Hi! I’m Oliver Ip, and I was the Procurement Lead for Team Lemme.
When my friends and I decided to enter the University of Bath Pop-Up Shop competition, we had a clear vision: we wanted to bring authentic Japanese flavours to the city. Our concept, Lemme, was a one-day café serving speciality drinks like Matcha, Hojicha, and Yuzu tea: flavours that are hard to find in Bath!
It was an intense, chaotic, and incredibly rewarding day. We walked away with the awards for Best Profit and Best Marketing, but the real prize was the crash course in running a business. Here is how we did it.
Sourcing smart
As the team member in charge of Procurement, my job was to source ingredients without blowing our budget. We knew that to win "Best Profit," we had to keep our margins high, but we really refused to compromise on quality.
We made a strategic decision to source our matcha and tea powders directly from Uji, Japan. We actually had help bringing them over, which meant we were serving premium, authentic ingredients at a fraction of the UK cost.
For our coffee, I leveraged a professional connection. I previously worked for a software company that serviced Rave Coffee. Although that didn't guarantee sponsorship, it gave me an opening. I pitched them a proposal: in exchange for logo placement and social media promotion, they would sponsor our beans and syrups. After some negotiation to finalize the exact quantities, they agreed. That deal alone saved us around £90 and gave us a massive competitive advantage on our profit margins.
Managing "Organised Chaos"
The trading day at Studio 22 was a lesson in crisis management. We faced immediate logistical hurdles: the venue had no water basin, and our cooler boxes had limited efficiency.
We quickly realised that renting an ice machine would be too expensive, so we opted for a manual solution. We operated a system of "organised chaos." With a team structure of two on Japanese drinks, one on coffee, one on specialities, and one cashier, we ensured one person was always ready to drop everything and run to Waitrose to fetch more ice before our stock melted, and at the end it all worked out perfectly!
Winning the "Court of Public Opinion"
Our goal wasn't just to sell drinks, we wanted to create a memory.
During the rush hour (12pm - 2pm), the queue was out the door. I realised that many customers weren't familiar with Genmaicha or Hojicha. Instead of just churning out orders, we made an effort to explain the origin and taste of every drink as we made it.
To boost morale, I started giving away free Genmaicha tea packets: first to customers, and then to pedestrians passing by who hadn't even bought anything. It was a "customer first" approach designed to win the court of public opinion. We decided that even if we didn't win the competition, we wanted the people of Bath to remember us as the friendly, down-to-earth team.
Three key takeaways
1. Data defeats disagreement
Working with friends is fun, but it can lead to conflicting opinions. Early on, we disagreed on the menu, for instance some of us wanted to sell Iced Mocha. However, after researching the costs and market data, we realised it was a high-cost, low-volume item, hence cutting it from the menu to protect our margins. It taught me that in business, data should always drive decisions.
2. Network, network, network
My experience with Rave Coffee proved that your past experiences are valuable assets. Don't be afraid to reach out to brands or suppliers. The worst they can say is no, but a "yes" can significantly lower your costs.
3. Expect the unexpected
No matter how much you plan, things will go wrong (like the water source!). Success isn't about having a perfect plan, it's about how quickly you can adapt when the plan changes!
Respond
