CAFE PLUM LIMITED

What CAFE PLUM LIMITED does

CAFE PLUM LIMITED is a privately-held, founder-owned independent café operator headquartered in London, United Kingdom, trading as 'Cafe Plum' and 'Café Plum London'. Founded in 1997 by Ben and a partner, the business operates three physical cafés clustered in West London — at 189 Munster Road in Fulham (the 1997 flagship), a Barlby Road site in the Hammersmith area (circa 2005), and Fulham Green near Putney Bridge tube station (2012) — and reportedly serves over 3,000 customers per week. The offering is freshly prepared breakfast, brunch, and lunch items including sandwiches, salads, pasta, cakes, and specialty coffee (sourced from Allpress Espresso, with meat from HG Walters butchers and produce from Covent Garden market).

Beyond the three retail sites, the business monetises its operating expertise through three adjacent service lines: an external catering arm delivering same-day, freshly made food to London offices and events at per-head pricing (sandwich platters £4.50–£6.00, salads £7.50–£8.70 per head, cakes £3.50 per head); a café consultancy practice advising architects, developers, museums, gyms, retail shops, and prospective café owners on location selection, pricing, bookkeeping, branding, and marketing; and the Café Course, an educational program hosted at cafecourse.co.uk teaching aspiring café owners how to operate professionally. Revenue is generated entirely through physical sales, per-unit catering orders, and professional services fees on a pay-as-you-go basis.

The company operates with minimal digital infrastructure (a WordPress website built by Infotex, an Instagram account, and Google Analytics), no disclosed technology platform, no app, no API, no patents or trademarks on record, and no institutional investment or parent company. It is a bootstrapped, founder-led lifestyle/service business that has expanded physically twice in its first 15 years and has not added a new site since 2012; subsequent growth has come from layering service lines rather than from additional retail footprints. There are no disclosed revenue figures, no funding history, and headcount is reported as 7, which appears to capture key personnel rather than total FTE across the three operating sites.

Name

CAFE PLUM LIMITED

Legal name

CAFE PLUM LIMITED

Website

https://cafeplum.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1997

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

CAFE PLUM LIMITED is an independent London café operator founded in 1997, running three West London sites (Fulham, Hammersmith, Putney Bridge) serving freshly prepared food and coffee to walk-in consumers, with complementary external catering, café consultancy, and a café training course.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Specialty Café and Coffee Shop Services

NAICS

Snack and Nonalcoholic Beverage Bars (722515), Restaurants and Other Eating Places (72251)

SIC

Retail-Eating & Drinking Places (5810), Retail-Eating Places (5812)

akta.pro primary industry

Independent Neighborhood Cafes (THAFADAC)

akta.pro secondary industry

Cafe-Bakeries (Bakery + Coffee/Foodservice) (THAFAFAG)

Keywords

• Café food service
• External catering delivery
• Café consultancy services
• Specialty coffee retail
• Café training courses

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Supply Chain, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Café food and beverage sales: In-store sales of freshly prepared food including sandwiches, salads, breakfast items, coffee, cakes, and pastries across multiple London café locations.
2. External catering: Catering service providing freshly made sandwiches, salads, sausage rolls, cakes and pastries for office meetings and events in London. Delivered same day for freshness.
3. Consultancy services: Professional consultancy for architects, developers, museums, gyms, retail shops and café owners on location selection, pricing, bookkeeping, branding, marketing and business operations.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

CAFE PLUM LIMITED operates three neighbourhood cafés in West London (Munster Road/Fulham, Barlby Road/Hammersmith, and Fulham Green/Putney Bridge) serving freshly prepared breakfast, brunch, lunch, cakes, and specialty coffee to walk-in customers. The business also provides External Catering (sandwich, salad, cake platters delivered same day to London offices and events), Café Consultancy (advisory services for prospective and existing café owners on location, pricing, branding, marketing, and operations), and a Café Course educational program for aspiring operators.

