranges, so a signature roast or a dark roast, which is quite popular.
"The money from that goes in to a pot which allows us to support someone running a marathon, a project or a rescue team that want to raise money for a bit of equipment."
Tom and Matt are hoping to expand the business model some time in the future.
"We would love to replicate the idea, we don't think we would get the same community feel in other areas like we do on Portland, but we can certainly try.
"The support for the NHS and emergency services is there and we offer something unique so it would be great to do the same across the South West and maybe the UK, who knows."
To find out more about Frontline, check out their website here.