{"id":17563,"date":"2021-01-26T09:28:22","date_gmt":"2021-01-26T09:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bartalks.net\/?p=17563"},"modified":"2021-01-26T09:30:23","modified_gmt":"2021-01-26T09:30:23","slug":"niche-zero-bartalks-qa-with-the-founders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bartalks.net\/niche-zero-bartalks-qa-with-the-founders\/","title":{"rendered":"NICHE ZERO – BARTALKS Q&A WITH THE FOUNDERS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
The Niche Zero has become an icon of the home coffee enthusiast. The father and son founders James and Martin Nicholson kindly agreed to do a short Q&A round. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
When did you first have the idea for the\u00a0Niche\u00a0Zero\u00a0We had a large interest in coffee but became tired of using other home use grinders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
We wanted a grinder that was quiet, easy to use and didn\u2019t retain grind.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
Have you ever designed and manufactured a consumer product before the\u00a0Niche?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Martin worked for many years at Kenwood so has been involved with lots of home appliances.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
Most people have ideas that they never action. What was it about this situation that convinced you to make this a real product?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
As martin had been involved with so many other projects, he had a passion to create on himself<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
What were the key ‘must have’ elements of the design that you wouldn’t sacrifice\u00a0no matter what<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Quality materials, quiet, zero retention, full range of grind settings,<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Where there elements in the original design that you dropped or couldn’t fulfil.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Yes and no \u2013 there were features that could have been added, but it wanted to make it as simple as possible for the customer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
How far was the end product from the original\u00a0idea?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
The final design took 32 prototypes to reach.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
You’re manufacturing in the UK? was that choice out of national loyalty, or practical considerations? If practical, what are they?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
The grinder is manufactured in China, but the first 1000 was built in the UK by the\u00a0Niche\u00a0team to show we could do it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
Did you expect to have the success that has followed?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Not at all! We never expected it to be as popular and in demand as it is now.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
Some people report a supply problem – do you feel this is a problem, or does it make the product more desirable<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\u00a0It is something we are working on but there are also factors that play a big part in this such as covid.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
How did you work out the pricing – did you have\u00a0an initial\u00a0price point you wanted to build toward, or did you work out the costs and add a margin on top?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
We saw there was no real grinder in the price point between 400-1000\u00a3, so we set that our goal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
Is there a\u00a0Niche\u00a02 in the pipeline<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Not at the moment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
What did you learn in the process\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
We learnt a lot about how to grow your audience and to find the right people to push your product into the market.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
What would you do differently if you were starting today<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
More focus on the pre build up prior to releasing the product.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
You chose conical burrs, I guess because the design lends itself to minimum retention, but do you have an opinion on the discussion about flavour and flat vs conical burrs?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
We understand there is a difference in taste preference between conical and flat, but we found the conical was better suited for low retention.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
You tackled a specific problem with the\u00a0Niche. What other problems do you see in the coffee industry today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
We think the market is pretty well covered at the moment but we are always looking at opportunities to innovate.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
Bonus Question. as a UK manufacturer, has BREXIT impacted you and does it affect your thoughts about manufacturing in the UK?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
The\u00a0Niche\u00a0is manufactured in China, but we are a British business.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
The Niche Zero has become an icon of the home coffee enthusiast. The father and son founders James and Martin Nicholson kindly agreed to do a short Q&A round. We wanted a grinder that was quiet, easy to use and didn\u2019t retain grind. Martin worked for many years at Kenwood so has been involved with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":17564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1731],"tags":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bartalks.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17563"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bartalks.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bartalks.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bartalks.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bartalks.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bartalks.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bartalks.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bartalks.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bartalks.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bartalks.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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