Product overview

CAFE PLUM LIMITED operates a portfolio of physical café locations across London (Munster Road, Barlby Road, and Fulham Green), serving freshly-prepared breakfast, brunch, and lunch items including salads, sandwiches, pasta, and specialty coffee. The company extends its café operations through three complementary service lines: External Catering (office and event food delivery), Café Consultancy (professional advisory services for prospective café owners and businesses), and Café Course (educational training program). The business was founded in 1997 and serves over 3,000 customers weekly.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Munster Road Café The original flagship café located at 189 Munster Road, London SW6 6AW, serving breakfast, brunch, and lunch with freshly-made salads, sandwiches, pasta, and specialty coffee. Open Monday–Friday 8.00am–3.30pm and Saturday 8.30am–3.30pm.
• Barlby Road Café Café location in the Barlby Road area of Hammersmith offering brunch and toasted sandwiches.
• Fulham Green Café Café location near Putney Bridge tube station in the Fulham Green area, offering daily specials, salads, and beverages.
• External Catering Office and event catering service providing freshly-made sandwiches, salads, sausage rolls, cakes, and pastries, delivered on the same day. Menu includes sandwich platters, salads, fruit cups, and cakes at per-head pricing for London offices and events.
• Café Consultancy Professional consultancy service offering tailored advice on location selection, pricing, bookkeeping, branding, and marketing for café owners, architects, developers, and businesses considering in-house cafés. Provided by a consultant with 30 years of industry experience who has owned and managed Café Plum for almost two decades.
• Café Course Educational training program teaching how to run a café professionally and efficiently, with registration available through cafecourse.co.uk.

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Allpress EspressocoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSupplier of specialty coffee beans. Café Plum uses their Redchurch Blend which is highlighted as a key component of their coffee offering. Described as 'wizards at Allpress Espresso' by the company.
• HG Walters butcherscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLocal award-winning butchers supplying bacon and sausages. Described as 'wonderful butchers' by the company.
• Covent Garden marketcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFresh vegetable supplier. Produce arrives each morning for use in daily food preparation.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Costa Coffee: UK's largest coffee chain with extensive high-street presence including West London. Sets the mass-market competitive baseline against which independent neighbourhood cafés like Café Plum differentiate.
• Pret A Manger: UK-wide fast-casual café chain serving freshly prepared sandwiches, salads, and coffee across hundreds of locations including West London. Represents the broader incumbent competitive set that Café Plum competes within.
• Ole & Steen: Danish bakery-café chain with a growing London footprint serving in-house baked goods, sandwiches, salads, and specialty coffee. Broader, more capitalised player operating in the same cafe-bakery niche as Café Plum.

Direct peers

• Gail's Bakery: London-headquartered café-bakery chain serving specialty coffee, sandwiches, salads, and in-house baked goods. Closely comparable to Café Plum's cafe-bakery model (in-house baker Poppy, cakes, pastries, daily specials) and West London catchment.
• Caravan Restaurants: London café and restaurant group known for freshly prepared all-day food and specialty coffee. Comparable product offering (breakfast/brunch, salads, sandwiches, coffee) and overlapping London customer base with Café Plum.
• Workshop Coffee Co. London specialty coffee roaster and café operator with sites focused on high-quality coffee and light food. Comparable to Café Plum on specialty-coffee-led positioning and London neighbourhood presence.
• Black Sheep Coffee: London-origin specialty coffee chain operating neighbourhood cafés with food offerings. Comparable specialty-coffee proposition and multi-site London café footprint to Café Plum.
• Notes Coffee: London-based specialty coffee and café operator with multiple neighbourhood sites serving coffee alongside freshly prepared food. Most directly comparable to Café Plum on product mix, London neighbourhood footprint, and daily fresh-food proposition.
• The Gentlemen Baristas: London specialty coffee café chain with multiple neighbourhood sites serving freshly prepared food alongside coffee. Direct overlap with Café Plum on café format, London geography, and food-plus-coffee proposition.
• Fabrique Bakery: Scandinavian bakery-café concept with London locations serving in-house baked goods, sandwiches, and specialty coffee. Comparable cafe-bakery model with strong fresh-baking component similar to Café Plum's in-house baker.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Instagraminstagram.com/cafe_course_
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cafe-plum-limited

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about CAFE PLUM LIMITED